CILIP Cymru Wales writes to Minister over threats to library services

Concerns over threats to library services in Wales raised in open letter to Minister for Culture & Sport

The Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals, Wales (CILIP Cymru Wales) has written an open letter to the Minister for Culture and Sport, John Griffiths AM, expressing concerns over the impact local authority budget cuts could have on public library services across Wales.

In the bilingual letter the Executive Committee of CILIP Cymru Wales have outlined what a powerful and important resource public library services are in meeting the Welsh Government’s objectives.

The Welsh Local Government Association announced in October 2013 that local authorities are facing reductions in core funding of £175m in 2014/15, with a further £65m in 2015/16. CILIP Cymru Wales are deeply concerned that public library services could suffer disproportionate cuts.

Phil Bradley, CILIP President, said,
 “Libraries are an essential part of any community. Good libraries – that are well stocked and run by professional librarians – transform people’s lives through access to information, reading and learning.  They provide access to the internet to people who cannot afford their own connection. A library can help people back into work, it gives them a safe space to research and educate themselves and it's a cornerstone in children's literacy. A library is a place that people who need support and guidance can turn to, and a librarian can help them find information they need. Cutting resources to a library hits those in the community who are most in need, most in trouble, who most deserve our support.”

The open letter reads:

John Griffiths AM
Minister for Culture and Sport

Dear Minister,

The Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals Wales (CILIP Cymru Wales) wish to express our serious concern at the impact budget cuts to local authorities will have on library and information services across Wales. Although we understand that tough decisions have to be made as the funding available for all public services in Wales decreases, we are keen to ensure that public libraries are not expected to bear heavier cuts than other services.

Public libraries are a powerful resource and important in addressing a number of the priorities set out in the Welsh Government’s  “Programme for Government”, including promoting growth and tackling poverty which the First Minister describes as his top priority. They play an important role in advancing knowledge by providing access to information, supporting entrepreneurial activity, and inspiring life-long learning and reading for enjoyment. They foster social mobility and strengthen our communities, catering, as they do, for the needs of all parts of society from toddlers and their parents, to students (of all ages) and researchers, from local activists to small businesses, and from the frail and elderly and their carers to hobbyists and creators.

Welsh public libraries address poverty by tackling the digital divide, providing access to the internet with trained staff delivering advice and guidance, and helping people develop vital information literacy skills. They will also become an important community resource in helping people claim Universal Benefit and enabling them to take advantage of a broad range of statutory and voluntary support available in their local community.  These and other aspects of the service are planned, shaped and delivered by skilled and knowledgeable professional library staff.

Welsh public libraries are a national resource delivered locally and must be seen from a national perspective. The Public Libraries & Museums Act 1964 requires local councils to provide a local library service which is comprehensive and efficient and that is available to all who wish to use it. We have welcomed the support that you and previous Ministers have accorded to the public library service in the past and your recognition of its statutory status and importance to Wales. We trust that you will continue to provide this support and take a leadership role in promoting proper public library provision across Wales with your colleagues in local government.  We understand the pressures faced by all councils in Wales at this time, but would urge you to work with them to ensure that a sustainable, innovative and professionally run service is still available across Wales and, should it be necessary, that you will intervene to uphold the provision of the statutory service within a local authority.

We would be happy to assist you in this work and look forward to hearing your thoughts on this.

Yours sincerely,

The Executive Committee, CILIP Cymru Wales

-ends-

http://www.cilip.org.uk/cilip-cymru-wales/news/concerns-over-threats-library-services-wales-raised-open-letter-minister 

The letter was mentioned by BBC Cymru
http://www.bbc.co.uk/newyddion/24945095

Mandy Powell
CILIP Policy Officer, Wales

Welsh Librarian of the Year announced

Photograph courtesy of Dan Staveley
http://www.danstaveley.co.uk/ 

Lori Havard, Head of Academic Services, Information Services & Systems at Swansea University has received the CILIP Cymru Wales Welsh Librarian of the Year Award for her work changing the perception of librarians and promoting the University library’s services.

