Beyond the Horizon 2024 Recordings

You can watch the presentations from our 2024 conference Beyond the Horizon on our YouTube channel. Below we've embedded the playlist. The abstracts are in the video description.

You can also read an attendee review.

CILIP NE Visit to Kittiwake Trust Multilingual Library

In summer 2024 Amina Marix Evans hosted a CILIP North East a visit to the Kittiwake Trust Multilingual Library in Gateshead, the first Library of Sanctuary. It has over 22,000 books for adults and children, in more than 140 dialects and languages. Subjects range from fiction to biography, sport, crafts, art, travel, poetry, history, music.... you name it and it's quite probably on a shelf somewhere. Some resources are donated by publishers, some are donated by individuals. 

The resources in the library are organised by country, indicated by a map showing which country is represented on which shelf - no words are used so language isn’t a barrier for those using the collections. Potential cultural challenges are faced head on - eg,  Geordie books are prominent so that people don’t see the library as ‘only for foreigners’ but for locals as well; there are 107 translations of the Gruffalo; Arabic and Hebrew books are shelved next to each other. Roma and Gypsy books are located on a trolley and they are moved around the library to represent the communities about which those resources are written. 

 On our visit we gained insight into how people are encouraged to use the space. Parents are encouraged to come into the library with their children and read with them in the beautifully decorated extensive children’s area. A piano sits in the library and anyone is welcome to use it. A music group meets in the library on a Tuesday afternoon. Cookbooks are located near an area of comfy seating to encourage people to talk with each other about what they enjoy cooking. Games and puzzles are available for people to have fun with each other and interact. Upstairs is a prayer room, a quiet room and a space available for hire. 

We ended our visit by sharing food we had all brought and shared our experiences of our visit to the library which was just delightful! Do go and visit the library to discover it for yourselves. The library is promoted through the Kittiwake web site, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube, so do follow the library if you’re on those platforms. Volunteers are always welcome - do contact the library to find out more about how to volunteer your time. 

Suzie Williams & Leanne Young

Call for Speakers: Beyond the Horizon 2025 (CILIP North East)

Beyond the Horizon - CILIP North East Conference - Monday 19th May 2025 2025 (1pm-4:30pm)

Come and tell us something you’re excited about!

This annual event aims to showcase work and issues from across the library, information and knowledge professions. We hope it will inspire attendees with new ideas, share knowledge and good practice or hear about things you’re experimenting with and developing. 

You could be involved with a new project, a different way of doing something, or just feel you’re already doing something great and think others would benefit from knowing about it. This is your opportunity to share something you’re excited about with other professionals, so you could talk about completed projects as well as work in progress.

We welcome thoughts and papers from any library sector. We particularly encourage those who are looking to present for the first time, and those who belong to under-represented groups and communities, including but not limited to ethically diverse, LGBTQIA+, those with disabilities, and those who are neurodivergent.

The conference will take place online.

There will be 7 slots available for short papers. Presentations should be up to 20 minutes inclusive of questions (we recommend aiming for a 15 min paper). Sessions with some interactivity would also be welcome.

Proposals

To register your interest as a speaker, please complete this online form: https://forms.gle/GSSCo5jabAbxbLvQA Deadlines Monday 10 February 5pm - Deadline for all talk submissions Friday 28 February - Successful proposers will be informed by email by this date. Details about how to book to attend the conference will be available in due course.

CILIP Conference 2024 - Event Review

CILIP NE Committee are delighted to share the following event review from Amy Austin (Northumbria University) who was the recipient of the CILIP North East Conference Bursary.

CILIP Conference 2024

 The annual CILIP Conference is aimed at anyone working in the library and information sector who is passionate about leadership, innovation and driving the profession forward to reach its full potential. My participation wouldn’t have been possible without receiving a generous bursary from CILIP North East, to whom I’m incredibly grateful. I really enjoyed the opportunity to step beyond my role as a Reading List Library Assistant at Northumbria University and engage in the big conversations happening in my profession.

Day One:

The 2024 CILIP Conference kicked off with a powerful keynote address by Daniel Gorman, Director of English PEN, part of an international writer’s association advocating for human rights. Gorman underscored the importance of freedom of expression, a cornerstone of the PEN Charter, but also emphasised the need to exercise this freedom responsibly in order to safeguard the rights of all. Against the backdrop of ongoing conflict in the world, Gorman drew a powerful link between books, libraries, and the defence of human rights, highlighting the ability of information professionals to take single actions that collectively create significant impact. One such example was the collaborative effort of librarians in London, facilitated by BookAid, to send books to war-torn Ukrainian libraries. This was a sombre but powerful reminder that, over 100 years on from the inauguration of PEN, libraries remain a vital tool to safeguard intellectual freedoms across the world.

