CILIP and the All Party Parliamentary Group on Libraries and Information Management
CILIP seeks to advocate the value of library and information services across all major areas of public policy. Key to this approach is the All Party Parliamentary Group on Libraries and Information Management which seeks to be a "think tank" for parliamentarians, connecting their interest in libraries with their concern for public policy. CILIP administers the All Party Group and we retain AS Biss and Co to assist us in this work. AS Biss is a well regarded public affairs consultancy specialising in government relations.
The current Chair of the All Party Group is Lyn Brown MP. Lyn has always believed passionately in the contribution that libraries can make to the social policy agenda of regeneration, renewal and inclusion. Before she was elected MP for West Ham last year she was a Councillor in Newham where she was the Cabinet Member with responsibility for Culture and Community Services.
In February, at Lyn's instigation, the All Party Group invited Phil Woolas MP (Minister for Local Government and Community Cohesion) to discuss with them the relationship between libraries and the government's agenda for sustainable communities. The invitation for Martin Molloy as CILIP President and myself to join Lyn in a meeting with Phil Woolas and Joe Montgomery (who heads up the "Tackling Disadvantage Group" within the newly formed Department for Communities and Local Government - DCLG) came from that All Party Group meeting. In advance of that meeting, held last week, we produced a briefing note which you can read here.
The outcomes of our meeting with the Minister and Joe Montgomery, held last week, were entirely positive as the media release indicates. The Minister and his team clearly understand the contribution that libraries can make to the neighbourhood renewal agenda and CILIP will be working with Joe Montgomery and his colleagues within DCLG to take forward several initiatives which were agreed at the meeting. I'll be meeting with Lyn Brown next month to discuss other major areas of public policy where the All Party Group can help to generate political support and government action on behalf of libraries.
I'm sure that CILIP Members will agree that this is one of many ways in which CILIP adds value by speaking out for the library and information sector.
Bob McKee
Updated: 19 December 2006