ICML 2026 – 14th International Congress on Medical Librarianship – Glasgow, Scotland
Written by bursary winner Andy Willetts, Health Information Scientist.
The international Congress on Medical Librarianship (ICML) 2026 came to Glasgow and the city gave all delegates the typical friendly Glaswegian welcome. Amazingly, the sun shone throughout!
The conference began with a ‘sound bath’. Drier than an actual bath, therapeutic sound was played to ensure attendees began the conference in the correct headspace. I was very much enjoying this until I realised that I had to leave the room because I didn’t yet have the Wifi code!
Early in the conference, the relative strength of medical libraries in the library and information profession in Scotland was highlighted. With public and school libraries under threat, any collaborative cross-sector work would be beneficial. Both sectors already promote health information – after all, ‘a library is a hospital for the mind’.
One of the biggest challenges in health literacy is health misinformation and AI was a hot topic during the conference. One thing is for sure – whether people want it or not, AI is here to stay!
A concern was raised about censorship challenges faced by libraries across sectors. These have come from both the left and the right of the ethical spectrum. The principle of neutrality should be at the core of library services.
Day 1 finished with the Conference social which took place in the salubrious surroundings of the Corinthian club and featured a Ceilidh!
For some reason, the conference attendance seemed to be slightly smaller the following morning. However, anyone who did attend was treated to a thought-provoking presentation on the potential bias of the Eatwell plate. Is this accepted health information advice really applicable to all? It certainly led to some interesting discussions!
Later in the morning, this writer took up the offer of a relaxing chair massage – health and wellbeing is important you know!
Day 2 finished with another social event in the wonderful Glasgow City Chambers. Billed as a ‘Welcome to the conference’ event, everyone enjoyed a chance to catch up with colleagues over some drinks and canapes.
Chair Yoga was the order of the day at the start of the third and final day. I would have been happy for this to continue beyond the allotted 15 minutes, but it was time for the first keynote of the day!
This keynote highlighted information behaviour. This seeks to highlight how people actually choose to act when it comes to looking after their own health. There was some frustration with government decision-makers only being able to see the world of health through their own lens without necessarily seeing the barriers!
A video was displayed later in the morning showing the role that health information professionals can have in ensuring that health information is presented to patients in an accessible way. A poor example of communication showed a patient bombarded with information overload. The only information he appeared to retain after the consultation was that England had been eliminated from the world cup the previous evening! A better method would have been ‘teach back’ or ‘chunk and check’. This involves breaking down the information into small chunks and asking the patient to repeat back the steps.
Towards the end of the day, we found out the story of a creative way to get ideas for developing a health library. This required the speaker bribing the Vicar’s son with a kit-kat in order to acquire some lego! Library users could then use the lego to come up with ideas for library development! There was unfortunately a suggestion that the health librarian should be kept in a cage…
Delegates left the event brimming with ideas and motivation. And most importantly, they had built relationships and friendships. Thank you Glasgow!