By Marlène Rak, Subject Support Librarian at the University of the West of England.

Professional Registration with CILIP provides you with the opportunity to demonstrate your abilities, knowledge and experience. Here Marlène Rak shares her top tips on how to make your own Chartership, Fellowship or Certification journey as straightforward as possible.

I HAVE been asked a lot of questions on Chartership since getting started in 2022. Gaining Chartership status at the end of 2023 has brought in even more queries from colleagues, at work and beyond. How was it? How long did it take? Was it worth it? Can you mentor me? And so on.

I understand how daunting the process may feel; nevertheless, remember that – as with many other things in life – the hardest part is getting started. There is plenty information available out there and, being an information professional, you are already well-versed in the skills of planning, recording, reviewing, and reflecting (these are key to making your chartership experience a successful one). To help you navigate your way through professional registration, I have compiled a Top Ten Tips to Professional Registration:

1. Make use of CILIP’s online resources

CILIP’s online Professional Registration guide (www.cilip.org.uk/ProfessionalRegistration) is the obvious place to start; this is where you will find information on getting enrolled, finding a mentor, developing your evidence, assembling your portfolio and submitting it. There is more to it, though. Once enrolled, you will be added to the Professional Registration Candidates’ Member Group and gain access to invaluable resources such as example submissions and recorded webinars.

2. The power of the PKSB

The Professional Knowledge and Skills Base (PKSB) is a fantastic tool that you will want to refer to throughout your chartership journey, if not your whole career. It is a living document that grows with you, highlighting the areas of skills and expertise most relevant to the library and information sector. CILIP recommends that you focus on 10-12 areas of your choice for Chartership. Depending on your experience and the sector you are working in, some areas will be more relevant to you than others. But here is the beauty of the PKSB: this tool is yours and yours only. You can, for ¬example, choose to work within areas you are already comfortable with; or you may wish to dip your toes into the ones that are new to you. Having this visual reference at hand will assist you, as you progress through professional registration. You never know where these blue slices may take you next! Find it at www.cilip.org.uk/PKSB

3. Find a mentor

Having a CILIP mentor to support you along the way isn’t a requirement. However, I cannot stress enough how much of a difference it will make to your Professional Registration experience. A good mentor will be there for you when things get tougher; I certainly wouldn’t have gotten that far without mine (thank you, Nicki!). Getting chartered is a big undertaking. You will treasure having that critical friend at your side, holding a safe space for you to make mistakes and learn from.

4. Get involved

Getting chartered represents a unique chance to explore and experiment (see Tip #2); you now have a very valid excuse to network beyond your department or institution, so make the most of it. Reach out to those whose work is not dissimilar, yet may vary hugely from your own; schedule visits to libraries of interest (and remember that virtual visits do count too; check CILIP’s Events page for more inspiration), go to conferences, write a guest blog post about your experience as a new professional, volunteer with one of CILIP’s regional or special interest groups… The sky is the limit! Acquaint yourself with professional positions you may have not even known existed; this is how you will gain a broader understanding of where your role sits within the wide and varied information sphere and meet criterion three.

Find events to support your CPD here.

5. Reflect

Keep a record of what you have been engaging with at work and see how you can translate it into additional skills and knowledge for your PKSB. Take notes at meetings, during courses, CPD events, etc., and reflect on it. Think about your last teaching session, or a departmental event on customer experience. How did you find it? What went well? What is this telling you? What would you do differently next time? Asking yourself these questions, learning from your experiences, and going beyond is what constitutes the backbone of your evidence.

6. Do a little, often

Blocking time in your calendar, and using it to work on your portfolio, will help you build a routine.

If you do not have a whole, uninterrupted hour per week to dedicate to Chartership, you may find that short but focused bursts of 15-20 minutes, three to four times a week, can be as effective. There was a period of three months where I was unable to make any progress on my portfolio, due to a heavy teaching load which took priority over everything else. Nevertheless, once this was over, I designed an ‘Action Plan’ for the following 30 days. I then scheduled a meeting with my mentor, where I talked her through my plan, making myself accountable to moving forward again.

This to-do list was jam-packed with bite-sized steps, each of them achievable in 20 minutes or under. Ticking them off one after the other, throughout the month, made me regain confidence in my abilities to complete the task at hand.

7. Ask, ask, ask

When unsure, just ask. Your colleagues are never far away and CILIP is here to help you too. Similarly, reaching out to ‘strangers’ in the profession has never been easier than in the age of social media. People can be very generous with their time; they will want to support you in this journey however they can, so do get in touch with those further afield and make things happen for yourself (also see Tip #4 on Getting Involved).

8. It is never too late to start; nor is it ever too early

There is no right or wrong time to get started with Chartership. Some will want to gain a bit of experience before diving into it, whilst others may have already been in the profession for many years before feeling up to the challenge. Personally, I enrolled just before starting my first professional position. I made Chartership a goal to attain within my first 24 months as a librarian; to keep me focused and engaged, regardless of what being a new professional might have thrown at me. It does tie in with what Chartership means to you too (see Tip #9). Trust your instincts: if you are thinking about it, now is probably the right time.

9. Remember the bigger picture

It may be valuable to ask yourself what your motivations are. What are you hoping to get out of it? A sense of achievement, recognition amongst peers, or perhaps a pay increase? There is no right or wrong answer to this question; in fact, it could very much depend on where you are in your career, or what your professional context is. However, it is always useful to remind yourself of your objectives, and to keep them in sight.

10. Enjoy the process!

This is your journey. It is unique to you and has the power to take you places you hadn’t even imagined before. Looking back at how your skills and interests have developed during this time, you will gauge the many positive results it has had on your professional and personal growth, and value it dearly.

Find out how you can start your own professional registration journey here.