GIG Webinar Recordings Available

Professional Registration on the go: maximising your (and others') chances in Government Knowledge and Information Management (and other busy sectors). Webinar held by CILIP and its Government Information Group on 22 October 2025, chaired by Naeem Yar (Events Co-ordinator, CILIP GIG) and featuring Claire Laybats (Professional Services Development Manager, CILIP), Nicki Forgham-Healey (Principal Knowledge and Information Manager, Ministry of Defence) and Margaret Gair (Head of Library and Information Services, Scottish Government). View the video recording of the event here: https://youtu.be/uJOiLlslLp0

This panel webinar featured speakers with first hand knowledge of Professional Registration, including presenters working in Government Knowledge and Information Management (GKIM), providing practical advice on navigating the process successfully and supporting others to do the same, as well as taking questions. Although primarily aimed at current and potential future candidates working in GKIM and managers supporting them, the lessons shared will likely be transferrable to other sectors, particularly those with high working time demands.

Nicki Forgham-Healey: Nicki has been an information professional for over 20 years and has worked in a variety of sectors such as corporate, academic and she has spent 17 years working in the NHS. She is currently working as a Principal Knowledge and Information Manager in the Ministry of Defence, focusing on Knowledge Management. She has obtained both her Chartership (2007) and Fellowship (2021), and regularly undertakes revalidation. Nicki has been involved with CILIP both at regional and national level, holding a variety of committee roles. She is currently the Professional Registration Professional Officer (PRSOs) for the South west and chairs the national PRSO group. She regularly provides online training on a variety of professional registration courses, such as getting started and reflective writing.

Margaret Gair: Margaret has worked in the Civil Service throughout her career, starting as a librarian and then spending ten years as a knowledge manager in the Ministry of Defence, before returning to libraries in 2021 as Head of Library and Information Services at the Scottish Government. She is a Chartered librarian and CILIP Fellow, and is also a CILIP mentor for professional registration.

Chapters:

0:00 Introduction (Naeem Yar)

1:59 Professional Registration with CILIP (Claire Laybats)

16:55 Supporting staff with Professional Registration (Nicki Forgham-Healey)

32:27 Benefits of Professional Registration and tips for candidates (Margaret Gair)

46:04 Q&A

Preserving the past for the future: exploring the Welsh Government Publications Archive. Webinar held by CILIP Cymru Wales and Government Information Group on 13 May 2025, chaired by Jamie Finch (International Librarian, Cardiff Metropolitan University and Chair, CILIP Cymru) and featuring Siobhan McNally and Maria Nagle (Welsh Government Library). View the video recording of the event here: https://youtu.be/kC4u_W3dUXQ&t=2s

The Welsh Government Publications Archive provides access to items published by the Welsh Government, its predecessors and related Welsh public bodies throughout the period of devolution. It’s a real treasure trove of government information, hosting both born-digital and digitised material, as well as metadata for items held only in physical format. This webinar introduced the Welsh Government Publications Archive and outlined recent work undertaken to transform it to a more user-friendly, accessible and compliant government service.

Siobhan McNally has worked for the Welsh Government since 2004. Starting in the Programme Management Office, they transitioned to the library, becoming a librarian in 2012 while studying at Aberystwyth. Currently, they help administer the Library Management System and have contributed to the redevelopment of the Welsh Government Publications Archive.

Maria Nagle has worked in the Welsh Government for four years, most of these as Library Collections Manager. Her day-to-day work involves leading on cataloguing Welsh Government publications, collections management projects and LMS oversight. She currently lives in Swansea and has previously worked in public, academic and cathedral libraries.

Jamie Finch is the current Chair of CILIP Cymru Wales, advocating and celebrating libraries in Wales. He is proud to be a Chartered Fellow of CILIP with 28 years’ experience in the library and information sector, the last 16 years of which in higher and transnational education. Board member of CILIP, with strong professional interests in business information and global librarianship.

Chapters:

0:00 Welcome (Jamie Finch)

2:29 Introducing the Publications Archive (Siobhan McNally)

17:29 Upgrading the Publications Archive (Maria Nagle)

43:33 Q&A

What's it Really Like Working in Government Information in 2024? CILIP Government Info Group Webinar recorded on 3 October 2024, chaired by Naeem Yar (Information Professional / Librarian, Welsh Government), and featuring Tim Hayward (Lead FOI Business Partner, Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government), Martin Newman (Data Hub Manager, Historic England) and Belinda Carvalho and Robbie Lumsden (Digital Librarian and Research Librarian, Department for Work and Pensions). View the video recording of the event here: https://youtu.be/850ottZvNNw

Following GIG's successful "What's it Really Like Working in Government Information?" online event last year, one attendee suggested we could repeat it with new speakers. In this panel webinar, civil servants working in librarianship, information management and information rights roles talk about their work, explaining what they do, how their work fits in wider contexts, and experimenting with innovative approaches to tasks.

Tim Hayward outlines freedom of information legislation, discussing exemptions under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and routes to appeal decisions. He has worked in his current role for the last eight years and has a MLIB in Library & Information Studies from the University of Wales.

Martin Newman outlines how Historic England manages information, carries out analysis to inform policy and assists decision making, as well facilitating its use by others. Mr Newman's current role involves managing a team responsible for data analysis and delivering a Digital Strategy and Heritage Information Access Strategy.  

