Everyday people rely on Google for answers to their most personal, important and most trivial questions. How do we know if the information is reliable? A good place to start is with an information expert. We ask OU Digital & Information Literacy Specialist Katharine Reedy to investigate “What are the consequences of the EU referendum result?”

Now that the dust is starting to settle on the EU referendum, many people are wondering exactly what it all means for the UK, for Europe, and for the wider world. Throughout the campaign, it has been notoriously difficult to find reliable impartial information. Passions have run high, and even pets have been brought in to support people’s case [1]. Being able to evaluate online information sources has never been more important. 

An initial Google search for ‘EU referendum’ produces about 113,000,000 results. A search on ‘Brexit’ brings back 245,000,000! Clearly a strategy is needed to locate answers to some of the questions people are asking.

Here is how I went about it. 

Lesson 1: have a clear idea of what you are looking for

Looking at the results on the first screen, I noticed sites that unequivocally supported either leave or remain. As we are now post-referendum, I wasn’t interested in being persuaded to vote one way or the other (and as others have highlighted [2], much of the information available was disappointing, not to mention misleading). What I really wanted was clear guidance on what to expect, and - if possible - some solid well-researched views providing more detail about what the likely consequences would be.

Lesson 2: know what questions to ask

One way of quickly establishing the suitability of a freely-available information source is to use a framework to help you assess it, such as CAN (Credibility, Agenda, Need) [3]. This provides a good means of quick evaluation. Its focus on scrutinising the authority of information providers (Credibility) and being aware of any political viewpoints or vested interests (Agenda) make it particularly suitable for this kind of research. ‘Need’ refers to the purpose for which you need the information. If you are the next Prime Minister leading us into Brexit it would obviously be crucial that your decisions are based on high-quality and accurate information. If you are working out your own views, or helping friends or family members to make sense of the situation, it is still important – but you may not need the same level of detail.

By asking ‘CAN I trust this information?’ I succeeded in identifying a few key sites that would be helpful. These provided clear summaries of the position, and in some cases links to evidence.

Lesson 3: know your sources

When a general Google search produces unmanageable amounts of information, knowing where to start can save you a lot of time. I needed to locate one or two reliable starting points, since it would be very time-consuming to work through the deluge of information my search had retrieved. 

The BBC website appeared near the top of my results list. As the BBC has an obligation towards impartiality, this seemed a good place to start. The BBC Reality check [4] site is a handy jumping-off point and provides ongoing live updates on many of the questions being asked, as well as short videos, e.g. on the cost of EU membership. Following a link on the BBC Reality check site (under ‘If I retire to Spain or another EU country will my healthcare costs still be covered’? I was able to locate a research paper from the independent House of Commons Library on the impact of an EU exit in key UK policy areas [5]. This concludes that “much would also depend on whether the UK sought to remain in the European Economic Area…”

Another useful BBC source, which draws on the House of Commons Library and other independent sources, is The UK’s EU referendum: all you need to know.

I was also aware that Citizens Advice provide free, impartial, reliable information on a wide range of issues. Sure enough, when I searched on ‘Brexit Citizens Advice’, up came ‘Brexit: how it affects you’ [6]. I was instantly reassured by the opening words: 

The UK public has voted to leave the EU. This means it’s likely that some laws will change in the future - but not immediately.

Everything will stay the same until new laws are made.

It’s written in clear and simple language, which should be accessible to anybody. So I know that for now, there will be no changes. And when there are changes, they will be announced before they happen.
This was helpful, but I wanted to go deeper. I went to Google Scholar, as I thought this would help me to uncover more academic papers.

Lesson 4: think carefully about your search terms

I searched both Google and Google Scholar for EU referendum consequences and consequences of Brexit. Including the term ‘consequences’ or ‘impact’ focused my search on the sort of sources I was interested in, and restricting my search to 2016 brought some useful-looking articles to the top of the list, including The EU referendum and fiscal impact on low income households (Armstrong et al, 2016) [7]. On checking this out, I found that it is published by the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR), which states that it is “independent of all party political interests”. A quick skim of the article showed me that the sources and methods on which it’s based are clearly articulated and include both sides of the argument.

