We are the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals in Scotland, and believe that libraries and quality information are essential in Scotland, now more than ever. Our vision is of a nation where the vital value of library and information professionals is recognised everywhere, and where our members are empowered to continue developing their innovative skills and knowledge.
Join the CILIP Scotland team as we invite guests and discuss topics surrounding the Library and information sector. As our members lie at the heart of what we do, we want to delve into the topics that matter to you, and provide guidance and support- with a lot of fun too!
The team consists of Sean McNamara (Head of CILIPS), Kirsten MacQuarrie (Membership Officer for CILIPS), and Leah Higgins (CILIPS Graduate Trainee).
Thanks for tuning in! If you'd like to get in touch to be a guest, or to suggest a topic for the team to discuss, please email admin@cilips.org.uk.
Découvrez des podcasts liées à CILIP Scotland Podcast. Explorez des podcasts avec des thèmes, sujets, et formats similaires. Ces similarités sont calculées grâce à des données tangibles, pas d'extrapolations !
CILIP Scotland Podcast Episode 6: Libraries Change Lives & NES Knowledge Services- The Knowledge Network redesign
Saison 1 · Épisode 6
mercredi 21 août 2024 • Durée 29:52
The newest episode of the CILIP Scotland Podcast brings you a reflective episode, as we explore what libraries mean to us as a complement to CILIP’s Libraries Change Lives Week, hear about NHS for Scotland’s Knowledge Network Redesign, and take a closer look at what changes might take place for library services given the change in government post-election.
CILIP Scotland Director Sean McNamara talks the audience through the new political landscape which library and information services are faced with, explaining the practical implications and what changes we might expect in the coming years. Following this, your hosts Kirsten, Sean and Leah reflect on how the role of libraries in their lives have personally and professionally changed them. We welcome special guests in the form of our CILIP colleagues Chief Development Officer Jo Cornish, and Chief Executive Officer Louis Coiffait-Gunn, to share how libraries have supported them in their journey to where they are now, leading the UK’s library sector body.
In a similarly reflective tone, we also welcome Donna Watson, Knowledge Manager for Knowledge Services at NHS Education for Scotland. Donna shares the experience of her team in redesigning The Knowledge Network website. Explaining what user testing looked like, what the reception of the new website has been, and what tips the team would share for anyone else taking on a similar project.
With special thanks to our special contributors, Donna Watson & the team at NES Knowledge Services, Jo Cornish and Louis Coiffait-Gunn!
Thanks for tuning in! If you'd like to get in touch to be a guest, or to suggest a topic for the team to discuss, please email admin@cilips.org.uk.
CILIPS X SNPC Podcast Takeover: Reflections on entering the library and information sector as a new professional
Saison 1 · Épisode 5
mercredi 10 juillet 2024 • Durée 27:40
Welcome to the very first CILIP Scotland Podcast takeover, featuring the CILIPS Students and New Professionals Community! Taking the reins in the podcast studio for the first time, Chaeli, Matthew and Filipa were keen to share with the audience their reflections on starting their professional career in the Library and Information sector post-graduation.
Defacto host for the episode Chaeli Brown is currently an Information Scientist at ThinkAnalytics. Matthew Ferrie has entered into his first role as Information Assistant at the Craiglockhart Library at Edinburgh Napier University. Both Matthew and Chaeli are Events Coordinators for the SNPC, having ran events such as an interview tips event with Falkirk Libraries, and library tour with Royal College of Physicians & Surgeons and Glasgow Women’s Library alongside the CILIPS Local Studies group LocScot. Filipa Pedroso is currently spending her time post-graduation in School Libraries as a Graduate Library Assistant in London. She is the former Social Media Coordinator for SNPC.
All three are experiencing very different fields of library work, and in this conversation they bring out the parallels of their work (namely frustration with printers), and how they’ve translated the skills and knowledge gathered through their degrees to practical applications and people skills.
If you’d like to find out more about SNPC, you can find them on Instagram: @cilips_snpc Twitter/X: @CILIPS_SNPC, or by emailing: snpc@cilips.org.uk. Thank you to Chaeli, Matthew and Filipa for their contribution to the episode!
Thanks for tuning in! If you'd like to get in touch to be a guest, or to suggest a topic for the team to discuss, please email admin@cilips.org.uk.
Scotland's Library Advocacy Story: Part Two
Saison 1 · Épisode 4
vendredi 22 mars 2024 • Durée 40:15
Part two of Scotland’s Library Advocacy Story continues on CILIP Scotland's journey to mobilise and support librarians, information professionals and the communities they serve to best advocate for their vital library services.
We began by introducing the Save Aberdeen Library Campaigners behind the fight to save six libraries and a swimming pool from closure in 2023. Laurie Anne Mackay and Hayden Lorimer began by introducing themselves and how they became involved in the campaign in Aberdeen, so go back and listen to part one if you haven’t already!
