Reflections on CILIP Conference 2020 Reimagined - by Foteini Karagianni
Foteini Karagianni is currently working as an Assistant Librarian for Science and Technology Facilities Council and volunteers as the blog editor of CILIP GIG. She can be contacted at: foteini.karagianni@stfc.ac.uk.
Most part of our life has moved online this year and the CILIP Conference 2020 could not be an exception as it took place entirely on a virtual platform. It is remarkable how the pandemic has forced us to do things differently and adapt to change within a short period of time. Libraries have managed to respond to the changing environment and the users' new habits quickly and effectively. It was satisfying to listen to stories from international colleagues (India, Africa, Germany, and The Netherlands) on how their services have been working due to lockdown enforcements. Unsurprisingly, the pattern seems to be the same for everyone: business has moved online - and, most probably, it is going to stay there. Librarians have been seeking innovative ways to tackle issues brought by the pandemic and the subsequent closure of their physical spaces, e.g. an information service desk on Twitter and online videos on Facebook and YouTube are now a reality for libraries in Germany.
On the other hand, someone cannot help wonder what this
will mean for libraries. There have been significant investments on buildings
and infrastructure to highlight and strengthen the
use of libraries as
a community hub, a place to meet and interact, a safe spot to read, learn, work and
to feel (perhaps) less lonely. If online is here to stay, what are
our spaces going to be? How social distancing, technology, unavoidable budget
cuts and social problems will
affect us?
No matter where from and how our users will
connect, however, librarians will always
be there as facilitators of knowledge. The current situation proved that the
library profession has the ability to be
flexible, creative, willing to learn and passionate to serve and help. The
future will be challenging for the information professionals. As the demand for
online and digitised services will grow, digital skills will be a prerequisite and
outreach on social media platforms will not be just an
option anymore. In the new reality that is
being formed, the skills, values and ethics of our profession can be the
catalyst to change. Reflective practitioners, who keep learning and sharing
knowledge, will have
the ability to keep the profession strong, to defend and champion it. And as
a result, to make
themselves, the profession and the organisations they work for more resilient.
KM professionals know this more than anyone in the information world. As most
of them are employed in the corporate sector and
for-profit organisations, they are constantly required to
stay alert and prove the worth of their service to stakeholders. There
is always a bigger demand
for "value for money" in
business. It is my personal belief that we
should not take ourselves and our place for granted no matter where we are
employed. We should fight for what we believe and achieve, show credibility,
measure our impact and value, demonstrate not outputs, but how
we contribute solving big problems (outcomes).
One of these big issues that libraries
are called to work on is climate change. Can libraries
be advocates for and practitioners of sustainability? What is the role of
librarianship in a Green Economy? We have to commit to environmental values ourselves in
order to guide our
community down the
sustainability path. Once more literacy is one way
to go forward. Open access to reliable and up-to-date environmental information
even for our very young
readers is the best way to answer questions, educate and fight fake news.
"Green library is not only a green office in a green building"1. If we want
our services to work towards sustainability, we must have measurable criteria
and a plan as guidance. Perhaps we should redefine our physical spaces and how
we interact with our users, like going outside
and finding ways to aid a healthy
and resilient community. A study has recently revealed that
the most effective way to pollinator conservation would most likely be to
engage, inspire and empower people to help pollinators and
to take responsibility for their local environment, e.g. through
education and community projects involving the public in managing public parks2. Could
libraries not assist such activities? Libraries certainly do
not act independently. They are connected to society and their community
with an umbilical cord and
as a result cooperation and negotiation are of vital importance. If
we make sustainability a primary goal and start working towards
it, we can show funders where their money goes and enhance our role.
We can be activists in a world of social and
economic inequality, where a big portion of the
population still has not access to the Internet
and authoritative sources of information. This has never been more evident and
demanding than during this pandemic - misinformation about COVID-19 has been
soaring, yet not everyone has the literacy skills
and/or the material means to get hold of quality information, evaluate it and
apply it properly. Information
poverty has a direct impact on society and its resilience.
When this pandemic is over,
the "new normal" will find us changed. I want to hope that this will
be for the best. Change is not negative;
one can learn from adversity,
identify weaknesses and cultivate strengths. So, in an environment that becomes
more difficult over
time, our library services will have to face and overcome obstacles, like low
budgets, closure of buildings, dismissal of staff. I do not know if libraries
will be sanctuaries of knowledge in 100 years3, but I do know that we have the obligation to
remain socially responsible, keepers of the rights to education, intellectual
freedom and privacy, shelters of diversity and democracy,
guardians of knowledge. It is not going to be an easy fight, but resilience is
in the information professionals' DNA after all.
Footnotes:
[1] Harri Sahavitra - Public libraries as environmentally
responsible actors (conference presentation)
[2] J Knapp et al (2020) - Socio‐psychological factors, beyond
knowledge, predict people’s engagement in pollinator conservation https://doi.org/10.1002/pan3.10168
[3] Richard Ovenden - Keeping stuff (and keeping us) safe: the
preservation of knowledge as a service to society (conference presentation)
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