Another article that caught my eye was from the London School of Economics (LSE) ‘Impact of Social Sciences’ blog: Is it really that difficult to find women to talk about the EU referendum? (Guerrina et al., 2016) [8]. I couldn’t help wondering if giving women more of a voice might have been helpful all round in making sense of things. It also introduced me to my favourite new word of the week: ‘manel’ (an all-male expert panel).

Lesson 5: know when to stop

At present, there are many unknowns and much speculation. It’s important to keep a sense of perspective to know when enough is enough. In this particular case, there is so much commentary that it can quickly become counter-productive.

I had found some useful sources that met my criteria and pointed me to some of the data behind the headlines. I decided to read and digest these, before returning to investigate further when I was ready.

Lesson 6: remain open to different viewpoints

The contribution of information literacy to critical thinking (including about one’s own beliefs) has been eloquently communicated by Emma Coonan in Information literacy of the heart [9]. 

And contained in this is an important reminder. None of us has all the answers, or can predict exactly what will happen. In amongst all the uncertainty and emotional responses to the result, it is essential to retain the capacity to question one’s own views and beliefs as well as those of other people. By so doing, each of us can view others who hold different views as individuals with their own stories – and this offers hope for the future. Some OU research on What influences voting ‘in’ or ‘out’ of Europe [10]  concluded that the key factor was “whether people consider themselves to be European citizens”. Which is about identity rather than politics, and altogether a bigger issue.

I believe that information literacy has the potential to empower individuals and transform the way they see the world. Equipping UK citizens to think critically, drawing on the expertise of library and information professionals, should be a priority of the UK education system. This kind of thinking is part not just of a European outlook, but of global citizenship. Informed and culturally aware citizens are needed in order to bring about change for the better in our country.

#AskALibrarian

Other blogs in the #AskALibrarian series include:

• #AskALibrarian: How can I find reliable hotel reviews? - Leslie Stebbins
• #AskALibrarian: Do games improve learning? - Jane Secker
• #AskALibrarian: Is my smartphone listening to me? - Rebecca Oliva
• #AskALibrarian: Does Echinacea work when you have a cold? - Nancy Graham

Congratulations to Ben Woodfine, winner of the PPRG bursary place for the CILIP Conference 2016. 

Ben is Team Librarian at Bedford Borough Council, and is originally from a sales and marketing background. He designed and ran eMarketing campaigns in both a business to business and business to public environment, before leaving his career to care for his daughter. He joined the library service as a part time library assistant and was gradually able to commit more hours as his daughter became older, working his way up to Supervisor and then Librarian. He thoroughly enjoys his role especially when helping to introduce new technologies to the public and staff and promoting the many resources that the service makes available to all its members. 

Ben will be tweeting throughout the conference @BenWoodfine. He will also write a short report after the conference highlighting the most valuable and interesting things he has learned for the benefit of other PPRG members who are unable to attend. We will share this in our eBulletin and via our website. We are very thankful to CILIP for offering this bursary place to the PPRG.

CILIP Conference will take place in Brighton from 12-13 July. If you have booked your place, please do come to the PPRG stand in the exhibition area and say hello! It will be lovely to meet you.

We are delighted to be able to announce the winners of this year’s Marketing Excellence Awards. The Awards recognise and celebrate successful marketing and promotional campaigns from libraries of all sizes and sectors across the country.

The standard of entries this year was so high that we have embraced a series of “firsts” – it is the first time we have extended the judging panel to include Committee members from CILIP’s Academic and Research Libraries Group and Public and Mobile Libraries Group; it is the first time we have given two Gold awards in the same year; it is the first time we have given two awards to the same institution for different campaigns; and it is the first time we have given a Social Media Award.  

Our first Gold Award goes to Durham University’s Palace Green Library for Magna Carta and the Changing Face of Revolt, an exhibition to mark the 800th anniversary of the sealing of Magna Carta. It had impressive economic and social impact and far exceeded its original aims.

Our second Gold Award goes to Oldham Council Libraries for live@thelibrary, a programme of literature and arts events delivered from the newly refurbished Performance Space in Oldham Library. The project has significantly increased library membership and has demonstrated an adaptive, reflective approach to marketing strategy throughout its first year.

Our Silver Award goes to Durham University Library (again!), this time for their 2015 Student Induction Week, brilliantly and extensively themed around a quote from J.K Rowling’s book, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, “When in doubt, go to the library”.