Bethan M Hughes, Reading Services Manager at Denbighshire Public Libraries has won the public sector category for the Welsh Librarian of the Year Award. The judges were especially impressed with Bethan’s achievements successfully engaging readers.

This new award recognises and celebrates the contribution of librarians and information professionals to contemporary society in Wales and beyond. Awarded to an individual librarian or information professional, this award champions the achievements, impacts and innovation of those who make a significant difference to either the communities which they serve or to the profession in Wales. The Award was kindly sponsored by Sirsi Dynix, the library technology specialists.

Welsh Librarian of the Year Award – Overall Winner

Lori (centre of picture) is Head of Academic Services, Information Services & Systems, Swansea University and a member of the Chartered Institute of Library & Information Professionals (CILIP). At Swansea University Lori has helped librarians become essential and valued partners in the education and research processes.

Lori has created strong partnerships with the Students Union and Students Newspaper, used social media to effectively promote the library service, to engage users, and to receive valued feedback.

Lori was praised for her initiative to celebrate Swansea University’s authors - academics who have written or contributed to key textbooks and works in their field. This initiative celebrates lecturers who have reached the pinnacle of success in providing new teaching and learning publications, who unlike their research colleagues would not otherwise gain wider recognition within the University.

“Lori is an inspirational leader and professional librarian, adapting to the changing shape of libraries and their services to make a difference, where it matters, with students and staff.” Steve Williams (Deputy Director of Information Services & Systems, Swansea University).

Lori was also winner of the Academic and Research Libraries Category within the award.

"I am very proud to have received the Welsh Librarian of the Year Award from CILIP Cymru.  Librarians do so much for the communities in which we serve, and  it was a great night to take time to recognise the value of our profession.  The stories and achievements of all the nominees were very inspiring to me, and I feel very excited for the future of libraries in Wales." Lori Havard, Welsh Librarian of the Year, speaking after the event.

Welsh Librarian of the Year Award – Public Sector Category Winner

In awarding the Public Sector Category Winner, CILIP Cymru Wales were also delighted to celebrate the achievements of Bethan M Hughes, Reading Services Manager, Denbighshire Public Libraries (far right of picture).

Bethan, a Chartered Member of CILIP, through partnership working has contributed to the highest participation rates at primary school level in the annual Summer Reading Challenge, developed and maintained a highly effective Writing Squads programme for children and supported Denbighshire in achieving highest average reading age for school leavers in Wales, as judged by Estyn – the Schools Inspectorate.

The judges praised Bethan’s work to bring children’s authors together with readers through inspiring events as a model of excellent practice. Bethan is passionate about promoting bilingualism and in working with less advantaged communities. She has represented the interests of libraries, librarians and readers on a wide variety of Welsh bodies, organisations and panels. She is also the Welsh representative on the UK-wide Summer Reading Challenge Steering Group.

Key Role

Speaking at the Award Ceremony on behalf of the sponsors, Sirsi Dynix, Barbara Pacut, Europe Middle East and Asia Sales Director, said,

 “The librarian plays a key role in the function of libraries in our communities, a fact that can often be overlooked in discussions and debates around buildings and cultural resources.  It is the librarian who shapes the character of a library, and who drives for its success. SirsiDynix is delighted to sponsor the Welsh Librarian of the Year Award in its first year, recognising the important contribution of an individual and as an advocate for the profession.”

Photograph courtesy of Dan Staveley
http://www.danstaveley.co.uk/ 

“All of the judges have particular nominations which stuck in our minds. If we could have rewarded all of them I think we probably would have.  All five nominees need to be commended on the very real impact they have had on the library sector. This award proves that librarian and information professionals in Wales are doing great things!” Karen Gibbins, Chair, CILIP Cymru Wales and Chair of the Judging Panel.

Stars of the Welsh Library World

All five nominees are worthy of this praise and recognition. Bethan, Carole, Lori, Preeti and Rebecca have all demonstrated achievement, innovation and impact, providing exemplars of good practice and role models for others to follow within the profession. Information about each of the nominees will be shared in forthcoming blogs, so that we can all learn from their successes!

