On Monday 21st October, librarians took over the Houses of Parliament!
Well, by “took over” I of course mean we queued politely, showed our invitations and followed all the security rules, in order to attend the CILIP-organised Parliamentary reception on the theme of ‘Libraries Change Lives by Creating Opportunities’.
The Information Literacy Group was delighted to co-host this event, alongside CILIP, other Special Interest Groups, and several other library sector organisations. It was a pleasure to visit the Terrace Pavilion to meet and discuss our work in promoting information literacy across all library sectors with parliamentarians, as well as networking with other library and information professionals.
Several guest speakers talked about the influence that libraries have had on their lives. Host Laurence Turner MP discussed the importance of investing in libraries and in professional library staff. Best-selling author and library supporter, John O’Farrell spoke about his earliest memories of visiting the library and the role it has played in shaping his life. A couple of surprise guests also appeared: Florence Eshalomi, MP for Vauxhall and Camberwell Green, discussed her own history of using libraries and how she is continuing this tradition with her own kids; and maths teacher and TV personality Bobby Seagull gave an entertaining speech about the importance of intellectual curiosity and the key role libraries play in supporting this.
The ILG committee members had some useful conversations with parliamentarians present, including Baroness Blower, who as a former teacher was interested in the upcoming curriculum review and how this might create opportunities for embedding information literacy; and Lord Parkinson, who we discussed media and information literacy with.
Deputy Chair Jane Secker also did some celebrity influencing, giving out our coveted ‘IL at 50’ badges to author John O’Farrell and comedian Tony Hawks!
All in all, we felt this was a really useful and enjoyable event, and would like to thank the hard work of CILIP staff who made it possible. It was a great opportunity to get information literacy on the agenda of members of the government, and really get across just how vital libraries in all sectors are.