Our Bronze Award goes to Leeds Library and Information Service for #whatsyourstory, which used human-interest storytelling to demonstrate how their libraries had played a significant part in the achievements of local people.  Not only did it engage the local community, but the generic appeal of the campaign created a worldwide reach. 

Finally, our new Social Media Award goes to Edge Hill University Library for #WhereforeArtThouWilliam, a week long social media campaign and competition to celebrate the life and works of William Shakespeare (Shakespeare 400) and promote reading for pleasure with World Book Night. The project achieved a number of diverse objectives in a very coherent way to great effect on an £18 budget, and was pitched to offer light relief to students during their stressful exam/dissertation period. The Social Media Award will become a permanent Award category in future.

The judging panel and the PPRG Committee send their warmest congratulations to all this year’s winners.

The Marketing Excellence Awards will be presented at the PPRG annual conference – Library marketing and PR: critical to success - on Friday 18 November. The event will take place at the Old Library at the Custard Factory in Birmingham. Still a short walk from the train station, this lovely new location was one of the city’s first free libraries and has been restored for corporate events. Booking for the event will open soon.

Facet Publishing have announced the release of Altmetrics: A practical guide for librarians, researchers and academics, edited by Andy Tattersall.

This new book brings together experts in their fields to guide readers through the practical and technical aspects of altmetrics.

Altmetrics focuses on research artefact level metrics that are not exclusive to traditional journal papers but also extend to book chapters, posters and data sets, among other items. It offers additional indicators of attention, review and impact that add highly responsive layers to the slower to accrue traditional research metrics.

Contributed to by leading atmetric innovators including Euan Adie, founder and CEO of Altmetric.com, William Gunn, Head of Academic Outreach at Mendeley and Ben Showers, author of the bestselling Library Analytics and Metrics, the book details  the methods that can be employed to reach different audiences, even with  only minimal resources.

The book explains the theory behind altmetrics and provides practical advice to using the  increasing number of tools available for librarians and researchers to measure, share, connect and communicate research including Academia.edu, Facebook, Mendeley, ResearchGate, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Figshare, Altmetric.com, SlideShare Kudos and many more.

Anyone wanting to understand altmetrics and encourage others to use it will find this book essential reading including library and information professionals working in higher education, researchers, academics and higher education leaders and strategists.

The editor, Andy Tattersall, has also made a video to complement the book which provides a whistle-stop tour of altmetrics and associated tools. 

- ends

Notes:

Altmetrics: A practical guide for librarians, researchers and academics | Jun 2016 | 2224pp | Paperback; 9781783300105; £49.95

We've collected together some of the interesting, contentious and important library and information stories that were discussed around the world last month. There were lots of interesting discussions in June, including: 

1. EU referendum results
2. The internet as a human right
3. Health literacy
4. Digital technology changes access to knowledge
5. Growing public resistance to blanket state surveillance
6. Targeted information services

Let us know what you think or if you have any other important issues that we missed in the comments section below.

1. EU referendum result

After the UK voted to leave the European Union on Thursday 23 June, here are some of the thoughts on how it could affect the information, library and knowledge sectors and how we should respond:

• Statement on the EU Referendum result - CILIP
• LACA statement on the EU Referendum result - Libraries and Archives Copyright Alliance
• Analysis of EU referendum result - House of Commons Library
• Keep calm and expect change - The Bookseller
• Economic impact of Brexit will impact museums - Museums Association
• Libraries and the EU Referendum - Lauren Smith
• Brexit: future EU research money for UK may rely on free movement - Times Higher Education
• Brexit Vote Stuns British Academe - Inside Higher Ed

2. The internet as a human right

On 1 July, the United Nations Human Rights Council agreed to adopt an expanded resolution on online speech rights. Natasha Lomas reports that, though this changes little in practice, it does comdemn any attempt to intentionally restrict access to information online.

In June, IFLA set out to discuss what libraries are doing to provide equitable access to information and knowledge, to overcome barriers to this access and to discuss the internet as a human right. The sessions provided examples of some fantastic library projects helping minority groups get online. This provides a good excuse to promote some of the brilliant projects, many linked to libraries, helping to open up access to the internet and information for people across the world:

• Building bridges for a broken community
• Game-based Arabic Lessons Brought to Syrian Refugees
• Making information accessible – an essential precondition for effective refugee protection?
• How to provide digital libraries to those without internet?

