Having lived in the US now for 18+ months has given me some distance and useful perspective on the goings on in UK Libraries. What I have seen has disturbed me; from CILIP’s lack of support of library workers striking in Bromley, to their uncritical stance on Dominic Cummings (and related online responses to library workers that protested this) as well as the Memorandum of Agreement with Sharjah Public Libraries in the United Arab Emirates, to mention just a few of the issues that have caused my disquiet. I signed open letters, spoke to colleagues, made my views known online but eventually the issues mounted up and became too much for me
As of today I am no longer a member of CILIP.
Were I still living in the UK I may have made the decision to remain a member and attempt to effect organizational change (using my white male privilege & fairly large social media presence to be vocal) from within.
I will always be grateful to CILIP for the opportunities it afforded me, from working on the London Committee of the Youth Libraries Group (two years as chair) to being a Judge for the CILIP Carnegie and Kate Greenaway Medals as well as sitting on the National Committee for the School Libraries Group. Not to mention the training events I attended (& in some cases ran) but I decided that I could no longer in good conscience remain a member. I will not criticize friends and colleagues that retain their membership.
I will continue to support and cheer on CILIP front-line initiatives from the side-lines, including the CKG Medals and #GreatSchoolLibraries and others for I believe now, as I did then, that the best of CILIP is to be found in the work done by the special interest groups (and I belonged to some of the best of those).
