A supplement to Update/Gazette from the CILIP NW Branch North West News, No. 45,
Registered Charity no. 313014
October 2013
nw news In this issue of nw news •
CILIP NW Branch and Career Development Group NW merger plan
•
Summer Reading Challenge Evaluation
•
Meet The Committee
CILIP NW Branch and Career Development Group: North West - Merger Plan A report from the CILIP NW Chair and CDG NW Chair. Your chance to let us know what you think As part of CILIP’s review of the way Branches and Groups work the NW Branch and Career Development Group North West are planning to merge and create a new CILIP North West Members Network. Branches and CDGs in South West and East of England have already merged successfully – and we want the North West to be next. The two committees have been working together for much of this year and with support from colleagues at CILIP HQ we have developed a paper that proposes the merger and outlines what the key benefits are and how the new organisation will work. Branches and CDG already have considerable overlap in terms of their learning and development programmes so a key benefit is to reduce duplication and streamline effort. We also plan to include the Mentor Support Officer and the Candidate Support Officer into the new structure so that much of the development offer in the NW is contained within the Network.
We see the goals of the new network as follows: 1: To be accountable to all CILIP North West Member Network members The Network’s Committee will act as the collective voice of all North West Network members ensuring their views on matters relating to CILIP, the Network and the wider profession are communicated to CILIP, other regional Networks and Special Interest Groups. 2: To provide members with learning opportunities in all parts of the North West a. To identify and meet the needs of members, providing support for members in their continuing professional development throughout their career b. To support those undertaking Professional Registration c. To provide an annual members’ day conference for the region which will encourage networking and easier access to professional development d. To ensure that learning opportunities are relevant, related to our Professional Knowledge and Skills Base and affordable to all members e. To provide the opportunities to visit libraries in the region f. To offer events that enhance networking opportunities in the region. 3: To develop communication programmes with members This is likely to include a newsletter, emails, and an optional participation list, where opportunities to participate in the group at a local level could be publicised. Social events may also contribute to this dialogue.
You can find the full proposal at http:// www.cilip.org.uk/north-west-branch/about/northwest-members-network-information This is your chance to have your say – let us know what you think of the proposals especially if there is anything else you think the new Network should be doing for you.
We would like to have comments by Friday 1st November 2013 David Stewart CILIP NW Branch Chair Sally Shaw Career Development Group – NW Chair
Please send your views to david.stewart@nhs.net
Laura, Library Assistant at Crewe Library reflects on the success of the 2013 Summer Reading Challenge at her library We’ve had a very successful Summer Reading Challenge at Crewe Library this year, with a big increase on 2012 in numbers of children joining and finishing. A total of 673 children joined and
350
have finished, compared to
joining and 195 finishing last year.
Creepy House
was a welcome return to
form, with the fantastic Chris Riddell as illustrator. It seems that children relish anything slightly scary or gross, and ghouls, ghosts and man eating plants really hit the spot. The theme is not only clear and well presented, it’s also easier to create displays and plan events. There’s plenty of creepy stuff left over from Halloween displays that can be reused and all sorts of creepy storytelling, face painting and crafts to put on and create. Another thing that we thought may have contributed to our success is the position of our main display and membership table. Instead of tucking this away in the junior area which is around the corner from the main pod, we placed it next to the pod and the ‘reservations waiting to collect’ shelf. This made it very visible to anyone walking in and allowed staff on the pod to keep an eye on it so that customers were not kept waiting and could be shown the resources whilst making other enquiries. We were also lucky enough to have help with our display from
The Summer Reading Challenge
over
I think this may be due to several factors. The most important is the Challenge’s theme, which I feel is more focused and interesting this time. Last year’s Story Lab was a bit vague with no overriding style. Circus Stars in 2011 was much easier as we could host circus skills workshops and children’s entertainers such as Crazy Colin.
