Report on attendance of the CILIPS Conference 2026: “Amplifying Impact”
Category: Blog
The bravery of “calling things out”
Written by Emilia Pastor, Information Assistant
In a world where technology is attached 24/7 to the palm of our hand, and embedded more in our day-to-day lives, Libraries are some of those places where we need to take our gaze up to our surroundings and come back to the physical world.
Otherwise, we run the risk of overlooking libraries again and, with that, also assume that their value, need for support, vindication and resources don’t matter and fall into the lost battle of lack of funding, public or private.
Let’s talk clearly: libraries, like outdoor spaces, after-school clubs, unions, artistic groups are those so-called third places that keep running for a while in an almost- empty tank. No matter their contribution to social cohesiveness in communities, they all fight into the wider vicious crack of a slow and not always measurable Return of Investment (ROI).
This is also why the CILIPS Conference in Dundee, held at the beginning of June each year, is a must-attend event for anyone who cares about or is involved in librarianship and information science in Scotland. Under the theme “Amplifying Impact”, the conference—celebrated in the “City of Discovery” for almost two decades—showcased the strength, resilience, and unity of the sector.
The two-day event, filled with workshops, key-notes and possibilities of networking is normally quite enjoyable, celebratory almost, but this year also became political. The increasing challenges that Libraries face it make it reassuring to see that they affect us all, from a professional and personal perspectives.
From those responsible for school libraries to academic subject librarians seeking to assess artificial intelligence tools, and from professionals working in special collections and archives, information professionals are facing the consequences of a society experiencing increasing levels of isolation. Furthermore, they must contend with the effects of misinformation, cancel culture, poverty, gender-based tensions, and hate speech—issues that are particularly harmful to population groups whose social and emotional support networks have been weakened or depleted.
Other topics covered during the CILIP Day addressed a wide range of related issues: the importance of data skills, initiatives that empower communities through citizen science projects such as tracking nature and biodiversity, the beginnings of Margaret McDonald as a young, unpublished writer, the presence of Scots language in libraries, or the big difference between loneliness and isolation.
Beyond those discussions that took place simultaneously in different parallel sessions, and that give a great insight of the hot topics in the sector and the professional’s achievements and concerns, the main impression is that there is an undeniable reassessment not just of libraries but also of the role of librarians and their place within a rapidly changing information landscape.
Personally, the biggest shout-out, in my view, should go to the three keynotes I attended. Each was unique, enlightening in its own way, and somehow symbolic. Looking back on them while preparing this report, they almost seem to mirror a journey through life’s stages—from infancy and childhood (the first keynote) to adolescence and youth (the second), and finally to adulthood (the third).
Opening the conference with the first keynote, a very engaging Mairi Kidd, Literature Alliance Scotland chair, reflected on some of the obvious cognitive complexities of reading as an active exercise and why some children, but also adults, face difficulties in reading or even “hate books” -because they are hard but “a rewarding challenge”. Another common slogan among librarians is the benefit of “Reading for Pleasure” but the literary figure also defended the power of “Reading for Rage” or “Reading to empower ourselves”, and immediately after she extended her manifesto for “The Books for More People”.
The second keynote came with a double voice, the ones of the two young award- winning authors Margaret McDonald (Scottish) and Nathanael Lessore (London, France, Madagascar), who highlighted the importance of writing for young readers in an engaging vocabulary without being “preachy”.
What resonated most with me was the message of Lessore about how he is witnessing a a massive shift among the youngest towards intolerance, misogyny and hate messages coming from the online world and being replicated in the physical world: “Intolerance loves the uneducated and the uneducated are being taught to hate each other” as opposite of his suggestion for society towards “plethoric love” among genders and individuals with kindness, curiosity and sense of humour.
The first day of the conference concluded with an exceptional and necessary message at the end. The third keynote, representing maturity and adulthood, featured Grace Blakeley, the English economist, political commentator, and author of Stolen and Vulture Capitalism: How to Survive in an Age of Corporate Greed—whose authoritative voice brought a powerful closing perspective to the event.
Although she couldn’t attend in person and therefore joined the event in a video call, Grace’s words came as both a warning and a source of encouragement -addressed not only to professionals but also to each of us as citizens and active participants in society.
In an age when wealth is increasingly being “transferred upwards,” public libraries stand as powerful institutions that embody a political and social ideal: a living example of “how the collective could organise itself. This, of course, is not just romantic, but also political.
I must admit that, not having been born in the UK, I was probably one of the few people in the audience who was unfamiliar with her. Perhaps that is why her intelligence and clarity of thought made such a strong impression on me. As she pointed out, “the economy does not need to rely exclusively on competition to function”; it can also thrive through “collaboration”.
Beyond her commitment to “calling things out”, Grace not only placed public libraries—often dismissed as assets that fail to generate financial returns—at the centre of a powerful example of resilience. She also highlighted the vital role they play in valuing and safeguarding knowledge and access to information in a world that, despite its technological advances and the dominance of marketing, is increasingly marked by inequality, misinformation, and a lack of collective power.