A chance to hear from Sue Lacey Bryant, CILIP President for 2025 and to share your views on CILIP: what is it currently doing well, what should it start? stop ? even better if?  and also, of course, how members can they help CILIP grow its international impact? and where do you see the opportunities? 

Alongside being President of CILIP for 2025, Sue is Visiting Professor in Knowledge and Information Mobilisation at Manchester Metropolitan University, a KM consultant and a coach.  Having worked in several sectors, she is a passionate advocate for the contribution that CILIP members make at the heart of communities.  From early experience as a library assistant in a public library, Sue worked in academic libraries, including on a British Library funded user research project. Working at The Library Association, she developed a lasting interest in professional education and training.

Sue found her niche in the NHS - forging innovative roles as a Health Education/Information Officer and setting up a healthline, then as a practice librarian, and later as a knowledge manager in primary care. As she raised her family, Sue developed a portfolio career as an independent information specialist alongside holding part-time roles in the NHS. She worked for working for a dot com company as well as an NGO focused on international development, for which she set up an Oxfam Development Education Centre, and prepared a range of briefings. 

Finding that evidence is not enough to inform decision making, she became interested in change management and quality improvement and went on to become a Director of a Clinical Commissioning Group before joining the former Health Education England (now part of NHS England). Last year Sue retired from her role as Chief Knowledge Officer for the NHS in England where she led the development and implementation of a strategy for NHS knowledge and library services – improving their quality, raising their profile, instigating research to demonstrate RoI, launching the CILIP accredited Knowledge for Healthcare Academy to better support LIS teams. Taking a leading role in the Topol Review on preparing healthcare staff for the digital future, Sue went on to instigate CILIP’s groundbreaking research on the impact of AI and machine learning on the information professions. Sue was honoured to receive the Walford Award from the CILIP K&IM Group in 2018, and the Cyril Barnard Memorial Prize from CILIP HLG in 2024.