The new-style Council met this week for the 4th time, and now a blog and forum have been set up – as promised – so that short briefing reports on the Council's current work can be posted.The Blog - Council Matters - can be found at: http://communities.cilip.org.uk/blogs/council/default.aspxThe Forum (CILIP members only) can be found at:http://communities.cilip.org.uk/forums/117/ShowForum.aspxIn due course, members will be able to read the full Minutes on the CILIP website Council pages (again, CILIP members only) >>Technorati tags: CILIP; governance; Council briefings>>IceRocket tags: CILIP; governance; Council...
Following on from Bob's most recent blog about the other Bob's book, which he linked to CILIP and professionalism in public libraries (he did get a bit carried away in the middle with Che Guevara and James Bond(!), but the essential message that in 2008 CILIP will make professionalism a major issue is very clear)...I wanted to point to a Panlibus post which highlights MLA Chief Executive Roy Clare, who spoke so well at Talis Insight, appeared on yesterday's edition of the Radio 4 You and Yours programme (podcast). I missed this, but the BBC had had early sight of the CIPFA annual report of the audit of UK public libraries, which mentioned the 10% reduction in income and the (much publicised in recent newspapers, e.g. The Independent, The Telegraph) 40 libraries which closed during 2007....
Those of you who have followed the story over the last two years, can at last find a resolution as CILIP moves into an era of new governance. During the remainder of November, members are asked to vote for 12 of the 14 nominated prospective Councillors who will take up their posts on January 1st 2008. The 14 possible Trustees are:Chris ArmstrongJudy Broady-PrestonPaul ClarkeVeronica FraserIsabel HoodAyub KhanDion LindsayNigel MacartneyLiz MacLachlanCaroline Moss-GibbonsDiana NuttingCaroline OadesBruce RoyanEdwina Smartand their Manifestos and supporting statements from their nominators areall athttp://www.cilip.org.uk/... /nominations/Furthermore, all the candidates are involved in a special debate within the 'CILIP - the organisation' forum,...
The GiG web pages have been updated again and more documents have been made available. We have loaded the following: Specifications for the Policy ForumQuestions and answers relating to the Policy ForumSpecifications for the Remuneration Panel and also Notes of the GiG meetings thus far during 2007. With such important and far-reaching changes to the way CILIP is run in the pipeline, the GiG feels that it is important for members to have the opportunity both to scrutinise our work and to examine the new governance structure. Of course, in Governance Principles, we specify transparency as being of paramount importance... so we have to look to our laurels!>>Technorati tags: CILIP; GiG; governance>>IceRocket tags: CILIP; GiG;...
The Governance Implementation Group Web pages have been updated with the proposed Regulations, as approved by Council in July, which will come into force with the new governance structure on 1 January 2008, providing that the CILIP AGM in October approves the necessary changes to the Bye-laws. (The proposed Bye-laws and Charter are also available.) >>Technorati tags: CILIP; governance; regulations>>IceRocket tags: CILIP; governance;...
Colleagues will be pleased to read the following e-mail from Bruce Madge, Chair of the Governance Implementation Group:We have had the very good news that the Privy Council have accepted our revised Charter and Byelaws with a couple of very minor amendments mainly of a confirmatory nature. These will be amended by our solicitor on his return from holiday. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the members of GIG who worked very hard to achieve this. Bruce - Chair of GIG >>Technorati tags: CILIP; governance>>IceRocket tags: CILIP;...
Colleagues will be pleased to read the following e-mail from Bruce Madge, Chair of the Governance Implementation Group:We have had the very good news that the Privy Council have accepted our revised Charter and Byelaws with a couple of very minor amendments mainly of a confirmatory nature. These will be amended by our solicitor on his return from holiday. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the members of GIG who worked very hard to achieve this. Bruce - Chair of GIG >>Technorati tags: CILIP; governance>>IceRocket tags: CILIP;...
Council on Monday agreed the revised text of the General Regulations, which will thus come into effect with the rest of the governance arrangements on 1st January 2008, assuming that the Privy Council approve the Royal Charter and Byelaws (we should hear from them by the end of July). Council also agreed that minor amendments resulting from the deliberations of Privy Council may be made by the GiG. With one minor amendment, Council also approved the specification for the Policy Forum, and for a Remuneration Panel. Council also approved GiG's endorsement of the Scrutineers' Board with respect to the Annual Election to the new Council and for the Office of Vice President. Advance notice of the Election will appear in Gazette on 27 July.>>Technorati tags: CILIP; governance;...
