Implementation Newsletter

Newsletter of The LA/IIS Implementation Working Group

Issue No 4
October  2000

• This is the fourth issue of the Newsletter designed to keep members informed of progress towards unification. The content of this and previous issues is available on the website of each organisation.
  [www.la-hq.org.uk] [www.iis.org.uk]
  
  
• This issue focuses on the meeting of the Implementation Working Group (IWG) held on 5 September.
  
  
• JOURNALS
  The IWG agreed to set up a Publications Subgroup to look at the whole issue of publishing by the new organisation.
  
  
• CONSTITUTION
  A Working Party has been established to produce a draft Charter and Byelaws for the new organisation. Members include George Cunningham, Kate Wood, Sylvia Webb and Keith Webster. Drafts have to go to the Privy Council and the Charity Commission by the end of this year so that they can be ready for the summer Council meetings of the LA and the IIS next year.
  
  
• QUALIFICATIONS
  The IWG gave preliminary consideration to the framework of qualifications for the new organisation. Proposals include:

• a rigorous but hospitable and flexible approach to Chartership involving appropriate qualifications, a period of training and/or relevant experience and a submission which combines elements of the current IIS and LA systems
• the introduction of a voluntary scheme of continuing professional development designed to demonstrate currency of professional competence and enabling Chartered Members to progress to Fellowship
• the introduction of a new process of certification of Affiliated Members giving them the opportunity and incentive to progress, in due course, to Chartered Membership.
  
  These proposals will be given further detailed consideration by the IWG before being put to the LA and IIS Councils.

• VISION
  The Working Group established to refine a vision for the new organisation was asked to report back to the IWG by the end of August. Included in this issue of the Newsletter is a vision statement on which members are invited to comment. 
  
  
• NAME
  If we are to retain our Royal Charter we need approval by the Privy Council. Documentation for the Privy Council needs to include either the proposed name for the new organisation or a list of possible names. The advice we have received is that the Privy Council would prefer words to be used which reflect clearly our function and our work in the public interest: hence words like "library" and "information" rather than "librarian" or "information professional." The name should also indicate that we are, essentially, a collective of members: hence the need for a collective word. "Institute" and "Association" both carry baggage - "Society" as defined in the Shorter Oxford carries with it the idea of an organised and interdependent community of persons sharing common aims or interests. The other possibility is to include a word like "Royal" or "Chartered" to indicate our status as a body with a Royal Charter: which has some attractions but also might be seen as excluding by some potential members. However both types of words have been used in the alternatives listed in order to test member opinion. 
  
  To stimulate debate, the IWG has included in the vision statement a provisional name - the Library and Information Society. We have also included some alternative names which have been proposed through various channels. This is your opportunity to tell us what you think, bearing in mind, the constraints set out above.
  
  Comments and responses please, on the vision and/or the name to either of the addresses at the end of the Newsletter using the attached form by 15 December. This consultation will determine the proposed name which will go forward to the Privy Council.
  
  * DIALOGUE
  As the dialogue on unification develops, individual members may wish to put their views. Each meeting of the IWG has a standing item when comments from members are considered. In addition a discussion list has been set up on the Internet at
  
  http://www.mailbase.ac.uk/lists/lis-unify or http://www.mailbase.ac.uk/lists/lis-unify/join.html
  
  If you have any comments please use the discussion list or send them to:

The Vision

Access to information, ideas and works of imagination is an essential characteristic of thriving democracies, cultures and economies. Civilisation relies on the generators, communicators and commanders of formal and informal knowledge to develop, sustain and enhance the quality and richness of everyone's life. This is increasingly so in the global information society. Information is a cultural, social and economic resource and a commodity of crucial importance in a huge range of diverse enterprises. Librarians, information scientists and knowledge managers are at the heart of this revolution - in demand for their creative, technical and managerial expertise.

The rapidly developing technologies now available for communicating information are leading to the emergence of a widening range of products and services which allow access to information in ever more flexible and innovative ways. Such access becomes inextricably linked with the information resources available. In this context the information professional is crucially equipped to:

• safeguard the basic resources
• develop effective organisation not only for the information resources but for the whole information/access/communication environment; and
• develop educational programmes to enable society to obtain access to and make appropriate use of available information resources.

The role of the information professional is becoming multi-faceted, as custodian, systems developer and manager, and educator. The new information professionals will alert and inform, search and filter, index and organise, train and teach, negotiate and influence, collate and synthesise, obtain and deliver, talk the language of users, plan and market and critically appraise practice and assumptions. They are designers and managers of knowledge systems, educators, problem solvers, e-navigators and publishers. 

The Library and Information Society aims to create a strong, unified body which can speak with an authoritative voice for the profession as a whole.

It works to:

• position the profession at the heart of the information revolution
• develop and enhance the role and skills of all its members
• present and champion those skills, together with new ones which will be acquired through continuing professional development
• ensure that individuals, enterprises and not for profit organisations have ready and timely access to the information which they need.

The Library and Information Society is the voice of the information profession for the new Millennium. 

Mission 

The Mission of the organisation is:

• to set, maintain, monitor and promote standards of excellence in the creation, management, exploitation and sharing of information and knowledge resources
  
  
• to support the principle of equality of access to information, ideas and works of the imagination which it affirms is fundamental to a thriving, economy, democracy, culture and civilisation
  
  
• to enable its members to achieve and maintain the highest professional standards in all aspects of delivering an information service, both for the professional and the public good. 
  

Survey

Introduction

lis-unify discussion list

Implementation Newsletter

• Issue 1
• Issue 2
• Issue 3
• Issue 5
• Issue 6

The Vision and The Name:
The Results of Membership Surveys

Revised proposals for a new organisation for the library and information profession