 Next up was an informative session on AI and its potential impact on the digital humanities. This session showcased the ability AI has to open up collections by uniting data from disparate sources (such as research outputs, transcriptions and images), and to engage more users through the development of interactive AI tools that enliven historical collections. I found this session truly eye-opening, as it showed just how transformative AI can be for our sector if harnessed correctly, but also explored the ramifications of this powerful tool and the need for its considered application.

   The next session discussed the sustainability of transformative agreements, involving perspectives from academic publishing and a HE library. This ‘both sides of the coin’ approach provided a comprehensive insight into the purpose, value and consequences of transformative agreements, as well as potential alternatives for the future. Later, a session on cybersecurity jointly delivered by Experian and The British Library explored the threat of ransomware, which has evolved from a singular crime to an established business model with its own supply chain and increasingly sophisticated tactics. I found these sessions incredibly eye-opening, as it highlighted the value our sector holds to attackers and how academic publishing could change in the future.

   A lunchtime keynote on the alarming trend of truth decay in Europe reinforced the responsibility we have as library and information professionals to be proactive in turning the tide against mis- and disinformation in public discourse. Finally, in an interactive workshop aimed at developing futures literacy, we worked in groups to complete practical exercises which showed how any library or information service could prepare for a range of future scenarios (good or bad).

   Packed with big conversations that sought to restate the purpose and priorities of our profession, the first of the conference fostered a sense of collective purpose, reminding us that by embracing innovation and collaboration, we can drive our profession forward in a rapidly evolving world.

   Finally, I couldn’t finish up Day One without mentioning the Presidential Dinner, which was a fantastic night all round. I had a truly memorable time discussing the day’s events with fellow delegates from across the sector, as well as dancing to an amazing funk-soul band!

Day Two: Reimagining libraries - and the library leader - for a changing world

   The second day of the conference was all about change and innovation, and, fittingly, opened with the announcement of a new CILIP policy on Intellectual Freedom by CILIP CEO Louis Coiffait-Gunn. The sessions and keynotes that followed encouraged us to reimagine the library and information sector for the future, and advocate for its place at the centre of our organisations, our users’ experiences, and our society at large.

   My biggest takeaway from the morning was that ours is an inherently trusted profession. This trust gives us a powerful social capital that can be leveraged to situate libraries at the forefront of positive change in their community. With a new government incoming, there was a renewed sense of change and optimism for our profession, if only we would harness the opportunity before us.

   Accordingly, the opening keynote by Janet Peden explored the physical and cultural transformation Ulster University Library has recently undergone. The new library building is oriented around collaborative, active learning and the library service has visibly realigned itself with the institution’s wider strategy, restating its position as an active partner to the University in achieving its teaching, learning and research objectives.

   Next, ‘The Entrepreneurial Leader’ was a refreshing session that explored how library and information services may benefit from emulating the world of business. Using the example of LEGO’s transformation from the brink of bankruptcy in the 1990s to a hugely profitable business today, libraries can succeed by retaining an understanding of our core offering (our LEGO ‘brick’) and by building our services and collections around it. I was impressed by the enterprising spirit of the speakers, who are driving engagement with services, spaces and collections through innovative practices, like offering free tickets to households in postcodes that currently produce no visitors, taking the big-picture view that this initial contact may convert underrepresented communities into committed users, a far more valuable asset in the long-term than the price of a single admission.

   After an interesting workshop on CILIP’s Professional Registration pathway, the conference culminated in a panel discussion on Inclusive Collections, exploring the role of librarians in decolonising the collection. In a full circle moment, the panel echoed Daniel Gorman’s point about the singular actions librarians can take to make a positive change. “Decolonising is about adding to collections, not taking away from them” struck a chord with me, as it showed me that by including more voices and resources in our collections, we can remedy stereotypes and provide a truer picture of all cultures across the world, while improving our collection and ensuring it meets the needs of our community.

   Once again, I am incredibly grateful to CILIP North East for the opportunity to participate in this year’s CILIP Conference. I’ve had such a fantastic experience connecting with others and hearing diverse views on the biggest innovations and challenges impacting the sector. I’ve come away from this year’s conference feeling inspired and energised about my profession, my own development and the possibilities that are open to us when we connect with one another. I highly recommend it to anyone who has the opportunity to attend.

