Category: CILIP

We are recruiting for a secretary

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Want to get involved with the Local Studies Group Committee? We are recruiting for a secretary.

Are you looking to boost your professional development in a friendly networking environment? The Local Studies Group is an active special interest group of CILIP. We organise conference and networking events; provide e-publications such as the Local Studies Toolkit and Local Studies Librarian blog; and run the national Alan Ball Awards for Local History publications and the Dorothy McCulla Award for outstanding contribution to Local Studies Librarianship. We are looking for someone to fill the Secretary role on our committee.  It is a great opportunity for anyone hoping to get actively involved in CILIP, develop skills, and enhance career opportunities.

As an officer on the Committee, you will be involved in shaping the future of the LSG and the activities it delivers. As the secretary you will act as a conduit for information sent out from and to the CILIP Members team. You will also receive correspondence regarding the McCulla Award and E-Alan Ball Award. The role also includes sending out agendas and making notes of our committee meetings twice a year and working with the Chair to create a very short annual report and review of the year for our business plan and AGM. There are also opportunities to represent the LSG in the wider CILIP community networks.  All our meetings are on Zoom.

To find out more, please contact Terry Bracher LSG Chair at Chair.LSG@cilip.org.uk  or terry.bracher@wiltshire.gov.uk

Watch the recording: Sharing Content with Peoples’ Collection Wales

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Last month CILIP Wales, CILIP LSG and CILIP MDG organised a successful webinar exploring how public library, archives and community group collections can be shared online with Peoples’ Collection Wales. We heard how this growing platform supports Welsh Government education and health initiatives, as well as recording the rich cultural heritage of Wales. 

The recording is now available for viewing via the MDG YouTube channel:

Although targeted at public librarians working in Wales, the principles of digitising, describing and sharing metadata covered in the webinar are relevant to all working with local studies collections.

Event: How to share Public Library digital collections with People’s Collection Wales

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Delivering culture and heritage to audiences online has become increasingly important in 2020.

CILIP Cymru Wales (CCW), CILIP Metadata & Discovery Group (MDG), CILIP Local Studies Group and People’s Collection Wales (PCW) invite librarians across Wales to an online PCW session, which will show librarians how to share digital content, re-purpose it via the Hwb and Living memory initiatives, and measure its impact – all via the PCW site. 

This webinar will be followed up with bespoke training to help libraries in Wales get their collections online.

Details

Join via Zoom on Friday 20 November, 12-1pm.

The session is free and open to all. Register via the event page.

Session outline

  • About us: People’s Collection Wales
  • An introduction to uploading digital content to PCW
  • An introduction to linking content from PCW to Hwb Learning and teaching for Wales
  • An introduction to linking content from PCW with the Living Memory initiative
  • An introduction to measuring digital impact
  • Discussion: what next?

At the end of this session participants will be able to:

  • Identify materials for uploading to PCW
  • Describe materials for upload to PCW
  • Identify opportunities to develop new resources for Hwb and Living Memory
  • Identify opportunities to promote and evaluate your users’ digital activities on PCW
  • Tailor subsequent training sessions around what you need to start sharing content via PCW.

The webinar will provide a useful oversight for all library and information professionals in Wales hoping to improve user engagement with digital collections. It will be particularly useful for public library and archives staff with local studies collections.

Presenters

People’s Collection Wales: Tom Pert, Gruffydd Jones, Rheinallt Ffoster-Jones Jessica Roberts

Facilitators: Amy Staniforth (CILIP Cymru Wales), Jane Daniels (CILIP Metadata & Discovery Group)

Nominate your local studies librarian of the year

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Do you know a Local Studies Librarian that has gone the extra mile? Have they pioneered an amazing project or given a career of excellent service to their community? If you do, nominate them for the McCulla Prize, the annual Local Studies Librarian of the Year Award.

We welcome nominations from colleagues, local historians, family historians and anyone who knows a local studies professional who has made a difference.

To nominate, please complete the form on this page.

This year nominations close on 30th November 2019. Nominations received after that would be considered for the next award.

Booking now open for the CILIP BAME Network inaugural meeting

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Booking is now open for the CILIP BAME Network inaugural meeting being held at University College London on 12th September: https://www.cilip.org.uk/events/EventDetails.aspx?id=1267714&group=

The Network was established earlier this year to support all black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) library and information workers, regardless of whether they hold CILIP membership or not. 

The event is free to attend and will be a valuable opportunity for BAME workers to hear from inspiring speakers, connect with a support network and to feedback to the BAME Network on what they’d like from the Network. 

We’d really appreciate allies promoting this event and to support and encourage BAME colleagues to attend this event. The Allies Forum will hold a separate launch event at a later date – please watch this space. 

