Tom Roper's Weblog

Tweets at #CILIP2014

After posting the raw data of the tweet archive yesterday, I’ve used the visualisation tool developed by Martin Hawksey to put together a dynamic view of tweets using the #CILIP2014 hashtag. It updates every two hours. See it at: http://tomroper.me/1db0Qji

They're off!

Ballot papers go out today for the election of CILIP councillors for 2014. Last night I and the other five candidates took part in a hustings event at CILIP headquarters in London. It was a curious experience — we knew that the sound and moving pictures were being transmitted to thousands in their homes, but the Charter Suite held only the six candidates, the President Phil Bradley who chaired the discussion, three real CILIP members, and the audio-visual team and CILP staff, without whom none of our maunderings would have reached the outside world.

Inevitably I think of things I could have said better, and I wish I had more control over my hands. The one moment of l’esprit de l’escalier I’ll permit myself is to say that I think what is wrong with the relationship between Council and CILIP members is summed up in remarks by Andy Dawson and John Dolan, both members of Council standing for re-election. Andy says that he was against the motion of no confidence in Ed Vaizey passed at last month’s AGM .  No one would have known this at the meeting, as he, along with the rest of council kept quiet. Later, John Dolan says this was because Council had taken a collective decision not to intervene in the debate. This seems to me at best discourteous to the meeting, at worst dishonest. if I go to a meeting, I do so believing that I owe it to the meeting to speak out if I have something to say and that’s the way I’ll behave on Council if elected. Council seemed think that the meeting and the motion didn’t matter enough for any of them to be bothered to say anything. After the meeting, they feel able to say, ‘of course, I didn't agree with the resolution’.  They have no right to do so, if they didn’t have the courage to put their view in the meeting. In truth, I think the reason Council didn’t speak out is that they were split and could not agree. 

Here’s the video of the event, all two hours of it. See also the CILIP page on how to vote in the elections, which gives the timetable

 I’ve created an archive of the tweets in a Google spreadsheet

Update: I've now replaced the video with an edited one from CILIP's YouTube channel.

Trafalgar Day, and my parents' wedding anniversary

Runners and riders

 It being Cesarewitch day (try an each way bet on Chiberta King, by the way) here are the runners and riders for the CILIP Council election. No one stood for Vice-President, which is a poor show, though perhaps a recognition that the post, and the President's, seem to lack power at the moment. But at least there's an election; the other eight seats on Council are filled by people who didn't have to fight an election to get there, which may have something to do with the mess we're in. 

Who might these candidates be? They are:

Andy Dawson (already a member of Council, standing again)
John Dolan (also standing again)
Karen McFarlane
David McMenemy
Tom Roper (who he? -Ed)
David Stewart 

David McMenemy and I have similar ideas about the direction CILIP needs to take, one of democracy, openness and campaigning. If you're thinking of voting for me, I'd strongly urge you to vote for David too. 

The key dates are:

Hustings: 6 pm at CILIP,  24 October 2013 (these will be video-cast live)
Voting papers sent out: 25 October 2013
Closing date for return of ballot papers or voting online: 25 November 2013 (5pm)
Declaration of results: 26/7 November 2013

 

My election address

I submitted my nomination today, proposed by Gary Birkenhead, Roger Farbey, Veronica Fraser, David McMenemy, Donald MacKay,  Rónán O’Beirne and Lauren Smith, though only five of those names will appear on the official literature.

This remarkably handsome photograph accompanies it, together with the following text

I ask for your vote in the 2013 elections to Council because I think CILIP needs to change. To survive, I believe we need to be more open, democratic and active. The biggest problem we face is a catastrophic loss of members. No demographic excuses can explain away the figures: we only have 13,500 members, or thereabouts. Doing something about that has to be the very first priority for Council. We have wasted too much time and too many resources on peripheral vanity projects.

One of our central professional beliefs is that information should be freely available. But we practice this at best half-heartedly in our own affairs. Where is the report, for example, of the Governance Review? You will look for it in vain on the website, though it reported to Council in March.

Campaigners for libraries, chiefly but not exclusively public libraries, are disappointed in us. They expect us to play a part in defending services against a succession of philistine governments. We need to put that right. The vote of no confidence in Ed Vaizey at the AGM was a start. We should not waste it.

If we return to performing the key functions of a professional association, and couple that with an intensive campaign to recruit and retain, then we have a chance. If we carry on as we have for the past few years, the decline will continue, to the point of extinction. I’m not so arrogant to believe that I can solve our problems on my own; but I do believe that, if you vote for me and for like-minded candidates, and if you involve yourselves in the affairs of the Institute, then we can put CILIP back on course. I blog at http://www.roper.org.uk and will be posting during the election period.

I was also asked to submit a note of my career and experience, which reads as follows:

I am currently Clinical Librarian at Brighton and Sussex NHS Library and Knowledge Service, bringing evidence, and training in the use and appraisal of that evidence, into five clinical departments. In the course of thirty-five years in the profession I have spent the majority of my time in the areas of health, medicine and veterinary medicine but I have also worked in public and further and higher education libraries as well as in the private sector and for the British Council. I have been a member of CILIP since its foundation, and before that of both the Library Association and the Institute of Information Scientists. I have held office in groups and branches, notably as Chair of the Health Libraries Group and of CILIP’s Health Strategy Group. I have also been Chair of the Animal Health Information Specialists (UK & Ireland) and the European Veterinary Librarians Group. I am a member of the Voices for the Library, a founder and life member of the Library Campaign and an active member of Unison.

What next? We will know soon if more than four nominations have been received, in which case an election will be necessary. There are to be hustings on Thursday 24 October at CILIP, time to be announced, but in the evening, 

Alea iacta est

There's a gibbet in Ridgmount Street, and from it hang the bodies of people who stood for election in CILIP, promising to change the organisation. It's an awful warning, but in spite of that, I am putting myself forward for Council. I don't do so believing that I can do any better; but I do think that the members, if they're prepared to assert themselves as they did at the AGM last month, can bring about some real change of direction. 

I'm writing my election address. In it I will make the following points:

1. The biggest problem we face is our catastrophic loss of members. No demographic excuses can explain away the fact that an organisation that could once claim nigh on 25,000 members has been reduced to 13,500 or thereabouts. Doing something about that, not rebranding, has to be the very first priority for Council.

2. One of our central professional beliefs is that information should be freely available. But we practice this only half-heartedly when it comes to our own affairs. Where is the report of the Governance Review? Council know what it says. Why have they not shared it with us?

3. Campaigners for libraries, chiefly but not exclusively public libraries, are disappointed in us. They expect us to play a part in defending services against a succession of philistine governments. We need to put that right. The vote of no confidence in Ed Vaizey at the AGM was a start. We should not waste it. 

If we return to performing the key functions of a professional association, and couple that with an intensive campaign to recruit, then we have a chance. If we carry on as we have for the past few years, the decline will continue, to the point of extinction.