CILIP Conference 2020 - Reimagined: impressions of a new professional

by Jamie Yu

     The CILIP Conference 2020 - Reimagined is an e-conference held on an interactive online platform. The platform allows attendees to join conference sessions in Zoom, browse exhibitions and interact with speakers and participants via web chats. What is special about this conference is that, in contrast to the traditional two-day CILIP conference held in past years, it happened all in one day - on the 19th November 2020. One could feel the intensity of the conference if one was determined to make the best out of the rich content created by a total of 54 speakers. Fortunately, CILIP provides conference attendees with access to the platform and the recordings of all conference sessions until next year. The conference organisers keep their audience in mind and make the best use out of the video communication platform to ensure a rich experience.

The conference has gathered information and cultural professionals’ voices to say how librarianship is a mission to uphold core values and what we can do to accomplish this mission together. The keynote speakers took their lead in advocating for this message. Richard Ovenden’s opening keynote reminded us of the fragility of information and the core role of librarians in protecting information and preserving knowledge. He took us trips across time and space, where we revisited the origin of the nature of our work. Other keynote speakers’ discussions explained how this core role of preserving knowledge extends to many sub-levels and how modern issues leave us with important tasks within this role. Tracie Hall from ALA interpreted the modern mission of a librarian as one to stand up against information redlining. Her powerful speech drew our attention to the impact ethnic minorities face due to the disinvestment in libraries. With the loss of these valuable resources in society, the normalisation of literacy, socio-economic mobility, and democratic engagement also lose their ground to grow.

Speakers for CILIP including Head of Sector Development Jo Cornish and president Judy also outlined some strategies to tackle challenges we face in this profession. Jo argued that for us to make sure that we achieve our mission as information professionals, we need to connect to society and the people we serve. It is essential to highlight elements such as representativeness, diversity, and accessibility as some of the critical elements of a future profession of information professionals. Judy quoted Nick Poole, CEO of CILIP, to say that “professionalism is nothing without critical reflection”. We need to maintain a questioning attitude towards our profession and the values we hold, keeping in mind the interrelationships between our identity at an organisational, professional, and national level. By doing that, we continue to explore how we share experiences on different levels and improve our services. By doing that, we also ensure that we know what unites us as professionals and be comfortable in the culture that we drive to maintain.

On the other hand, speakers in the self-chosen sessions highlighted important issues that we should be working on. They discussed in detail what professionals have been doing and some practical actions that should be done in the future. Bridget McKenzie, Harri Sahavirta, and Petra Hauke (Dr) enlightened us on how librarianship is incorporated in local and foreign (Finnish and German) institutions to approach a green economy. It was interesting to learn how librarianship combines with the values of sustainability. In Bridget’s case, librarianship comes into play in her non-library roles such as a cultural manager and an activist in the Climate Change Museum. Her sharing inspired me to see the values and skills behind librarianship in a broad sense and their potential in contributing to unconventional careers. My curiosity to explore librarianship has grown. In Harri and Petra’s case, they actively pursue the goal of disseminating accurate environmental information and reducing energy consumption in their libraries with strategic planning. Reflecting on the potential ways in which libraries could contribute to making changes, I started to think of ways different roles within a library, including non-leadership roles, could participate.

Another self-chosen session that left me a strong impression was “The everyday activists of our profession who are driving change” led by Marilyn Clarke, Adenike Johnson, and Angela Short. Marilyn’s experience in advocating for decolonisation, particularly the “liberate my degree” campaign in the Goldsmith University of London, was felt by me as genuinely personal. A library led movement on this subject sounds new, but it makes logical sense since resources for learning are managed and partly curated by the library. According to Marilyn, diversifying collections and creating subject guides and reading lists representative of different cultures are some of the ways libraries could participate in combating a eurocentric curriculum.

Having studied in Hong Kong as the ethnic majority and in the UK as an ethnic minority, it felt strange to remind me of the two experiences studying in a eurocentric curriculum in two different identities. It is important to be aware that white supremacy in the history of higher education has left a legacy around the world. The changes we are trying to make are not merely about the local curriculum but the heavily biased idea of scholarship and wisdom. The journey in making changes could be a long one, but this is why informational professionals need to be always wary of the power of the resources we preserve, the resources we disseminate, and the resources we curate. We need to be careful of the power and be appreciative of it at the same time.

I hope to develop further the insights I got from the conference via discussions with fellow librarians and accumulate my experiences. I found the CILIP conference 2020 - Reimaged a great opportunity to understand different aspects of the library profession, a great starting point for me to imagine my future career, and a great encouragement for achieving the values we hold as information professionals. I am grateful to the Community, Diversity and Equality Group for sponsoring me to attend the conference.