It doesn't sound like much(!), but it really implies a lot of work behind the scenes: at our last meeting the GiG finalised the CILIP Regulations with the CILIP legal advisers, and these will be presented to Council next week. [ Note of explanation: CILIP has a Royal Charter which essentially sets out our aims and purpose, and then there is a set of Byelaws which dictate how the Institute is to be run. Both of these have to be approved by Privy Council, and we are in the middle of this process now - hoping for an agreement in principal before Council. 'Beneath' the Byelaws sit the Regulations, which set out in more detail what is and is not acceptable or expected practice. These do not need external validation and are consequentially easier to change from time to time as need dictates. ]I...
Well, the answer is: "Not yet"! But - following on from debates at CILIP’s bi-annual conference, Umbrella 2007, where library professionals also met online to discuss the potential value of Second Life to library services - CILIP will open an office in the Second Life virtual world on 19th July at noon. A press release today announced: Representatives at the virtual conference were positive about the potential Second Life holds for library services, “at present Second Life really reminds me of the net in the mid-90s. It needs some time to develop as a reliable platform, but once it does, its potential is enormous!”... Future sessions on the value of Second Life to library services are planned and a virtual office for CILIP: the Chartered Institute of Library and Information...
In mid-June Talis began a series of 'Talking with Talis' centred on the current debate about Public Libraries in the UK. Do get things off to a good start, Richard Wallis talked to Tim Coates. I summarised the talk here. As I noted in earlier postings the MLA and the recently-closed Laser Foundation, as well as CILIP's Public Libraries Group should be able to respond well. As Richard says: The debate about the future of public libraries in England is at times a passionate one, with the protagonists often having greatly differing but no less strongly held views. With this series of podcasts I am attempting to provide a balanced view of those opinions and the people behind them. To that end I have approached several people both within and outside the library establishment with an...
A quick link to the Talis Panlibus blog which in turn links to the first 'Talking with Talis' podcast. This is the first in a series of podcasts looking at the landscape of opinions about the future of public libraries. The subject of the 55-minute interview is Tim Coates, who - unsurprisingly, given his "strong opinions about, and proposals for, the way the public library service in England should be structured and run." - talks at length about public libraries.Worth listening to - it may not be the most logical way forward for public libraries, but it is a refreshingly honest, informed, layman's view of what could be done better.I hope Talis gets a response from the public library sector next - the CILIP Public Libraries Group would be a good starting point. Perhaps followed by MLA or...
The Governance Implementation Group (GiG) met again on Friday, and so – as usual – here is an update on progress. A small number of responses were received to the consultation exercise with Branches and Groups, etc with respect to the Policy Forum specification. The responses were largely positive, but there were a few queries. The GiG felt that the best way to respond to these – as none of the questions affect the way in which it is anticipated the Policy Forum will work – was to publish all responses on the GiG web pages, followed shortly by a ‘FAQ’. Most of the meeting was spent going through the first draft of the Regulations which had been received from the CILIP lawyers. The GiG meets again before Council in July and so, in keeping with our timetable, the new...
Over at Panlibus, Richard Wallis has risen to the challenge! Topping his posting with a superb Flickr jibe ("There's too many chiefs and not enough Indians around this house" as Dean would have said), Richard writes: we at Talis are very committed to libraries, and very committed to doing what we can to help bring them, and the services they provide and use, in to 21st Century. We would be more than willing to consider hosting forums, both in the physical meeting as well as the online debate sense. I - personally - am not sure that another online debate will do much good (who reads them - all these blogs and emails - anyway!), but Richard is unsure that a real-life meeting will do much good, either: We have held research days and other events to address these issues, and have been...
Although I have not posted much about the work of the CILIP Governance Implementation Group since our last meeting, a lot of work has been going on behind the scenes in preparation for tomorrow's meeting.Most importantly, the CILIP lawyers have been working on a draft of the Regulations - we shall be working our way through these tomorrow. Also, the draft Policy Forum Specification has been circulated in a further consultation exercise.A number of comments on this from Groups and Branches have been received; as also have some other member communications, and we shall be considering all of these tomorrow.Also, as members will have been aware, three articles about the process of moving to a new governance model have been published in Update. Two of the articles are available on the CILIP...