Thank you!

Our heartfelt thanks go to all:

• nominees - for agreeing to participate in the Award
• line managers, colleagues and associates - for making your superb nominations
• the judges - Guy Daines (CILIP), Hywel James (Gwynedd Libraries, representing SCL Wales), Paul Jeorrett (Glyndwr University, representing WHELF), Andrew Green (former National Librarian of Wales) and Karen Gibbins.

And the last word goes to the judges: 

 “It was an invigorating, stimulating and occasionally moving read”

 “It has been a real pleasure and priviledge to take part in the judging,”

“It gives one enormous hope and encouragement to see so many exceptional people contributing to Welsh libraries and the interests of their users” 

"I have been inspired”

Photo credits.

The headline photograph shows all shortlisted nominees for The 2013 Award. (Là R) Rebecca Mogg (Senior Subject Librarian, Cardiff University), Preeti Pathak (Ethnic Services Librarian, Cardiff Libraries), Lori Havard (Overall Winner – Head of Academic Services, IS&S, Swansea University), Carole Morgans (Welsh Department Librarian, Cardiff Libraries), and Bethan M Hughes (Public Sector Category Winner – Reading Services Manager, Denbighshire Libraries). 

The lower photograph show Barbara Pacut (Sales Director, EMEA, Sirsi Dynix), Lori Havard and Karen Gibbins (Chair, CILIP Cymru Wales and Chair of the Judging Panel).

Photographs courtesy of Dan Staveley http://www.danstaveley.co.uk/ 

Nominees announced

CILIP Cymru Wales is delighted to announce the long-list of 12 nominees for this, the inaugural Welsh Librarian of the Year Award. 

The judging panel are diligently working on selecting a shortlist of nominees, and also the overall winner, who will be announced at the CILIP Cymru Wales Annual Conference Dinner, in Cardiff on 16^th May.  Sirsi-Dynix, the library technology specialists, are kindly sponsoring the Award, enabling a prize of £500 to be awarded to the winner.

The following library and information professionals, who live and /or work in Wales have been nominated by their colleagues:

Public Sector category (local authority, government and health);

• Geraint Bowen                   Cardiff Libraries
• Elizabeth Evans                  Swansea Libraries
• Gwilym Games                   Swansea Libraries
• Bethan M Hughes                Denbighshire Library Services
• Rebecca Jones                   Welsh Government Library & Archive Services
• Carole Morgans                   Cardiff Libraries
• Preeti Pathak                     Cardiff Libraries
• Cassie Tozer                      Cardiff Libraries

Academic & Research category (H&FE, Research, National Library);

• Lori Havard                       Swansea University, ISS
• Marie Lancaster                 Cardiff Metropolitan University Library
• Rebecca Mogg                   Cardiff University Libraries
• Helen Staffer                    Cardiff University Libraries

Nominees, we celebrate you!

These nominations highlight the achievements, impacts or innovation of our nominees and mark the significant contributions that library and information professionals make to their patrons, communities, organisations and society as a whole.

“The librarian plays a key role in the function of libraries in our communities, a fact that can often be overlooked in discussions and debates around buildings and cultural resources.  It is the librarian who shapes the character of a library, and who drives for its success. SirsiDynix is delighted to sponsor the Welsh Librarian of the Year Award in its first year, recognising the important contribution of an individual and as an advocate for the profession.”

Barbara Pacut, SirsiDynix EMEA Sales Director

The judging panel includes distinguished representatives from the library and information community in Wales and from CILIP within the UK.

In addition to saluting the nominees we also wish to mark our appreciation and gratitude to our members who embraced the Award with such enthusiasm and who went that extra mile in submitting nominations for their colleagues. Your time and effort is very much appreciated!

Further information:

Welsh Librarian of the Year - CILIP Cymru Wales web pages

Press release - Sirsi Dynix

Follow the discussion on Twitter #WLYA13

Final call for nominations

There is now just ONE WEEK left to submit your nomination for the Welsh Librarian of the Year Award.

