Entries open for the Aspire Award
New professionals who are CILIP members can now apply to win the Aspire Award.
The successful applicant will receive a place at the Career Development Conference 2012 and support for travel to and from the venue. The conference takes place at Austin Court, Birmingham on the 18 July.
The award is in memory of Bob McKee, which has been established to help new professionals develop through networking at UK and international events.
Applicants should:
- Be a member of CILIP
- Have joined the profession in the past five years
- Be registered for Chartership, intend to Charter in the next two years, or be newly Chartered in the past year
- Be 'first timers' at the conference for which free attendance is being awarded
- Produce a report about their experiences at the conference for possible publication in CILIP Update magazine.
How to enter:
- Produce a clear, concise and reflective piece of writing of no more than 500 words that identifies your key ambition and overall aim in applying for the Aspire Award. It must demonstrate the benefits to you and profession of your attendance at the conference.
- Enter online by 5pm on Friday 1st June.
Criteria:
- Identification of an ambition or overall aim that attendance at the conference will help realise
- Evidence of existing or planned contributions to CILIP or the library and information profession
- Demonstration of your support for Bob McKee’s core conviction that the role of libraries is a means to a fairer and more prosperous society
More about the Award
CILIP and IFLA, with the support of his family, created the Aspire Award in memory of CILIP’s Chief Executive Bob McKee, who died in August 2010.
The Award will support Bob's passionate interests – developing new professionals and strengthening international relationships.
The Aspire Award will help new professionals develop through networking at UK and international events.
CILIP will provide a UK bursary to pay for attendance at either its biennial Umbrella event or its annual Career Development Group Conference.
Past winners
In 2011 Carly Miller was the first recipient of the award. Carly took up her first professional post in July 2011 as Independent Learning Centre Coordinator at Ossett Academy and Sixth Form College.
You can read an interview with her in the July 2011 edition of Update.
Carly received a full residential place, and support for travel to and from the venue, at Umbrella 2011, which took place at the University of Hertfordshire in Hatfield on 12-13 July 2011.
IFLA will provide an international bursary to support a new professional from Ukraine, a country in which Bob had a professional interest. The scope of the international bursary will be widened to the whole library community after two years. Oksana Rozmirovska won the IFLA bursary in 2011. Read Oksana's report
Donating
We hope the Award will be funded by donations. You can donate through either CILIP or IFLA. Make a donation.