Contents
The Library Association
The Institute of Information Scientists
Background to unification
Co-operation between the IIS and LA
Final unification negotiations
The proposed new body
Unification completed – CILIP inaugurated
CILIP: the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals, was inaugurated on 1 April 2002, following the unification of two predecessor bodies – the Library Association (LA) and the Institute of Information Scientists (IIS)
The Library Association
The LA was formed in 1877 and received its Royal Charter, which permitted it to award professional (Chartered) status to members, in 1898. It became a registered charity in 1963 and was awarded a supplemental Royal Charter in 1986, bringing its objectives and powers up to date, including the aim to "represent and act as the professional body for persons working in or interested in library and information services."
The centenary of the first Royal Charter, held in 1998, was marked by a reception at the British Library, attended by HRH the Princess Royal, who presented commemorative medals to 100 LA members, as representing the commitment and imagination of all generations of librarians throughout the hundred years.
The Scottish Library Association was founded in 1908, and formally affiliated with the LA (of the UK) in 1931. However the separate and distinct legal, educational and government structure in Scotland meant that the SLA always undertook representation of the LA in the Scottish context – a situation whose validity was subsequently reinforced by the introduction of devolved powers to Scotland and the creation of a Scottish Parliament.
The Welsh Library Association (WLA) was a branch of the UK LA, and a further branch existed in Northern Ireland.
The Institute of Information Scientists
In the late 1950s, a group of professionals working predominantly in scientific and technological research took the view that a separate body was required to meet their more specialist form of practice and split off to form the Institute of Information Scientists.
The IIS was founded in 1958 to promote and maintain high standards in scientific and technical information work and to establish qualifications for those engaged in the profession. Thereafter increasingly the IIS also attracted those working in the rapidly expanding field of financial and business information, and subsequent technological developments meant that its members were in a better position to pay close attention to developments in digital technology. Like the LA, it also had charitable status, with about 2,200 members, all of whom were personal members, including a significant number overseas.
These two organisations ceased their separate existences in April 2002, when they unified to form the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals.
Background to unification
Formal moves towards unification of the LA and the IIS began in November 1998 with the joint publication by the two bodies of ‘Our Professional Future: proposals for a new organisation for the library and information profession’. This report highlighted the clear commonality of interest between the two organisations. Both memberships were engaged in the provision of information services in a wide range of settings, and it was estimated that about 40% of IIS members were also members of the LA. Both organisations accredited programmes at universities, increasingly on a joint basis. Both awarded professional qualifications, maintained active publishing programmes, ran courses and conferences, and maintained a regional and special interest group structure.
It was hardly surprising, therefore, that there had been previous proposals to unify these (and other) organisations to form a single, more powerful body to represent the broad information and library community. The previous attempt had begun in 1989 when Aslib: the Association for Information Management (Aslib) and the LA commissioned Professor Wilfred Saunders to consider the case for bringing Aslib, the LA and the IIS into a close working relationship.
The result was published in 1989 as ‘Towards a unified professional organisation for library and information science and services: a personal view’, and in it Saunders concluded that:
“Collectively the Institute, Aslib and the LA represent an extremely powerful combination of expertise in information science, information management and librarianship in all its varied manifestations. There is a high degree of inter-dependence between all three of these areas and the potential for mutually beneficial interaction is great indeed. The case for this potential being achieved more effectively via a single unified organisation which includes the three organisations operating independently must be very strong indeed.”
Discussions between all three organisations began. In 1991 LA Council agreed in principle to a proposal from the discussion group that the three organisations unify to form a new body. Soon after, however, Aslib Council decided not to proceed and subsequently IIS Council also decided not to go ahead.
Co-operation between the IIS and LA
Thereafter, however, there was a degree of co-operation between IIS and LA, most notably in the sphere of accreditation of courses at universities. Most accreditation visits were carried out jointly and, in due course, the IIS revised its procedures to further facilitate this process. Eventually, at the IIS’s Annual General Meeting in September 1996, a motion was presented which sought to authorise IIS representatives to initiate exploratory discussions with the LA, with a view to assessing the scope for a formal alliance between the two bodies. The motion was put to the full membership of the Institute. The result was in favour of the motion by a ratio in excess of 2:1.
A year later, in September 1997, a brief report was presented which charted the passage of the discussions thus far. The report announced the establishment of a discussion group, comprising four primary players from the Institute and four from the LA, which had held a number of highly positive and forward-looking meetings, culminating in the presentation to the Councils of both organisations an initial joint report in June 1997. Both Councils warmly accepted the recommendations contained in that report, the main thrust of which was that talks should continue with the aim of developing a framework for a new, single association for information professionals, into which the membership of both the Institute and the Association would be drawn.