Amy Austin
Reading List Library Assistant, Content Delivery and Copyright
July 2024

Beyond the Horizon 2024: Emerging Issues

We're delighted to share this write up of the Beyond the Horizon 2024 conference held in May 2024. Thanks to Dr Chidinma Onwuchekwa Ogba for sharing their experience of the day

Beyond  the Horizon 2024: Emerging Issues

The North-East group of CILIP (NECILIP) held their annual online conference “Beyond the Horizon” on the 20th of May 2024. This was a half-day event that focussed on major topics like: Building connections: a personalised Library welcome for academic and research staff;  Copyright and AI;  don’t touch my hair; knowledge in the shadows; getting started right away: experience, reflections and the impact of delivering an essay writing skills module; North-east school Librarians network; reimagining the academic Librarian’s role at Cardiff Metropolitan University; there’s more to life than books you know; and Pathways - a journey into the centre of libraries. NECILIP which is an arm of CILIP centred in the Northeast region of England annually organises this conference to keep its members updated on emerging issues and best practises around them.

The event started immediately at 1pm with a welcome note from the chair of the event, Dr Biddy Casselden, from Northumbria University. Dr Biddy informed participants that she is retiring this summer and is stepping down from hosting Beyond the Horizon conferences and from the CILIP NE committee after a long involvement in CILIP. Dr Biddy would surely be missed because of the ease and laughter she brings in while chairing and many other qualities which have been seen reflecting through her.

The conference started with a short talk from Nicki Clarkson of the University of Southampton. Nicki talked about building connections through a personalized library welcome for academic and research staff. It was realised that while there were welcome activities for students, many libraries do not intentionally provide any for new academics. It was therefore important to reach out to them through any formalised medium and give them support in settling down. This move was seen as a means of building connections, providing Library services, and initiating a future synergy that would benefit students and staff; as a result, the library would need to ensure that they are formally informed when new academic staff  are employed.

Liesl Rowe immediately took over and talked about “Copyright and AI”. This was a talk about AI with a different perspective on its merits and demerits. Artificial intelligence (AI) was seen to have its strengths in following classic essay prompts, analysing specific excerpts, and producing references that look superficially convincing and yet misleading. AI was seen to be poor in case studies, information retrieval, empirical assessment and lacks the ability to state strong conclusions. It also lacks the ability to seek for permission before using copyrighted resources; and as a result, is immersed in major copyright issues. It’s inability to have copyright of any resource and cannot have copyright on its own means that it’s misleading to cite it as an author of a work used [my thoughts]. More so, it was stated to constantly hallucinate; a major issue that would make anyone using it for research purposes to reconsider. Except if an academia intends getting concepts, keywords and ideas that would lead to a critical search, using AI for purpose of research and learning is misleading [my thoughts]. Maybe this stance would change in the future if its developers were able to address these issues and more as it relates to copyright. As a result of its diverse complications that relates to using resources without permission, scholars were advised not to send their copyrighted documents to AI for whatever purpose or assistance, this is because it has inbuilt ability to retain information and to reuse them as it deems fit; without the assurance that the author would be recognised; hence it breaks every provision of copyright. This has a major implication for the academic library, which is to take seriously, the teaching of information literacy for learning and research.

Naomi Smith talked briefly about “Don’t touch my hair: hair microgressions in the library”. This talk focussed on empirical research carried out on librarians from African origin. The research pointed at the character of putting focus and attention on African hair, which is no different from any other hair; and most times, touching indiscriminately and making comments that likens it to a pet, as being demeaning and undignifying. Moreso, it becomes a reminder to humiliations faced historically by African women who were placed in the same category as animals for sightseeing because of their looks; and hence a thing of pain. If the hair of other people of different origin does not attract such attention and comments, it then becomes a wonder on how black hair would arouse such sentiment even in a professional environment [my thoughts].  

Daniel Lyons talked about “Knowledge in the shadows: the shadow organisations and why it is important”. This centred around recognising innate skills in employees and horning them for their development and that of their employers. Hence when skillsets are identified in an organisation, it should be connected to the right roles and jobs; and linked to places where they would satisfy need.

Lisa Eveson talked about their library experience in delivering an essay writing skills module for students. The writing module was said to be impactful as students registered; and their lecturers who noticed the improvement in their students ensured that other students registered as well. Challenges that were found in the process were as it relates to getting an expert with a writing and study skills background, and the fact that students were not so much interested in completing activities because they will rather devote that time to modules that have assigned credits. Immediately after the second comfort break, Jackie Dunn from the Newcastle University talked about the Northeast School Librarians Network and the need for many librarians to get involved in the Community of Practice. It was to be an avenue of developing together and supporting school librarians.