454
a local artist and volunteer who created a beautiful ‘creepy house’ to hang above a book display and we were provided with spider covered fabric and banners which really made an impact. We
used
volunteers
several
Reading
Challenge
who provided invaluable support over a busy summer. Due to staff reductions and the size of Crewe Library, it can be difficult to find time to administer the Challenge and give prompt and detailed help to individual children. The volunteers took the pressure off library staff at key times of the day, over lunch hours for example and they were able to spend quality time talking to the children and keeping them
interested throughout the summer. They also helped shelve and keep tidy the vast number of children’s books that were being returned every day. They assisted staff with events, with all the photocopying and cutting out of resources and with data entry onto spreadsheets – a task made much easier if it’s completed as you go along. During the months leading up to the Challenge, in May and June in particular, we had a busy program of class visits from all the local primary schools. One school brought all their classes’ one after the other in one marathon day! The librarians were able to talk about the Challenge and show the children some of the things they could borrow and participate in over the summer. This reinforced the librarian’s visits to school assemblies where the invitations were handed out. Many schools sent letters home to parents asking them to help their children with the Summer Reading Challenge, and most of the children brought in completed membership forms with them on their class visit, enabling us to join them before the summer. I think it’s more likely they returned with parents or carers after receiving a library card on their visit and maybe taking one or two books out. We also invited
Cub groups
membership table. We got a few funny looks from passing library members wondering why library staff suddenly seemed to smell strongly of garlic, and there were a few wrinkled noses and concerned looks from parents having to put the stickers in their pockets or handbags! We gave out 673 packs with print outs etc but 277 children didn’t even come back for their first set of stickers. So although we ran short of joining packs, we’re left with hundreds of stickers and medals that we haven’t used and won’t really be able to reuse. One thing that was popular this year was the vouchers that each child received on joining the Challenge. We widened the scope of the voucher to include DVDs as well as talking books and this (predictably) made them more popular. Many more were redeemed than in previous years and it should have helped our audio visual issue
figures.
The award ceremonies went very well and were oversubscribed, resulting in us having to put on another two in the following week. Roll on next year’s Summer Reading Challenge!
for visits and all the children
attending the monthly Lego group were the first to join the Challenge just before its official launch. So with a combination of publicity, volunteer support and careful planning we were able to make
this
year’s
Challenge
an
overall
success with only a few relatively minor blips.
Like Crewe Library on Facebook
An extremely smelly problem, was the stickers that are handed out to the children as they read their six books. The company that produced them this year went a bit over the top with the scratch n’ sniff effect. There was definitely no need to scratch the stickers to smell them. We tried many things at Crewe, from keeping them wrapped in a bag on the windowsill in the work room, to covering them with an upturned ice cream tub on the
https://www.facebook.com/CreweLibrary
Meet The Committee
working in it.
This month it’s the turn of CILIP NW Committee Secretary, Andrew Taylor
Position on the Committee and for how long? Did you do something else on the committee before that?
Job Title & Place of work
I was appointed Secretary a few months ago, and prior to that I was a Committee Member.
Assistant Librarian, Faculty of Business and Law, Manchester Metropolitan University Where did you study? University of Manchester - BA (Hons) English Literature and German; MA Novel Writing Manchester Metropolitan University - MA Library and Information Management How long have you been in your current job? 18 months How did you get where you are today? After university, I applied to a number of (nonlibrary) graduate schemes and was offered a job in the audit department of a large accountancy firm. While I enjoyed many aspects of the job, such as travelling around the North West with a close-knit team, I didn’t see accountancy as the career for me, and I found myself considering other options. I applied to the library course at MMU, was accepted, and left accountancy to pursue librarianship. The course was great as it included a work placement, as well as giving me the opportunity to obtain paid work as a student shelver. I have since worked my way up within MMU from shelver to library assistant to my current job as Assistant Librarian. I’ve held this post for 18 months, during which time I’ve also completed my Chartership, and I’m extremely happy with my choice of career. Are you where you thought you'd be when you started in the profession? I knew I wanted to obtain a professional post and to complete my Chartership, both of which I’ve done. When starting out in the profession, I was struck by the number of potential career paths due to the range of job titles in several different sectors. I think I was fortunate that my first library job was in a university, as I really enjoy the HE sector, and hope to continue
