CILIP Revalidation

Annual Revalidation of CILIP professional registrations (Certification, Chartership and Fellowship)  will become obligatory from January 2016.  The process is free and requires online submission of a log that accounts for at least 20 hours professional development in the year, together with a short reflective statement. Why wait until 2016? Why not start the process now?

I can see a number of advantages to undertaking Revalidation early.

1. Beat the rush, and in doing so choose your own Revalidation year. I'm guessing lots of us will be working to a calendar year, but is that the most convenient for you? Academic librarians may choose to revalidate over an  academic year, with submission perhaps planned over the summer vacation. Let the choice be yours!
2. If you submit prior to January 2016 then there is strong likelihood that your submission will be appraised. You will received valued and often very complementary feedback from staff in CILIP. This will give you confidence for future years, and may assist you in supporting your colleagues in their revalidation processes. Once Revalidation becomes obligatory then only a small sample of submissions will be monitored and appraised. So if you leave submission until 2016 then you may not get this personal touch of feedback.
3. Early Revalidation is one further demonstration that you are a committed, enthusiastic and conscientious professional - someone who takes their personal development seriously. In the current turbulent job market this may serve you well and may just be the factor that places you above other candidates.
4. In starting to plan for your Revalidation you will discover if you understand the submission protocols, if you have accrued the 20+ hours for the year, and if you can craft a reflective statement that cuts the mustard. The reflective statement is, for me at least, the most challenging aspect of the process. Reflective writing doesn't come easy; it's definitely a skill to practice and develop. An early start will take the pressure off you if you discover inadequacies in any areas. You will have time to seek help, to take further training, or to develop your reflective writing skills .
5. If you have a development plan through you work then do use this in your Revalidation. This plan, or the discussion that went in to formulating it, will prove useful in providing an a priori statement of your identified development needs. If your work-based development plan doesn't meet this purpose then use the PKSB (Professional Knowledge and Skills Base), or similar framework, to map out a formal evaluation of your training and development needs. Updating this annually will help you to identify your development needs, and so spot, plan for, or create the development opportunities that meet these needs. It will serve you well, in providing you with a more structured approach to your CPD.

In the last week I have received the fantastic news that my Revalidation submission has been approved. And so I have a promise to fulfil: sharing my reflective statement more widely! I'm sure this isn't a top notch example, but at least it may inspire and provide confidence to some of you in that challenging task of turning a year's worth of learning and development in to a 250 word reflective statement. I hope that this assists and possibly inspires some of you!

Evaluative statement 2014

Personal performance

Marketing and customer focus were identified priorities for development in 2014 - needs associated with new responsibilities delivering the Ministerial Decisions (MD) upload into the Library Management System, promotion of the Welsh Government (WG) Publications Catalogue (PC), and introducing a new corporate legal information subscription. Presentations at CILIP Cymru Conference and CLIC successfully marketed the PC to stakeholders and receive their feedback.  I  also developed effective dialogue with legal information service users: increasing training attendance, provide feedback to the product provider, and creating FAQs. These raised the profile of the Library Service but evidence for this was diffuse. On reflection upfront marketing plans with planned measures of success, would have been helpful.

Organisational context

The delayed delivery of the MDs demonstrates  the need for project management (PM) for on-time delivery of information, especially where progress is dependent on others within WG. PM would have provided greater importance, a strict timeline, better resource allocation, and exception reporting / intervention mechanisms. I have learned that PM not only supports delivery through its structured framework, but comes with a perceived organisational kudos.

Wider professional context

GIG Committee work provided me with greater awareness of challenges more broadly within the government sector, especially shared service developments. Event attendance, together with professional reading, have provided wider understanding of professional issues from other sectors (e.g. Public and education sector libraries).

CILIP - Crisis in engagement?

This year's CILIP AGM was held in the new Library of Birmingham, on a Saturday. It was disappointing to note, therefore, that attendance was only marginally more that that for last year's AGM  held in Newcastle upon Tyne. Given the excitement generated by two controversial agenda items, does this continue to signal low levels of professional engagement by the membership?

John Dolan, Phil Bradley and Annie Maguer (all seated). The AGM commences.

In a professional membership association of more than 14000 members, isn't it alarming that only ca. 170 members  (<1.5%) attended the Annual General Meeting? (1).  Are we such an apathetic bunch that the lures of a new public library that  has received considerable media interest, and the excitement of votes on new name for the Association and of no confidence in the Minister for libraries in England, Ed Vaizey, that a trip to Birmingham is too difficult? Perhaps the costs of travel / accommodation, pressures of time, family or working commitments prevail? OK, so be it. But, if that is the case why did so few members register their proxy votes?

Fewer than 900 members registered their proxy votes, meaning that active engagement in voting at this year's AGM (those, in attendance, plus those voting by proxy) was barely over 1/14th  or 7% of membership. This is significantly below levels of participation experienced in UK general or local elections (2010 General Election turnout 65.1%. In local elections turnout is generally lower ca. 30% upwards (e.g. see 2013 Local Election results ).  Some time, and the price of a stamp, surely is warranted for full engagement in your professional membership association?

Of course failure to attend the AGM in person, or to register a proxy vote, might not always signal a member's apathy. A member may be ambivalent about the name change, or assume that a vote of no confidence in Ed Vaizey, was deserved and guaranteed. However, I find these arguments to be weak. "Information and Library Professionals UK" (with the dreaded acronym ILPUK),  is surely little improvement on our current CILIP, which at least recognises that we are a chartered body, and is not fraught with problems if, in 2014, Scotland votes for independence, and the UK is no more. Further, is a vote of no confidence in Ed Vaizey really such a good move? Won't this sour the future possibilities of helpful dialogue between CILIP and the Minister? Is a vote of no confidence, in this instance, a bit of a "toothless animal", with little prospect of positive impact or assistance? Yes, a vote may win us a few friends, but will our collective clout be any greater for this? I suspect not.

However, where CILIP has failed is in enabling more members to easily participate in this important democratic exercise, in moving with the times and investing in online or telephone voting. In an age of social media, online collaboration and remote working,  it is clearly time for CILIP to take the apathy and engagement bull by the horns, and enable all to exercise their association's democratic functions by using new technologies. If online and telephone voting were introduced should we then be looking to move to compulsory voting? But that's a whole new can of worms!

Footnote 1. It was also interesting to consider the age profile of those attending the AGM. As one colleague said to me, sotto voce, "CILIP needs to recruit some younger members - just look around you". Thank heavens then, that this AGM approved free student membership from 2014. We must all work hard to enthuse and retain these cohorts of student members. They are the future of our profession, and of our professional association.