3. Health literacy

Finding reliable health information online can be tricky. Many of us turn to Google to help. In fact, Google estimate 1 percent of Google searches are symptom-related. They are aware that "health content on the web can be difficult to navigate, and tends to lead people from mild symptoms to scary and unlikely conditions".

Google's answer is to work with experts from Harvard Medical School and Mayo Clinic to show a list of related conditions on the search results page when a symptom is searched for. The idea being to help people get access to more reliable information without having to check through all results.

This is still a predominantly algorithmic approach, though, and Google still can only reflect "what's on the web". You are still on your own in judging the reliability and relevance of this information, which is why health literacy  - the ability to know how to find, understand and use health information - is a key skill.

How can we improve our health literacy? Ask a librarian! Nancy Graham has written a great blog of tips on how to find reliable health information online, specifically looking into the question: Does Echinacea work when you have a cold?

(An interesting related blog is James Heilman's 5 ways Wikipedia’s health information is improving).

4. Digital technology changes access to knowledge

Glyn Moody, in Ars Technica, has written an article asking "why can't everybody access all human knowledge?" . He opens with a great quote from Anthony Panizzi, who argued that he wanted, through what would become the British Library, a poor student to have access to the same knowledge as the richest man. Glyn's argument is that we have the technical means now to strive for the "digital version of Anthony Panizzi's magnificent, egalitarian vision of 1836".

A small step towards this vision was taken at the end of May when "some of the most prominent world leaders announced an initiative which asserts that European scientific papers should be made freely available to all by 2020". There are various caveats to this. It will only affect research supported by public and public-private funds and there are few details announced at this point.

There are various ways digital technology is affecting access to knowledge, though. Another one is the (both free and paid-for) provision of education online. A sign of these changes comes with the announcement that two major UK Universities (Leeds and the Open University) are to offer open online courses (Moocs) that will earn credits towards a final degree. Though the success of Moocs has been mixed, they do have the potential to widen access to higher education. A different side to this phenomenon is the rise of online tutoring. The BBC reports on various ways in which students across the world are turning to apps and sites to get private tutoring online - the success is hard to gauge at this point but, for better or worse, it is a sign of what the article calls the 'rising "Uberisation" of daily life.

5. Growing public resistance to blanket state surveillance

A new poll, commissioned by Liberty, has found that 90% of Brtish adults believe Government surveillance powers in new Snoopers' Charter are not acceptable. The main finding from the poll seems to be not necessarily a rejection of state surveillance but a rejection of bulk collection of data, not based on a suspicion of criminality.

Over in the US, an article in CNET claims that "privacy is good for business". The argument here is that many big US tech companies value being seen to reject any collaboration with the NSA for fear of losing customers to rivals. This would seem to provide further evidence (from a commercial rather than necessarily principled standpoint) of a similarly nuanced public view of state surveillance powers based on how not if they are used.

And, on a policy level, the European Data Protection Supervisor recently rejected this kind of bulk, indiscriminate data collection by the state in the form of the EU-US Privacy Shield pact. 

6. Targeted information services

There have been some fantastic recent examples of projects working in a targeted way to improve literacy and access to information for specific demographic groups. These include:

• Six Steps to library services for blind or partially sighted people
• Filmmaking behind bars: reducing reoffending by building digital literacy in prisons
• Libraries in care homes can improve residents’ mood and memory
• Bringing people together in memories

Join CILIP

CILIP is the leading body representing the information professions. 

We build the professionalism of our members by supporting the development of skills, knowledge and excellence. We provide unity through shared values and advocate on behalf of the information professions.

The benefits of CILIP membership include:

• A weekly email containing a top 10 round-up of library and information stories
• A subscription to Update magazine, he leading publication for the library, information and knowledge management community. 
• The option to apply for professional Certification, Chartership, Fellowship or Revalidation, CILIP's internationally recognised qualifications.

Join CILIP

The AGM of the Library and Information History Group will take place on Monday 21 November 2016 at Bromley House Library, Angel Row, Nottingham, NG1 6HL, commencing at 2.00pm.  This will be followed by a tour of the library (for around 2 hours) at 2.30pm.