What does that mean you actually do? Duties include writing up meeting agendas and taking minutes. I also recently travelled to CILIP HQ to represent the Committee at the debate and vote regarding the rebranding exercise. How do you feel being a member of Cilip NW Committee benefits you? Joining the CILIP NW Committee has given me a better understanding of the profession, and allowed me to meet people from different sectors and at different stages of their career. The CILIP NW Committee works very hard to ensure that its members are represented nationally and that they receive value for money through North West specific events, training and newsletters. Membership of the Committee also proved useful when compiling evidence of my engagement with the profession for my Chartership portfolio. Last book you read. While at university, I worked on the student newspaper as the Books Editor, and often reviewed two new books a week, as well as managing a team of writers, interviewing authors, and writing feature articles. (I spent more time working on the newspaper than I did on my studies!) As a result, I now mainly read new books. The last book I read was Seven Deadly Sins: My pursuit of Lance Armstrong by David Walsh about the author’s lengthy quest to prove that Lance Armstrong was a drugcheat. The book is a fantastic read, but as a longtime Armstrong fan, the recent revelations felt like finding out that Father Christmas didn’t exist all over again. I also read fiction, and I’ve just started the recently published novel Z: a novel by Zelda Fitzgerald by Therese Anne Fowler, a fictional autobiography of the wife of F. Scott Fitzgerald. I’m a huge fan of The Great Gatsby and I’ve read the book numerous times, and last summer I went to London to
see a play called Gatz – a unique eight-hour performance in which every word of the book is read onstage. My passion for Gatsby is wellknown amongst my friends and family, and I was recently gifted a CD recording of an operaversion of The Great Gatsby performed by the Metropolitan Opera in New York, which I loved! Book or eReader? Book. There is something magical about turning to page one of a brand new book. I own a Kindle, but never read novels on it. I mainly use it to read non-fiction books that I’m going to dip in and out of, such as Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell, or The Ode Less Travelled by Stephen Fry. I usually have a number of nonfiction books on the go at once, and my bedroom used to be cluttered by partly-read books, but now it’s just the one Kindle. Therefore, the main benefit of my Kindle has been tidiness. Favourite library? Oak Park Public Library in Chicago, which I discovered when staying with a friend who lives in the apartment block next door to it. Oak Park is a well-to-do suburb on the western outskirts of Chicago. It was the birthplace of Ernest Hemingway, who disparagingly described its residents as possessing “wide lawns and narrow minds”. Dozens of Oak Park homes were designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, and tourists wearing headsets wander the streets as they follow a taped architectural tour. Oak Park Public Library is housed in a modern threestorey building that is more than a match for the architectural prowess of its surroundings. There is a permanent Hemingway collection, monthly exhibits by local artists, and there are large sections dedicated to children and teens, which gives the place a real vitality. A recent addition to the library was the Idea Box – a small room in the lobby area that contains a themed display to reflect the local community. It changes every month, and when I last visited, it had transformed into Shake It, which consisted of a roped-off red carpet area outside the room, a shiny silver glitter ball dangling from the ceiling, and disco music! Dream job? LIS or other!! My dream job would be concierge in a luxury hotel. I love hotels, and I’m sure my information
retrieval skills would be transferable and help me to satisfy any request. I recently learnt of a boutique hotel in Times Square, New York called The Library Hotel, and I think this sounds like an ideal place to work. The themed hotel houses a collection of over 6,000 books organized according to the Dewey Decimal System, and each floor is dedicated to a major Dewey category. If I didn’t manage to get the concierge job, I would still like to book a stay at The Library Hotel and visit New York, but with rooms priced from £300, it would probably only be for one night!
A word from the Editor It has been a busy few months for the committee as the plans for merging with the Career Development Group North West progress. It is an exciting prospect and we would like to hear your views and ideas for what you want from your new committee. Watch out for the January issue for more information and as ever you can keep update at Twitter @CilipNW http://www.cilip.org.uk/about/branches/northwest-branch
If you have an exciting activity planned at your place of work or have attended an interesting event then please do get in touch and your article could appear in the next issue. Copy dates for next issue of NW News. Editorial Copy Deadline: 1st December 2013 Cover date: January 2014
Contact the editor: Jenny Norton Email: jenny.norton@cheshireeast.gov.uk Tel:
01625 374818