Meet the Shortlist – Chloe Elder
Chloe Elder, Senior Library Assistant (now Senior Librarian) at St George’s School, Edinburgh
Chloe presented a parallel session at the 2021 CILIPS Annual Conference, reflecting with a colleague on working in a school library during the pandemic. Based on this presentation, she also authored a recently published blog post for SLG Scotland on her library’s Digital Reading Passport scheme. Over the past 18 months, she has regularly attended webinars hosted by CILIPS, including various CILIPS Online Learning webinars, a Meet the President event and a CILIPS/SLG Scotland ‘quiz and vent’ evening. She attended a social media workshop with IFLA and Ned Potter in March 2021 and contributed a book review for the CILIPS website in March 2020. Chloe frequently engages with the wider library community on Twitter, participating in Twitter chats for Great School Libraries in July and September 2020 and UK Lib Chat in July 2020. She also joined Edinburgh School Librarians’ Daily Challenges (themed posts) on Twitter from her school library’s account during lockdown.
In her school, Chloe supported home learning during the pandemic by creating visual how-to guides and promotions for her library’s digital resources, innovating ‘suggested listening’ lists of podcasts to support the curriculum and providing technical support to fellow library staff. Back on campus, she helped to develop a Book a Book initiative for contact-free book borrowing, and also adapted and maintains the school library’s Digital Reading Passport scheme. Chloe edits the monthly Library Newsletter, manages the Upper School Student Librarians, and regularly develops and delivers library lessons including ‘Library Scavenger Hunt’, ‘Read with Pride’ (on the importance of LGBTQ+ inclusive books), ‘Navigating Non-fiction’ and ‘Introduction to Graphic Novels’.
Chloe joined the CILIPS Students & New Professionals Community as a founding committee member/Social Media Officer in February 2020, and in March 2021 she assumed the role of Chair. As Social Media Officer, she helped establish and grow the SNPC Twitter account to what is now over 500 followers. As Chair, she oversees meetings and facilitates activities amongst the committee, as well as writing committee vacancy adverts and managing the onboarding of new members. As a committee, SNPC share information and news relevant to their community, raising awareness of their work through talks and social media, as well as sharing job postings and offering both informative events and informal gatherings. Chloe’s SNPC activities have also included volunteering to support delegates at the online CILIPS 2020 Conference and authoring a New Professional case study for the New Voices blog. She is looking forward to speaking about the SNPC with a fellow committee member at the CILIPS Autumn Regathering.
Our award shortlist judges commended Chloe for the depth of her engagement with the sector as a new professional, and especially for her varied and impactful activities as Chair of the CILIPS Students & New Professionals Community. Of particular note were Chloe’s presentations to the CILIPS Annual Conference and the upcoming Autumn Regathering, and the judges admired her determined efforts to keep students engaged with all that her school library offered throughout lockdown.
Many congratulations to Chloe for her brilliant achievements this year and a very well-deserved place on the shortlist. For more on Scotland’s Library & Information Professional of the Year Award, please click here.