Don't delay - ACT TODAY!

Relutance and reticence?

As a profession we are, perhaps, reluctant to shout-out about our successes, our hard-fought achievements and the valued differences that we make to the communities that we serve. We underplay our unique professional skills, knowledge and abilities; preferring to "do the job" rather than celebrate our achievements and worth.

As reluctant as we are to broadcast from the rooftops about the achievements of our services or profession, we are surely even more reticent in celebrating personal achievement and contribution.

In CILIP Cymru Wales we would like this to change.

"At a time when there are news reports of library service cuts it’s great that CILIP Cymru Wales shouts loudly in recognition of highly skilled, dedicated and innovative librarians and information professionals. Our colleagues are constantly pushing at boundaries, enabling library users access to the information that they need in formats that work for the user, tackling the digital information divide,  serving all equally, furthering knowledge and understanding, enabling greater engagement in society, adding and enabling pleasure and interest in so many peoples’ lives". Karen Gibbins, Chair of CILIP Cymru Wales, and Principal Librarian, Swansea Public Libraries.

We see service excellence and innovation on a daily basis. We see and hear of librarians and information professionals doing fatastic jobs, achieving so much, and changing peoples' lives for the better. We also know that service development, innovation and achievement is occuring despite of the environment of staffing constraints, organisational turmoil and budget reductions.

If we don't celebrate the achievements of our colleagues who will? That's easy to answer! No one will.

Call to action 

So, please, please THINK and ACT:

• Do I work alongside colleagues who deserve the accolade of Welsh Librarian of the Year? The answer is almost certainly YES!!
• Please spare 20 minutes to celebrate your colleague by nominating them for the Award. It's a very straightforward and easy process and nominations may be submitted in English or Welsh.

In shining a light of recognition and congratulations on your colleagues you will be achieving so much:

• saying "thank you and well done" to your colleagues, recognising their achievements
• promoting your service, raising the profile of what you do and what you excel in with people who matter
• valuing what we as librarians and information professionals bring to contemporary Wales
• sharing your successes, and in doing so, enabling others to learn and build from your achievements.

We don't wish to only celebrate the achievements of the really well-known and senior professionals in Wales. A great deal of excellence, service innovation and development occurs at the "coal face" of the library floor, the service counter, online enquiry service, bibliographic services department, etc. Any professional colleague - someone with a recognised library / information qualification, or working towards one, whether a CILIP member or not, can be nominated.

Thanks to kind sponsorship from Sirsi Dynix the overall winner will receive a £500 cash prize. The winner will be announced at the CILIP Cymru Wales Annual Conference Dinner on Thursday 16th May at the Radisson Blu Hotel Cardiff. Nominations should be submitted by Thursday 28th March 2013.

Further information about the Award is available in this press release.

Nominations can be made  in English or in Welsh.

Welsh Librarian of the Year Award Terms and conditions

Community managed libraries and Wales

CILIP Cymru Wales wholeheartedly supports the press release issued by CILIP  in London on 25 January 2013 – “Chartered Institute warns of dangerous “headlong rush” to create more community managed libraries”. However, despite being in the enviable position of having a national libraries strategy, and associated public library standards, we recognise that Wales is not immune to the realities of library closures and increasing likelihood of volunteer-assisted and community-managed services. We argue that the characteristics of geography and economic deprivation in Wales will mean that many community–managed library services in Wales will be unsustainable.

CILIP Cymru Wales share and echo the concerns identified by CILIP on the recent publication of the Arts Council for England report into community-managed libraries. We concur that:

·         “Good public libraries need the expertise  and knowledge of skilled staff to provide quality services”. The implication that community managed libraries will provide a similar level of service to properly staffed libraries is incorrect. Volunteers should only complement and not displace paid staff, as enshrined in CILIP statement on volunteering in public libraries.

·         Many volunteers in libraries are in the horrid position of having to manage their library or to lose it entirely. The recent report from the National Federation of Women’s Institutes demonstrates that the experiences of volunteers in community managed libraries are not always positive.