Aimee Jones and Marie Lancaster talked about “Reimagining the academic role at Cardiff Metropolitan University”. This was another short talk that explained how roles were reimagined and their titles changed. Roles were reimagined to fit into new job titles; and since the strengths and limitations of library staff were already known, it was easy to assign them to their new titles and broadened roles. Hence several job roles that have similarity and can be handled by a person were brought together; thereby preventing wastage and ensuring that every job is attended to.

Lisa Anderson and James Bywater talked about “Pathways, a journey into the centre of Libraries”. This focussed on how library services can constantly emerge to suit needs of students; and ways of responding to their unspoken needs just by imagining those needs and providing services in response; services that would not always have to shout “LIBRARY, BOOKS” but those that attract them and still educate and develop their skills. Sarah Munks talked about “There’s more to life than books…”. This talk focussed on book clubs constantly organised for primary school teachers as a way of training them in the act of reading children’s books for the purpose of education.

Dr Chidinma Onwuchekwa Ogba
Teaching & Learning Librarian
QA Higher Education

Beyond the Horizon 2024 - Speakers

We're delighted to share the confirmed speakers (so far) for Beyond the Horizon 2024 - the CILIP North East RMN annual conference. 

A full programme of talks and abstracts is now available.

Short Talks

Building Connections: a personalised Library welcome for academic and research staff
Nicki Clarkson - Engagement Librarian, University of Southampton

Copyright and AI
Liesl Rowe - Senior Digital Library Advisor (Copyright), Leeds Beckett University

Knowledge in the Shadows - The Shadow Organisation and Why it is Important
Daniel Lyons - Head of Organisational Knowledge Management, Disclosure and Barring Service

English Public Libraries Data - No It’s Interesting, Really!
Luke Burton - Director, Libraries, Arts Council England

Getting Started, Write Away: experiences from delivering an essay writing skills module
Lisa Eveson - Academic Librarian, Teesside University

Reimagining the Academic Librarian Role at Cardiff Metropolitan University
Marie Lancaster and Aimee Jones, Assistant Head Librarian - Academic Services, Cardiff Metropolitan University

Pathways - a Journey into the Centre of Libraries
Lisa Anderson and James Bywater - Library Service Manager, University of Northampton

Lightning Talks

NE School Librarians Network
Jackie Dunn - Senior Outreach Officer, Newcastle University

Don’t Touch My Hair
Naomi Smith - Subject Librarian, University of West London

Student Publishing as a Learning Tool
Rachel Branson - Scholarly Communications Coordinator, Northumbria University

There’s more to Life than Books You Know, But Not Much More
Sarah Munks - Liaison Librarian, Leeds Trinity University Library

The event page is live so book your place now! It's free for CILIP members.

Upcoming Events at the Kittiwake Trust Multilingual Library

The Kittiwake Trust MultiLingual Library have over 19,000 books for adults and children in over 100 languages. We're so pleased that they now have a new site in Gateshead. 

View the flyer for contact details and opening hours of the Multilingual Library.

You can download the Flyer as a PDF

The Multilingual Library are holding some events in March 2024 and you'll find the details below.

Breaking Bread

21 March 2pm

All around the world different types of bread are a staple food.

In this afternoon session we will exchange stories and songs about bread from our various cultures as well as tasting breads and sharing the names of breads in many languages.

Bring your tastebuds and your stories and help create an artwork for our Library of Sanctuary.  In conjunction with The Comfrey Project and the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art.

Library Celebration

23 March 2pm-6pm

We finally get to celebrate the re-opening of the Multilingual Library after more than a year of homelessness.

Our Patron, Professor David Crystal will join us via a Zoom link, and John Vincent, Networker from The Network will come up from the Deep South to speak.  John runs courses and lectures, writes, produces regular newsletters and ebulletins, and lobbies for greater  awareness of the role that libraries, archives, museums, and the cultural & heritage sector play in contributing to social justice. He is particularly interested in supporting the work that libraries do with people seeking sanctuary and other ‘new arrivals’ to the UK, young people in care, with LGBTQ+ people.

Visitors will have the chance to look round the library and talk to some of our volunteers. We will also have music and poetry from volunteers and friends of the library. 

Needless to say, we will also plug the fact that we were the first Library of Sanctuary in the North East - six months before the Newcastle City Library were awarded the same accolade.

Learn more about the Kittiwake Trust Multilingual Library

https://www.multilinguallibrary.org.uk/ 

High West Street (formerly The Gloucester)

Gateshead 

NE8 1EJ