Carly Miller, a student at the University of Sheffield, has won the first CILIP/IFLA Aspire Award. She will receive a free residential place at CILIP’s flagship conference, Umbrella 2011. The conference will take place at the University of Hertfordshire in Hatfield on 12-13 July.
The Aspire Award was created 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. It will help new professionals develop through networking at UK and international events.
To win the award, qualifying CILIP members were required to identify an ambition or overall aim that attending Umbrella would help realise. They also had to demonstrate how attending the conference would bring a definable contribution to the library profession. Consideration was given to how their ambition related to Bob McKee’s core belief in the role of libraries as a means to a fairer and more prosperous society.
Applications were judged by a small panel of CILIP staff and activists, in co-operation with Bob McKee’s family, and in a very tight race Carly Miller emerged as the winner. She will be interviewed in the July issue of CILIP’s Update magazine.
IFLA: The International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions are also providing an international bursary this year under the Aspire Award scheme to support a new professional from Ukraine, a country in which Bob had a professional interest. The 2011 winner is Oksana Rozmirovska. The scope of this international bursary will be widened to the whole library community after two years.
The Aspire Award is being funded entirely by donations, which can be made through either CILIP or IFLA. More details are available at www.cilip.org.uk/aspireaward.
-ends-
Press contact:
Mark Taylor, Head of Corporate Marketing and Media Relations, CILIP
Tel: 020 7255 0654
Mobile: 07792 635 305
Email: mark.taylor@cilip.org.uk