Chapters: 0:00 Introduction

1:30 Tim Hayward

19:11 Martin Newman

39:32 Belinda Carvalho and Robbie Lumsden

CILIP K&IM / GIG Webinar – AI waits for no-one. Webinar held by CILIP Knowledge & Information Group and Government Information Group on 23 April 2024 as part of CILIP K&IM's Artificial Intelligence webinar series, chaired by Sue Lacey Bryant (Chief Knowledge Officer, NHS England) and featuring Dr Andrew Cox (Senior Lecturer, Information School, University of Sheffield) and Dr Kelcey Swain (Senior Executive Officer, Cabinet Office). View the recording of the webinar here: https://youtu.be/kvNFpqXu1hI

Welcoming members from CILIP GIG and CILIP K&IM, our speakers open a window on current applications and developments in machine learning. Each gives a short presentation, exploring current themes to kick off wider discussion. What sorts of applications are being tested? What issues are arising? Where do they see the benefits and disbenefits? What is the impact on the KM workforce? What next?

After graduating from Aberystwyth with an MSc in Library Studies, Andrew Cox spent a number of years working in development projects around the use of ICT in library contexts, funded by EC, JISC and others. Andrew completed his PhD at Loughborough in 2006. Much of his research relates to the information professions and their response to contemporary trends such as artificial intelligence, datafication and managerialism.

Kelcey Swain is a creative technologies and digital humanities expert who works at the Cabinet Office where his expertise is applied to using cutting edge technologies to help manage the archive. His PhD from Durham is in electroacoustics and digital signal processing, and he has taught audio development and computer science at Bristol, and Keele Universities. His expertise include data science, GIS, digital storytelling, digital humanities, software development, sound art, sound engineering, and image processing. He has extensive experience working with numerous UKRI-funded projects to design websites, data interfaces, data collection, data management, developing machine learning processing, and creating a range of mapping and digital storytelling material as well as being a patented inventor of a tool for assisting music education in schools.

Chapters: 0:00 Sue Lacey Bryant

2:43 Andrew Cox

23:38 Kelcey Swain

 

What's it Really Like Working in Government Information? 18 May 2023.Government knowledge and information professionals often support impactful and high profile work, yet our own visibility is often lower. In this panel webinar recording four members of the CILIP Government Information Group's Committee who have worked in libraries and information and knowledge management inside and outside the Civil Service talk about their government information work, touching upon what it can offer you, the skills needed to move into the sector and answering your questions. (Video 56 mins 46 sec).

"From the depth of Education to the enforcement of Home Office ". 27 April 2023 - Karen Thwaites-Hughes.On Thursday 27 April 2023 Karen talked us through her journey into departmental knowledge management in the Department for Education. Employing the storytelling pyramid technique Karen demonstrates how this can be used for effective knowledge sharing and personal reflection. Along the way Karen considers some key questions: What is KM in government: how and where can we develop KM skills; how can we role out a KM strategy and start putting elements of KM in place? The video recording of this session is available (video, 35 mins 3 sec).WARNING! This video includes recollections from the Coronavirus Pandemic and Lockdown periods, with information that some viewers may find upsetting.

GIG Awards 2022 and AGM Event. At an online event on Thursday 1 December 2022, we presented the GIG Annual Award 2022 to the cross-government team who provided the refreshed GKIM Skills Framework, led by colleagues in the Department for Education. You can see the video recording of the presentation(video, 4 mins 13 sec). In two presentations we also heard more more about the Framework.

• “I wish I had had something like this at the start of my career”. Philip Humphries and Sam Gregory (both Department for Education, England) will demonstrate the newly refreshed GKIM Skills Framework and dynamic tool.Video recording (20 mins 1 sec)
• MOD Digital & Information Professionals – embedding the GKIM Framework -Karen Mitchell (Head of Digital & Information Professions Team, Ministry of Defence) will outline how the GKIM Skills Framework is embedded in to the work of the MOD Digital & Information Professions Team. Video recording (18 mins 6 sec).
  

No nominations for the GIG Lifetime Achievement Award were received in 2022.

• Opening the Doors - providing a view into government, agency and parliamentary information services in Wales, held jointly with CILIP Cymru Wales on 27 October 2022:
  • Session 1 -Helen Blockwell, Head of Library Services, Welsh Government provides an overview of the service and some thoughts on direction for the future. (Video, 16 minutes)
  • Session 2 - Jody Parker outlines her career pathway, and details her most recent role as an Information Architect (IA) at BEIS (Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy) working from their Cardiff office.(Video, 24.5 minutes. For data privacy reasons much of this video is pixelated. Jody as unable to display her slides and these have been interwoven, as static image shots, at appropriate points in the recording).
  • Session 3 - Information and Library Service at Natural Resources Wales. Dr Beth Hall outlines information services at NRW, the body which ensures that the natural resources of Wales are sustainably maintained, enhanced and used, for now and the future. This presentation was made in Welsh with simultaneous translation to English. Some of the slides are in Welsh. (Video, ca 15.5 minutes)
  • Session 4 - "GKIM Skills and Opportunities ". Emma Harvey-Woodason (Head of Libraries & Archives, Welsh Government) considers the routes and opportunities into a GKIM role, how to find out about vacancies, and to apply. (19 mins 40 sec)
  
  
  • New shoes and other taxonomy tales- 13 July 2020
  • Legislation.gov.uk - 17 December 2020
  • KM during the COVID pandemic - 17 March 2021
  • KM and culture - part 1 - 14 April 2021
  • KM and culture - part 2 - 12 May 2021
  • Web Archiving at the British Library: the UK Web Archive - 16 June 2021
  • How the Home Office uses stories to share knowledge - 14 July 2021
  • The Triple "A " Model of Knowledge Management at the National Lottery Community Fund - 11 November 2021