Most readers of iNG will be aware of concerns voiced here in the past about what is happening (or not) to public libraries in the UK. Those same readers cannot fail to be aware of the continuing onslaught from Tim Coates in The Good Library Blog on any body which has any responsibility for public libraries: from CILIP to MLA; from Demos to the (now closing) Laser Foundation.Now, we have Richard Wallis of library systems producer, Talis weighing in with a reasoned analysis of the state of play so far on the Talis Panlibus blog. In 'Public Libraries - What Next?', Richard looks briefly at the official reports of the last 15 or so months and at all that Tim Coates has produced, and concludes that: it is clear that all the authors have in common a passionate belief that public libraries...
UKeiG is now seeking nominations for the second of its prestigious awards, presented annually at the December Online Information Meeting in London. Both awards are sponsored by the Journal of Information Science, published by SAGE, and both honour achievement in the broad field of information management. The UKeiG Tony Kent Strix Award is presented for an outstanding contribution to the narrower field of information retrieval, while the UKeiG Jason Farradane Award recognises brilliant work in information science. Full details of the award together with the address to which nominations should be sent is given below and at http://www.ukeig.org.uk/awards/index.html. Nominations for the UKeiG Jason Farradane Award should be for achievement that meets one or more of the following...
UKeiG is now seeking nominations for this prestigious award, presented annually at the December Online Information Meeting in London. Sponsored by the Journal of Information Science, published by SAGE, the award honours achievement in the broad field of information management. The UKeiG Tony Kent Strix Award is presented for an outstanding contribution to the field of information retrieval. The deadline is Friday 14th September 2007. Full details of the award together with the address to which nominations should be sent is given below and at http://www.ukeig.org.uk/awards/index.html. Nominations should be for achievement that meets one or more of the following criteria:development of, or significant improvement in, mechanisms for the retrieval of information, either generally or...
Following some hard work on the part of the CILIP lawyers and Guy Daines (not to mention the GiG!), draft versions of both the Royal Charter and the CILIP Bye-laws have been developed to reflect the new governance structure endorsed by Council in December 2006. These may now be found at:http://www.cilip.org.uk/aboutcilip/governance/ governanceimplementation.htmAs is shown in the Timeline of Governance Events, these must now be approved by Council before being sent to the Privy Council for approval. In order to gain that approval in 2007, thus enabling the new governance to become effective on 1st January 2008, these documents will need to be sent to the Privy Council before the end of April 2007.If you wish to compare the proposed new versions with the current Royal Charter and Bye-laws...
Colleagues will be pleased to learn that at yesterday’s meeting, CILIP Council discussed the proposed Royal Charter and Bye-laws which the Governance Implementation Group, together with CILIP’s lawyers, has drafted to enable the changes to governance. Following a short discussion, Council agreed the draft which will now – shortly – be sent to Privy Council. In presenting the draft documents to Council, I noted that our aims in developing them were in line with those of the Task Force report: to provide greater simplification and transparency; and to facilitate the new governance structures and e-governance. Thanks were also minuted to both Guy Daines and the CILIP lawyers for the huge amount of hard work covered in a relatively short time. >>Technorati tags: CILIP;...
The Governance Implementation Group had another meeting last week and we can now report on progress:The agreed text of the new Royal Charter and Bye-Laws have been endorsed by Council and will be sent to Privy Council in the next few days for 'approval in principle'. They will then be presented to the CILIP AGM on Members Day (Oct. 18).Regulations. We are currently working with the lawyers on draft regulations which we shall bring to Council in July.Policy Forum. The specification for the Policy Forum has been drawn up and agreed and will shortly be sent out to Branches, Groups and Home Nations for consultation/comments. The GiG will be asking for responses by the end of May.GiG has previously agreed to recommend to Council that a Remuneration Panel should be established. This falls in...
You will all know by now that it is intended that the new governance 'regime' will begin on 1st January 2008; the corollary to this is that we need to have a new, new-style Council in place by that date. This will mean elections taking place in the Autumn of this year.These elections will be arranged by the current Council under the transitional powers available to it in the revised Bye-laws.However, in the event that the AGM does not approve the new Bye-laws necessary to effect the new governance structure, the existing Council is able to, and will, continue until March 2008. >>Technorati tags: CILIP; governance>>IceRocket tags: CILIP;...
