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CILIPS Council Conversations

Category: CILIPS Council Conversations

CILIPS Council Conversations, with white text on a blue background and a graphic showing a diverse crowd.

At our biannual CILIPS Council meetings, representatives from each of our Regional Branches and Special Interest Groups come together to share updates on their committee’s activities, help shape the future of CILIPS event content, and discuss key themes related to cross-sector professional practice.

At our second meeting of 2025, reps reflected on the theme:

Reveal 2.0

2025 CILIPS President Dr David McMenemy developed the REVEAL (Reinforcing Ethics and Values for Effective Advocacy for Libraries) toolkit two years ago, with REVEAL workshops continuing to take place in library services of multiple sectors across Scotland and beyond.

We invited reps to share their thoughts on the following questions:

  • What do you see as the future of REVEAL?
  • Would additional/alternative resources related to professional ethics and advocacy be useful? If so, what would these look like and who would/could access them?
  • For those who have read/watched/attended REVEAL, what are your key takeaways? What more would you like to see from CILIPS in terms of ethics and advocacy?

 

  • Our discussion took place within the context of a challenging year for the sector in terms of ethical controversies and media coverage – regrettably, it is often the issue of censorship that sees libraries reach the front page!
    • See Anthony Thompson: Censorship in Public Libraries in the United Kingdom During the Twentieth Century
    • ‘There is no issue in librarianship which is more likely to bring libraries onto the pages of the press [than censorship]’ (Malley, 1990)
  • A positive recent development is the establishment of the CILIP Intellectual Freedom committee, with a recruitment call for committee members now live. Representation from Scotland will be especially welcome!
  • From a historical perspective, it is vital that new professionals are made aware that this is not a ‘new’ existential crisis – ethical challenges are a constant for our sector to consider, although social media is adding new dimensions.
    • For example, mis- and especially dis-information is not just being perpetuated by the ‘usual suspects’, and social media algorithms actively reward ‘angering’ content.
  • Of primary importance is moving from reactive to proactive responses – through our ethical principles and our policies, we have what it takes to weather these storms. This relies on policies that are robust and based on our professional values, and which we can reinforce collectively.
  • How can we expand our capacity to deliver training and disseminate learning like REVEAL?
    • David’s work to embed REVEAL within public library training offers a great opportunity here.
    • Traction can also be achieved around job descriptions by making it clear from the point of recruitment that an organisation and staff are expected to adhere to the CILIP Ethical Framework.
      • This offers an ideal way to turn complex discussions/negotiations later down the line into a 30 second conversation!
  • The biggest barrier is that professionals do not feel safe talking about ethical concerns, with self-censorship a common thread throughout REVEAL-related discussions. Are we always practising the ethics principles we ‘preach’?
  • Work also needs to be done – perhaps by the Intellectual Freedom Committee? – in communicating to members that our Ethical Principles, whilst numbered, are not a hierarchy. Every principle is as important as the next.
  • Deprofessionalisation is likewise a key factor contributing to ethical challenges, with staff capacity stretched and colleagues who lack the training they need (and/or without awareness of our Ethical Framework) being tasked with fielding these complexities case-by-case on the library frontline.
  • Amongst Council representatives who have already attended a REVEAL workshop, we really enjoyed the opportunity to discuss these issues and focus on them – very often, it is the time to foreground ethics and values that seems to be missing.
  • Ethics are interconnected with advocacy – being clear on who we are as a profession, what we do and why we do it offers a valuable ‘elevator pitch’ encapsulating our significance to Scottish society now more than ever.
  • From a wider GLAM (Galleries, Libraries, Archives, Museums) perspective, a contrast can be found between libraries and museums, where colleagues report being in an even more worrying position because they lack a profession-wide Ethical Framework like ours.
  • It is so important not to become isolated – being connected to our professional community is what gives us the support we need when facing these challenges.
    • Relatedly, we must have empathy for one another and achieve the difficult balance between not criticising colleagues publicly and creating space for valid critique, debate and exploration of ethical issues behind-the-scenes.
    • Will the Intellectual Freedom committee provide us with this space? Click quick on that recruitment call!

 

Email the CILIPS team anytime at admin@cilips.org.uk to share your views and stay tuned for another post in our Council Conversations series coming soon!

The next CILIPS Council meeting will take place in person at the CILIPS office in Glasgow from 2-4pm on Thursday 5th March 2026.

To join us and add your voice to these vital member discussions, please contact kirsten.macquarrie@cilips.org.uk.

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