Another key character in this story is Mike Dailly, Principal Solicitor and Solicitor Advocate at Glasgow’s Govan Law Centre. In the previous episode, Mike shared his love of libraries and why he feels it’s important that legal protections come into play to support libraries to thrive as crucial community infrastructure. He began to tell us how he became involved with the Save Aberdeen Libraries Campaign, and clearly outlines the legal framework that can support communities and campaigners in their efforts.
With many thanks to Hayden, Laurie and Mike, as well as those involved in the Save Aberdeen Libraries Campaign and Govan Law Centre.
Don’t forget to subscribe!
Thanks for tuning in! If you'd like to get in touch to be a guest, or to suggest a topic for the team to discuss, please email admin@cilips.org.uk.
Follow on our socials too, where you can find updates, petitions and advocacy support for Scotland’s Libraries:
In 2024 alone, Scotland's public libraries have been considered low hanging fruit for cuts and closures in too many local authority budgets. It has become essential that librarians and communities are empowered and given a solid foundation to advocate for their vital and vibrant library services.
In part one of Scotland's Library Advocacy Story, the CILIP Scotland team outlined the funding landscape for Scotland's public libraries, deepening understanding of how the current funding model is proving increasingly insufficient to deliver all that libraries and their communities deserve.
Taking the incredibly powerful Save Aberdeen Libraries Campaign as a case study for how community groups can be mobilised to research, advocate and champion libraries when faced with closures, we interviewed Hayden Lorimer and Laurie Anne Mackay from the campaign group. What resulted was an incredibly thorough overview of each step, including their reflections and recommendations for future campaigners. We also spoke to Mike Dailly, Principal Solicitor and Solicitor Advocate at Glasgow's Govan Law Centre. Mike has a long history of social justice work and assisted campaigners in this case to levy legal battles against Aberdeen City Council. As a library lover himself, Mike was keen to add his voice to this project and outline the legal frameworks at play, and what communities can do to support community spaces.
There was so much to uncover and hear from our three contributors that we had to split this podcast into two parts! Scotland’s Library Advocacy Story Part Two is live now!
Don’t forget to Subscribe!
Thanks for tuning in! If you'd like to get in touch to be a guest, or to suggest a topic for the team to discuss, please email admin@cilips.org.uk.
Follow us on our socials too, where you can find updates, petitions and advocacy support for Scotland’s Libraries:
CILIP Scotland Podcast Episode 2: Green Libraries & REVEAL Advocacy
lundi 6 novembre 2023 • Durée 21:51
Join the CILIP Scotland team, Sean, Kirsten and Leah, as we take you through the Library advocacy highlights happening across the sector in Scotland. Interviewing the people who are making the change!
We recapped and recycled content from our inspiring Green Libraries Gathering, which included hearing from the National Library of Scotland, Scottish Book Trust and Paper Boats Collective.
Additionally, we asked two CILIPS Grant fund Recipients, namely School Librarian Donna Baird, and Dr David McMenemy to share their tips and encouragement for anyone considering applying for funding in the future.
Thanks for tuning in! If you'd like to get in touch to be a guest, or to suggest a topic for the team to discuss, please email admin@cilips.org.uk.
Join the CILIP Scotland team for the first-ever CILIPS Podcast! The team (Sean, Kirsten and Leah) interview guest Jimi Mitchell from the Sir Alex Ferguson Library in their in-house podcast studio. We ask Jimi about all things new professional, his experience of the #CILIPS23 Conference and being nominated for Scotland's Library and Information Professional of the Year 2023.
Helping community climate action and understanding to grow, libraries across all parts of the sector- and country!- have carried out some incredibly innovative and important work. We start with contributions from our Green Libraries Scotland grant fund holders from 2024, and hear all about the CILIPS Research fund project Carbon Literacy for Libraries shareable course from the National Library of Scotland. And more!
We end the episode with a discussion about the future of libraries, what we know can grow in the future and what is at stake if we don’t receive proper and sustained funding. It is a true call to action to politicians and decision makers to advocate and protect libraries, as climate action is just one of many exceptionally important strands which libraries water into their communities to help them grow.
With special thanks to Julie Corcoran & Imogen Furlong from High Life Highland, Gillian Hunt from North Lanarkshire Libraries, Laragh Quinney & Julie Bon from the National Library of Scotland, Christina Riley from the Nature Library and Annika Norrvik from Glasgow Women's Library for playing a part in this story!
Sustainability and climate action has been taking root across libraries in Scotland for many years now and we wanted to dig a little deeper, surveying the work and projects taking place across the sector. Libraries are playing an essential role in tackling the climate crisis, and as you’ll learn in this podcast, are the inaugural recyclers. There is an accompanying Environmental Jargon sheet for this series, which you can click here to download.