·         Community managed libraries raise the spectre of a two-tier public library service. CILIP’s vision is for a fair and economically prosperous society underpinned by literacy, access to information and the transfer of knowledge. A two-tier service is far from our vision for equity of access for all.

·         The call for publication and dissemination of the research used in the production of the ACE Report is also supported by CILIP Cymru Wales. We need access to as much research and evidence about volunteer / community managed libraries as possible.

In Wales public library services are fortunate in being underpinned by the Welsh Government’s strategy “Libraries Inspire” and the Welsh Public Library Standards. We also appreciate the direct Ministerial and Departmental (CyMAL) support and recognition for the value that public library services provide to communities and their social, educational, health, cultural and  economic wellbeing. (For instance, see this earlier blog). The tradition of political support for public libraries in Wales is a long and proud one. Nevertheless, Welsh unitary authorities are facing increasingly difficult budget settlements, coupled with increasing demands on their statutory services. A as a consequence we are beginning to see library closures in Wales.

CILIP Cymru Wales recognises that in some areas the landscape of public library service delivery needs to change. Improved public library services may result through partnership working with other agencies and bodies,   through relocation to shared buildings, to locations that are easier to access, and to buildings that can be maintained  and run more cost effectively, whilst also meeting more of the needs of the communities that they serve. We also recognise that Wales is not immune to the prospect of increasing numbers of community managed libraries . However, as the ACE report records:

“evidence suggests that low-income communities are likely to find it harder to play pro-active and sustainable role in managing their local libraries”.

This is particularly relevant to many areas in Wales, especially in these difficult economic times. The likelihood of sustainable community managed  library services within rural and sparsely populated areas is also very doubtful, and another key factor in Wales.

CILIP Cymru Wales will be doing all that we can to lobby against a “headlong rush into community-managed libraries”. Such a solution would, in most instances, not be fit for Wales, and so would have negative implications for the people of Wales. The status quo is not in itself sustainable, and so we recognise that change in the library landscape of Wales should and must happen. But we will be seeking to work with others to ensure that creative partnerships, collaborations and solutions result in  the provision of  sustainable, vibrant, effective and enriching public library services that are available to all in Wales.

  

Libraries and health and wellbeing

Huw Lewis, Welsh Government Minister for Housing, Regeneration and Heritage, launched The first incomplete field guide to wellbeing in libraries on Thursday 17th January at an event in Newport.

The guide (available at http://www.goscl.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Wellbeing-in-Libraries1.pdf ) highlights over 50 examples of activities in Welsh Public Libraries that contribute to the health and wellbeing of library users, including fascinating case studies from each of the 22 public library authorities. Examples include initiatives that operate across Wales such as the Book Prescription Wales and the "Get reading, get better" campaign. But equally fascinating are the local initiatives that could perhaps offer inspiration to other libraries to follow suit, or to be similarly creative. These include schemes that:

• support parents and carers,
• engage and enthuse children and teenagers,
• provide support to job seekers,
• enrich the lives of older, homeless, vulnerable or disabled people, and those otherwise at the margins of society.

The guide draws on the excellent work of the Society of Chief Librarians in Wales and their report of 2012 on the Health, Wellbeing and Social Benefits of public libraries (available at http://www.goscl.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/SCL-Wales-report.pdf). Both publications will serve, I am sure, as excellent support materials, when discussing libraries' roles in supporting health and wellbeing targets with councillors, cabinet members, directors and other key stakeholders. And these are crucial discussions to be having.

However, the guide isn't just relevant to public libraries! There are parallels for libraries in all other sectors too. Workplace libraries may often support the health information needs of their users. Academic libraries do much to support their students and learners with health, welfare and pastoral information. Not only does the guide offer great ideas for how library services can support the health and wellbeing of their patrons. This is a great example of how to provide convincing "evidence" for the value and impact of libraries where direct  measurement or indicators are difficult or impossible to provide.

Further information about the guide is given in this press release.