Bursaries for CILIP conference for BAME staff

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CILIP are offering 6 bursary places to BAME professionals, giving a full 2 day delegate place and accommodation for the night of 3 July.

The CILIP Conference (3-4 July, Manchester) is one of the largest and most eagerly anticipated events in the library and information sector and brings together around 500 professionals from across the sector to share experiences, knowledge and expertise. The keynote speakers include Liz Jolly, Patrick Lambe, Hong-Anh Nguyen and Kriti Sharma. The programme is being finalised but you can see an outline of the session content at cilipconference.org.uk. Keep up to date by following @CILIPConf19.

To submit your application for the bursary place, please write no more than 300 words saying what you would get out of attending the conference and how you would share what they have learnt with others. Please send your application to events@cilip.org.ukwith the title “BAME Bursary Application” by Friday 10 May 2019 and include the following details:

  • Name
  • Contact details
  • Sector
  • Career stage ( e.g. student, para-professional, new professional, professional, senior management)
  • Whether you have been to CILIP Conference before.

Any BAME professional, at whatever stage of their career, can apply for one of these places. We are particularly interested in hearing from people who have never been to the CILIP Conference before, and who wouldn’t ordinarily be able to go.

Inspirational Local Studies Librarian awareded Honorary Fellowship

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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

Fancy a free ticket for the 2017 CILIP Conference & 1 night’s accommodation thrown in?

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CILIP ConfLocal Studies Group is very pleased to announce that we can offer a free place to attend the CILIP conference in Manchester to one of our members. The bursary includes access to both days of the conference, lunch, refreshments and all sessions, the evening reception at MOSI and one night’s accommodation at Motel One (on Wednesday 5 July). It does not include travel expenses. Information about the programme can be found at www.cilipconference.org.uk

We would ask the bursary holder to write a report on the conference for our journal or newsletter and CILIP are keen that anyone attending the conference is active on Twitter and through blogging to help people who cannot attend follow the event.

To apply please complete the following form by 7 April 2017:

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My all expenses paid trip to….Stoke-on-Trent!

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Gosh, I hear you cry, why did you get an all expenses paid trip to the Potteries? Was it to judge the Staffs Oatcakes served at the museum? Was it to enjoy Virgin Train’s hope that you would not wash your “goldfish, hopes and dreams” down the toilet? Or was it the challenge to eating you pork pied lunch behind you laptop screen without the devout Muslims opposite seeing? No, none of that, it was to attend the last LSG Committee Meeting.

Hoping that you might be interested in hearing what I thought of the famous oatcakes at the end of this post, I thought I would fill in a bit of time by saying how interesting the session was. Top news includes the next copy of Local Studies Librarian will be landing on your door mat any time soon and will be followed after Easter with a version of the e-newsletter, Local Studies Librarian+.

The next conference is being planned for late 2017/early 2018, with LSG South’s Study day taking shape for the other spot, while as always, LSG NW is planning an amazing set of events, this time keep you diaries free for 14th June…..not to mention the amazing work being done by LOCSCOT. Work is also under way to review the old Local Studies Guidelines – lots more info to follow.

Of course, none of this amazing work could be done without those volunteers who do the work and, for the lucky ones, those whose employers allow them to attend the meetings in work time.

Does this sound just a little bit fun….. because it is! Do you want to give back to the profession? Play your part in helping to spread great ideas/best practice across the world of local studies ? Plus, you can always influence those doing most of the work at conferences to include speakers and projects that interest you. In part of the profession when you are often the sole local studies professional in your unit or even organisation, it is sometimes a life saver to have chance for a good gossip with great groups of heritage professionals from across the UK. As well as giving your view at a meeting or two, you’d be welcome to do a little more, such as writing blog posts, a bit of tweeting, helping to arrange speakers for conferences of venues for visits, or, if you like adding up a few rows of figures, help with the accounts. Plus, this type of work is excellent material for job interviews and chartership applications! You don’t even have to be a member of CILIP.

So have a tempted you a little? Can you tempt your employer to give you a couple of afternoons to go to meetings each year? Why not find out a little more, or even coming to a meeting to see what it is like? After all, your travel costs are reimbursed. If so, you have a number of options. LSG South helps with things in London, the South East and a little further afield and they generally meet in Woking – email Norma Crowe.  If you are north of the boarder you contact Nicola via nmcowmeadow@pkc.gov.uk, if you are west of the Pennines contact Alice Lock or if you fancy helping the national group, who normally meet in the Midlands, contact Alice Lock.

Ah, nearly forgot, the Oat Cakes….. sorry, I decided to take an earlier train home, but the other  Committee members thought they were excellent!