In this first episode, we’ll explore the beginnings of the connection between libraries and climate action, including where Green Libraries Scotland started. Including sharing an encounter with a fellow LIS Professional Ian Littleworth from New Zealand, highlighting the Te Tōtara capability framework. After this, we invite two very special guests to the podcast studio, Annika Norrvik, Facilities Manager and part of the Green Cluster at Glasgow Women’s Library, and Artist, Photographer and founder of The Nature Library Christina Riley. In this conversation we speak about eco-feminism, climate imposter syndrome, and how important libraries are in the dissemination and cultivation of evidence based conversations around the climate crisis. What environmental considerations they’ve had to take into account with their individual libraries, and how libraries foster connections with the natural world. There is so much of this work to highlight, that fitting it into one episode proved impossible, so please listen to part two of Taking Root: Scotland’s Green Libraries!
Feminist Librarianship - Interviews on Imposter Syndrome
lundi 30 mars 2026 • Durée 53:24
Feminist Librarianship - Notes on Imposter Syndrome
This podcast episode accompanies chapter 17, Notes from a New Professional II: Interviews on Imposter Syndrome, from the book Feminist Librarianship, written and produced by Leah Higgins.
The chapter shines a light on the perspectives and experiences of seven women working in the library and information sector (or adjacent) fields, and how they have experienced and navigated the conversations around imposter syndrome.
For a sector that is majority female, it seems implausible that so many of us consistently experience those negative self thoughts, projective oppressions and systemic biases that are labelled as ‘imposter syndrome’ a term which some feel ‘medicalises women’s normal feelings.’ Many threads are examined within this chapter including the systems at play attempting to keep women in a passive and overlooked state, one in which inequalities are deepened by intersectional factors such as education, class, race, sexuality, neurodiversity and more.
Librarians as professionals exist to support communities and serve requests, and in addition to this scope can be very niche subject specialists - this chapter examines some of the features of this sector that exploit or lessen the impacts of imposter syndrome through the voices of women who have actually lived it. Is it something that you can grow out of or beat using extra qualifications or working harder? Are new professionals or the National Librarian of Scotland immune to these feelings? There are no right or wrong answers in this discussion, only lived experiences and perspectives that have been woven together to provide support, relief and methods to overcome these challenges.
With thanks to the podcast contributors Chaeli Brown, Jennifer Findlay, SarahLouise McDonald, Gill Ryan, Amina Shah.
The Open Shelf podcast episode is brought to you by the University of Glasgow Impact Acceleration Fund.
Host Dr David McMenemy, Professor of Information Ethics and Policy at the University of Glasgow (formerly Reader of Information Studies) welcomes guest Kirsten MacQuarrie, Sector Development Manager at CILIPS and Editor of Feminist Librarianship: Principles, Practices and Provocations(Facet Publishing).
2026 saw the publication of Feminist Librarianship and in this episode, Kirsten and David converse on the various themes of the book, which sees contributions from over 20 women across the Library and Information sector and beyond. The first of its kind to take a look at women’s work in the sector in the UK the book explores many topics from attachment theory and eco feminism to imposter syndrome. Intersectional theory practiced throughout the text allows different facets and experiences to be shared and reflected on by the women working on the front lines.
This conversation delves into the systemic biases at play for women in the sector and explores how this has been dealt with historically, and how it impacts on the sector contemporarily. As a steadfast advocate for the profession, Kirsten often shares that an investment in libraries is an investment in women, this podcast captures Kirsten’s reflections on this rallying cry and provides practical insights into how we can make the sector a more hospitable place for women’s contributions.
Reflections from CILIPS colleagues and contributors Leah Higgins and Sean McNamara highlight the need for allyship and widening the conversation to include a range of perspectives from all experiences.
Don’t forget to Subscribe!
Thanks for tuning in! If you'd like to get in touch to be a guest, or to suggest a topic for the team to discuss, please email admin@cilips.org.uk.
Follow us on our socials too, where you can find updates for Scotland’s Libraries:
Instagram: @cilip_scotland ( / cilip_scotland )
Thanks for tuning in! If you'd like to get in touch to be a guest, or to suggest a topic for the team to discuss, please email admin@cilips.org.uk .
Follow us on our socials too, where you can find updates for Scotland’s Libraries:
Instagram: @cilip_scotland ( / cilip_scotland )
Women constitute 75% of library and information workers and yet their achievements and contributions to the LIS sector are often unspoken, overlooked and undervalued in every sense.
This agenda setting book - the first of its kind in the UK - combines case studies from libraries of all sectors to illuminate the feminism-infused principles and practices that shape the profession. With powerful, thought-provoking contributions from more than twenty feminist thought leaders and librarians, the book articulates the strong link between libraries and female empowerment, evidencing the case that investment in libraries is an investment in women.
At once a reappraisal of the centrality of women within libraries and a call to arms for their acknowledgement, this is an urgent, inspiring and essential book for all LIS professionals.
Lewis, O. (2023) Women More Likely to Suffer from Imposter Syndrome than Men, According to Research, Independent, 7 April, www.independent.co.uk/life-style/women-imposter-syndrome-workplace-confidence-b2313770.html.
Clance, P. R. and Imes, S. A. (1978) The Imposter Phenomenon in High Achieving Women: Dynamics and Therapeutic Intervention, Psychotherapy: Theory, Research & Practice, 15 (3), 241–7.