Final unification negotiations
Negotiations proceeded by means of a Unification Planning Group (UPG), formed from the original eight members of the discussion group, together with one new member from each of the two bodies. The UPG held a residential think tank session in December 1997 focusing initially on position papers prepared by Peter Enser, chair of IIS Council and Ross Shimmon, chief executive of the LA. In a spirit of close co-operation a wide range of issues, including constitution, membership criteria, and resourcing were considered, together with the need for a new name for the putative new organisation. Having arrived at a shared perception of the practical and logistical issues involved, the UPG then set up three Task Forces, charged with the detailed assessment of these issues in the particular contexts of constitution, membership and finance.
A special meeting of the IIS Council, held in April 1998, considered its Director's report on the UPG's Think Tank meeting. The Council also discussed an alternative vision of an umbrella organisation, hospitable to professional groupings within its membership. Great emphasis was laid upon the need for the new organisation to be forward-looking, projecting a stimulating image, with its members perceived to be natural stakeholders in the dynamic employment market for information and knowledge professionals. The UPG considered all of these issues carefully.
Meetings of the Task Forces brought forward a number of detailed recommendations. The clear model that emerged from their deliberations was of an entirely new, single body rather than an umbrella organisation within which the two existing organisations (and, possibly, others) might shelter. The UPG met again in late September 1998 and agreed the consultative document Our Professional Future. It was presented to the Councils of both the IIS and the LA at their meetings in October 1998 as the basis of a final consultative document to be distributed for comment to every member of the two organisations. Both Councils agreed that it should be issued, subject to a few minor changes suggested to the Unification Planning Group.
The document was issued to all members of both organisations in November 1998 with a deadline for responses of 15th March 1999. An independent firm of consultants, Chambers & Stoll of London, was engaged by the UPG to prepare an analysis of the responses, which was presented to the Councils of both the IIS and the LA at their meetings in April 1999. Thereafter the UPG undertook further work on issues arising from the Council meetings, which was discussed at both organisations’ June Council meetings of both organisations. The outcome was that both Councils agreed in principle the UPG recommendation to proceed with unification and to recommend revised proposals to the memberships of the two organisations.
The formal motion to unify in principle was put to the AGM of the IIS on 16 September 1999, and to the LA AGM a month later on 14 October 1999. With a clear mandate secured from the memberships of both organisations, the Unification Planning Group set in motion the legal moves necessary to create the new body
The proposed new body
The new body, it was proposed, would be poised to play a major role in the developing information society and would support its members’ aspirations to be key players in society’s economic, social, cultural and technological activity and development. It would be primarily a personal membership organisation, and would seek a Royal Charter and charitable status. It would offer Chartered status to those of its members who demonstrated competence to practise at a professional level, and would be democratic; governed by an elected Council. It would have a regional and special interest group structure.
The assets of the two existing organisations would be transferred to the new one, and subscriptions would be income-related. Services broadly equivalent to those offered by the IIS and the LA combined would be provided by the new organisation, and the staff of the existing organisations would be assimilated into the new one. Finally, implementation would be as fast as possible consistent with due process.
The new body’s vision would be of access to information, ideas and works of imagination as an essential characteristic of thriving democracies, cultures and economies - increasingly so in the global information society. It would acknowledge that technological advances had led to a range of new methods of supplying information, organising the knowledge base, creating information, disseminating and preserving it. It would assert that information was a cultural, social and economic resource and a commodity of crucial importance in a huge range of diverse enterprises. And it affirmed that librarians and information scientists could be at the heart of this revolution, in demand for their creative, technical and managerial expertise.
These developments, and the convergence in information and communications technology, made old distinctions between librarians and information scientists irrelevant, and the two bodies were clear that to perpetuate those distinctions by maintaining their separate existences was a disservice to their members, to the profession and to society as a whole. There was an urgent need to promote the important roles played by information professionals to the public, politicians and decision makers. Both the LA and the IIS had made great steps forward, they acknowledged, but more needed to be done and done quickly. Their efforts would be most successful, they believed, if a strong unified professional body were created, building on the wide ranging achievements of both. This single organisation would speak with an authoritative voice for the profession as a whole. Its task would be to:
- position the profession at the heart of the information revolution
- develop and enhance the role and skills of all its members
- present and champion those skills, together with new skills which members would acquire as part of their continuing professional development
- ensure that individuals, enterprises and voluntary organisations had ready and timely access to the information they needed.
The recommended mission of the proposed new organisation was:
- To set, maintain, monitor and promote standards of excellence in the creation, management, exploitation and sharing of information and knowledge resources.
- To support the principle of equality of access to information, ideas and works of the imagination which it affirms is fundamental to a thriving economy, democracy, culture and civilisation.
- To enable its members to achieve and maintain the highest professional standards in all aspects of delivering an information service, both for the professional, and the public good.
With the mission of the proposed new body agreed and established, everything was now in place for the completion of the unification process.
Unification completed – CILIP inaugurated
The final stage was for members of the two organisations to vote for unification in the form ultimately proposed – a completely new body, formed out of the LA and the IIS, to be called the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals. The IIS’s final votes took place at an extraordinary general meeting held in July 2001, and the LA followed at its annual general meeting in October.
CILIP: the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals was formally inaugurated on 1 April 2002.