Diversity Award 2010
The CILIP Diversity Group celebrates diversity within the library and information sector with the Diversity Award. The 2010 award was presented to Mike Prendergast and Mike Allport for their project in Southwark Libraries at the Diversity Group Conference: "An Inconvenient Truth: Race, Class and Libraries" on Monday 14 June 2010 at CILIP in London. The Diversity Award is for an individual or a team who have shown a commitment to the advancement of diversity in the library world.
2010 Winner
Mike Prendergast, Community Library Services Manager, and Mike Allport, Reader Development Manager, London Borough of Southwark, Rotherhithe Library, Albion Street, London
Project: Engaging with the Somali and Latin American Communities in Southwark
This project followed on from 'Welcome to Your Library Project' which was launched in 2007 with the Somali community. From the evidence provided, Mike, Mark and their team sustained the project, encouraged the authority to make engagement with new communities a key priority for Southwark Libraries; and up to January 2010, they have ran programmes involving new communities like the Latin Americans. There is evidence of sustainability, empowerment and partnership with the diverse communities and other authorities.
Mike Prendergast said: "We are very pleased to accept the award for our work with both the Somali and Latin American communities, which became a sustainable element of the "Welcome to Your Library" project. Alongside the extensive program involving all staff from Southwark libraries, there was also satisfaction on a personal level from the involvement with these communities, whom I regarded as friends, and who provided me with a greater understanding of both their culture and their needs"
Mike Allport said: “We’re very proud to have Southwark libraries work acknowledged in this way by CILIP’s Diversity Group. The Diversity Group’s conference was a thought-provoking and enjoyable day, and to receive the award at the end of it was a big honour. The work we did and continue to do in building up appropriate collections, events and projects with the Latin American and Somali communities in Southwark is a real team effort with many library staff and members of the community involved – so this is for all of them really.”
Runner-up:
Lisa Lawrence and Suzanne White, Subject Librarians, Lanchester Library, Coventry University, Gosford Street, Coventry
Project: Ethnicity and Study Skills: active intervention in the library setting
The uniqueness of the project is what led to the choice. The project was set up following evidence that British Black and ethnic minorities in Higher Education are not achieving the same level of progression and attainment as other groups. Peer groups called Roving Study Support Assistants (RSSAs) were trained to support fellow students by making themselves clearly visible and flexible. They helped they helped struggling students in their areas of need - use of library, use of IT. It is a very good example of partnership and neworking with students, library staff and lecturers for the benefit of a diverse community.
Other nominees:
Sandra Shevey – Curator Archive of Popular Culture
Project: Material Hollywood
The work is based on Sandra’s research and exhibitions at Westminster Reference Library
1) Alfred Hitchcock’s London Odyssey – Location Art in the Capital
2) Outing Hollywood: suppression of identity.
Carol Wootton, Sian Wheatcroft, Catherine Lumley and Allison Pugh - Learning Resource Centre staff, Doncaster College, The Hub, Chappell Drive, Doncaster.
Project title: Six Book Challenge
The college participated in the National Six Book Challenge. The aim was to encourage learners with less confidence in reading and using the LRC. The challenge focused on use of a range of ‘easier to read’ resources including fiction and non-fiction materials. Book exchanges took place in a specially prepared section of the LRC, and as the learner’s confidence grew, these sessions included extra activities.
Moira Johnson – Learning Resource Centre Manager - Treloar College Learning Resource Centre, Holybourne, Alton, Hants.
Project: Universal Access
Treloar College Learning Resource Centre has developed resources and services since 2000 to meet the changing needs of the College, which is a residential specialist college and care home for young people with disabilities aged 16 – 25. Multidisciplinary team work has underpinned LRC development to provide universal access for the wide range of learner needs presented by students working across Entry levels, through Levels 1 and 2 and up to level 3. Resources include assistive technology, literacy support, and a range of therapeutic activities, as well as text, online and audiovisual library resources.
Agnes Kozlowska-Wolodkowicz, Senior Assistant Librarian/Cataloguer & Assistant Librarian - Harrow Council/Stock and Ula Tnsley, Support Services & De Montfort University/ Kimberlin Library, Civic 7, PO Box 4, Station Road, Harrow.
Project: Polish & East European Librarians in the UK (PEEL).
PEEL is a new forum for all librarians interested in promoting Eastern European literature in British libraries, exchanging views and experiences, and sharing information about forthcoming events and new books
About the Diversity Awards
"Our profession has a crucial role to play in breaking down the barriers that prevent all citizens from accessing the information and the resources that they need," says Kal Dale, past Chair of CILIP's Diversity Group.
"Library and information services also have a responsibility to provide and promote career opportunities and development for all their staff. But while a great deal of important work is done in the promotion of diversity through library services up and down the country much of it is unseen and therefore unacknowledged."
The Diversity Awards aim to change this fact by recognizing outstanding achievement in the promotion of diversity through library and information services and to highlight examples of good practice in this area to the rest of the profession.
In the past there has been separate awards for personal achievement and organisational change, but we decided to have one award in 2010.
More details about past winners are in the Past award winners page.
Last updated: 2 September 2010