Marin Hayes, the excellent County Local Studies Librarian for West Sussex, was awarded a well deserved Hon FCLIP last Thursday.
For those who did not get to the CILIP AGM (yes, I’m guilty too), here is what Martin said……
Thank you so much to colleagues involved in Local Studies for the nomination and to CILIP for this Fellowship award. Although I’m truly touched and proud of this personal achievement, it’s equally an award for my authority West Sussex County Library Service, my brilliant colleagues and our 150+ local history volunteers. They’ve provided the environment and support by which we’ve been able to achieve improvements to our Local Studies service.
Public libraries are, of course, at the heart of many communities and their existence is an important opportunity to engage people with their local heritage. Local history documents, books and secondary sources are unique assets owned by local authorities. They have been collected by specialists for over a century and the vast majority of this content is not yet on the internet nor likely to be so for some decades. Every civilized society should be preserving books and other published sources on the history of local communities and employing Local Studies librarians is the only way to insure this material is collected comprehensively.
An appeal to Heads of Library & Archive Services: Local Studies librarians are among your most committed and knowledgeable staff members. We know our users, we know our sources and we know our communities. Lose this expertise at your peril!
An appeal to my Local Studies colleagues: in these difficult days of public spending reviews and staffing cuts, never has there been more of a need to prove our worth to our employers. We need to seize the day, be proactive, imaginative, try to make time for external funding bids and really prove our value. We need to analyse how we envisage our services developing, and find out not just what our current users want, but what non-users may want, now and in the future. Once funding is in place and staff are running projects, it becomes possible to make real improvements to our services and engage the public as users and volunteers.
Finally, although I’m the fortunate recipient of this award, it really is, in my eyes, a tribute to the hundreds of hard-working librarians in Local Studies Libraries and History Centres across the UK.
And this is what CILIP said….
Martin’s work is vital in helping local people to learn about where they live and their community. He is known for his commitment to supporting other professionals and for bringing the subject of local studies to life. He has helped colleagues at all levels of Local Government to see the value of local studies, developing exhibitions and materials to inspire and engage the public. In his role he has carried out 30 years of pioneering work that has helped develop the field.
He is known for his commitment to supporting other professionals and for bringing the subject of local studies to life. He has helped colleagues at all levels of Local Government to see the value of local studies, developing exhibitions and materials to inspire and engage the public. In his role he has carried out 30 years of pioneering work that has helped develop the field. The honour recognises his enthusiasm and comprehensive expertise.
Martin has led recent projects that enable local volunteers to document and digitise their heritage, leading to donations of new material, helping to enrich the documentary record for West Sussex county.
There were a few other people who became Hon FCLIPs… more info about them here: https://archive.cilip.org.uk/news/cilip-honorary-fellows-2017
CILIP Local Studies Group 