The CILIP Governance Implementation Group charged with bringing the new governance structure into being has published two documents:A timeline of events leading up to the start of the new governance regime on January 1st 2008; andA summary of the main changes that will take place - like the reduction in size of Council and the start of the new Policy Forum, which provides Groups and Branches with a means of directing CILIP policy.The documents can both be found from the Governance Implementation home page.>>Technorati tags: CILIP; governance>>IceRocket tags: CILIP;...
Congratulations to CILIP's Information Literacy Group (ILG) (as reported in the March Update 6(3) and the Information Literacy Blog) on their success in persuading the DfES that the school curriculum in England needs to incorporate effective information literacy training when changes are made in 2008-9.The Update article (page 3) goes on to report that: "DfES Deputy Director for Curriculum Julie Bramman has since notified the Training Development Agency, with the implication that the ILG will help develop training materials for teachers, as well as pupils.">>Technorati tags: CILIP; DfES; informationliteracy; education; curriculum; teacher_training>>IceRocket tags: CILIP; DfES; informationliteracy; education; curriculum;...
CILIP's Governance Implementation Group has announced the 'timeline' of events leading up to the beginning of the new governance regime.TIMELINE24 January: First meeting of GIG12 February: Draft Byelaws written by CILIP lawyers19 February: GIG meets to consider draft Byelaws13 March: GIG meets to finalise Byelaws with CILIP lawyers13 March: Draft Byelaws ready for Council4 April: Council16 April: GIG meets to sign off draft Byelaws30 April: Draft Byelaws (and “tidy up” of Royal Charter) to Privy Council16 July: Councilmid August: Approval in principle from Privy CouncilAugust/Sept: Documentation prepared for CILIP AGM18 October: AGMOctober/November: Privy Council to confirm approvalsOctober to December: Election process for new Council12 December: Council (last meeting under old...
Colleagues may like to know that the CILIP Governance Implementation Group – the group charged with implementing the recommendations of the Governance Review Task Force – have opened a thread (The Governance Implementation Group Thread) in the ‘CILIP – the Organisation’ forum of the CILIP Communities of Practice.Members can access and comment at: http://communities.cilip.org.uk/forums/28/ShowForum.aspx As it says in the initial message: “One of the first statements in the Task Force’s report notes that ‘the interests and needs of the membership are paramount’. It also states that, ‘The membership is at the heart of the Institute. It will be the aim… to facilitate all members involvement… The Institute is a democratic organisation. Its good governance is...
Following CILIP's acceptance of the report of the Government Review Task Force at the December Council Meeting, much has been going on behind the scenes in preparation for tomorrow's first meeting of the Governance Review Implementation Group. Hopefully, readers will have seen my previous posting, which pointed to the principles under which the new governance will function; a copy of the Task Force's report is now also available on the CILIP web site. Preparations have been made, legal advice taken and an important item on Wednesday's agenda is the implementation schedule.
Those of us who sat on the Task Force and now sit on the Implementation Group are determined on two things: transparency or openness, and timeliness - or "progress the implementation as swiftly as possible" (p.6) as...
As a first step in the process of changing the governance structures at CILIP, the Implementation Group has published the Principles which will act as the benchmark against which all governance activities are judged. The principles are divided into those which relate directly to governance and those which relate to organisational communications.
The principles can be found at: http://www.cilip.org.uk/aboutcilip/governance/ governanceimplementation.htm
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Following the publication of my message yesterday, I have received a lone supportive response from the profession, support from Tim Coates (naturally!), and an endorsing email from the Chairman of Libri, which I reproduce in full below.
Dear Mr ArmstrongI have been shown your recent e mail of 25 September and am sending you copies of recent media coverage related to the public library service.A lot of work has been done to assess the various published statistics and consultancy reports as well as replies to Parliamentary Questions etc.I have also spent considerable time meeting with the Minister, the shadow team, officials, MLA, SCL , LGA, PKF and PwC consultants and concerned organisations (eg Society of Authors, PA, Library Users) to understand the issues and to try to...
Many of us will have read, probably with mounting frustration, the continued attack by Tim Coates on the management and policies surrounding public libraries in the UK. Recently, Richard Charkin of Macmillan Publishers was invited to speak to the National Acquisitions Group during their conference, and he has summarized what he said – and what he has since published in The Bookseller – on his blog. Broadly speaking, he is of one accord with Tim Coates, at least insofar as being appalled by the statistics of decline. Less interestingly, he also has a solution – but that, like the statistics themselves, for which I cannot vouch and which I do not recommend to you in any way other than to suggest that they need investigating and verifying if you are a public librarian, is...