UKeiG was saddened to hear of the early and untimely death of Laurence W Bebbington, at the beginning of July.  Laurence served on the management committee for a number of years and was also a regular UKeiG trainer until quite recently when his move to Aberdeen University meant that he was available less often. His workshops were well known for the amount he packed in and for his extensive handouts.  Laurence was a considerable asset to UKeiG – a wise voice in committee, generous with his time despite the pressures of holding senior positions in the libraries in which he worked. 

Encouraging children to enjoy and read books is a core principal of the Youth Libraries Group.  It is also essential to the future wellbeing of communities and economy. However, it is well documented that family dynamics has a great impact on children's ability to engage with reading. The aim of this conference is to provide practitioners with the skills to engage with parents, families and carers in supporting children's reading.

... with some excellent contributions - thought provoking, informative and occasionally controversial.

The UKeiG Members’ Day for 2016 was a great success, with an eclectic and enthusiastic membership taking time out to look to the future, addressing the trends and challenges impacting on the information profession. We showcase some of the themes and content from the day in this issue.

CILIP Chief Executive Nick Poole led on an optimistic note by encouraging the profession to embrace change.

‘I believe the future for the information, library and knowledge profession is exciting and vibrant with endless possibilities shaped by changing technology and the changing needs of our users. The challenge is to continue to grow and develop, learn, adapt and innovate.’

Lin Lin, Senior User Experience Researcher at EBSCO presented us with a dilemma by unravelling the student psyche and highlighting the processes that an average young scholar goes through to research for an essay. Any information literacy training is quickly forgotten, jettisoned in the last minute midnight rush to hit a deadline; pursuing Google and Wikipedia with a vengeance, and largely oblivious to information professional speak like ‘Boolean’, ‘database, even ‘catalogue.’ Where have we gone wrong? David Milward, CTO of Linguamatics, presented a fascinating insight into text mining, highlighting its huge potential to inform evidence-based decision-making. The auto-analysis and manipulation of free text on a large scale will enable us to extract and summarise key information, categorise documents more effectively, discover emerging terminology, generate metadata and define relationships between documents. 

A key benefit of text mining is that it can be used to improve the whole search experience and optimise search engine technologies, which segues conveniently into another article on understanding and improving search using large scale behavioural data, a feature based on Susan Dumais’ (Microsoft Research) excellent Tony Kent Strix Award Annual Lecture in November last year. The rise of web-based search systems over the past decade has enabled information scientists to develop powerful large-scale behavioural logging technologies that provide a unique insight into ‘what searchers do’; how people interact with web-based search systems. This ability to gather traces of human behaviour on an extensive scale and speed provides the backdrop to innovation and improvement in search, complementing other forms of experimental research that observes how people engage with search systems including, for example, controlled lab-based observational studies.

Just as students have developed workarounds to minimise research time and access information quickly, Danny Kingsley, founder of the Office of Scholarly Communication at Cambridge University, shows that researchers are also circumventing cash-strapped academic libraries (often illegally) to access the full text of scholarly papers. We feature an interview with Danny, who discusses this and other research support issues. As part of UKeiG’s aim to disseminate the wealth of research undertaken by the LIS community, we have a special feature by Carol Price, an MSc Information Management student, who writes about her research into Access to Research (A2R), which provides free online access to academic journals in public libraries. It’s a sterling piece of research, and I’m sure will generate significant discussion with our colleagues and members not only in public libraries, but across all of the sectors UKeiG represents.

Additional features include an overview of digital humanities developments in the Nordic Countries written by UKieG Conference Grant recipient Karolina Andersdotter, updates on some new web resources and a preview of the up coming Internet Librarian Internal Conference in October, with a reminder that UKeiG members are eligible for a 25% discount.

On a final note, not all of this issue is forward facing. We have an interesting feature by Martin White on the history of intranets and knowledge management and the early days of intranet technology. It’s intriguing to trace how developments decades ago are impacting on our working lives and practices today.

All articles, as well as the full-issue PDF can be accessed from the current issue page.

CILIP ILIG will be there!   We look forward to seeing you.  Our stand is in the Corn Echange section of the Dome. 

Transferable Skills for Information Professionals - NGLIS Seminar

Tuesday 5th July 1:30-4pm (Home Office, 2 Marsham Street, London SW1P 2AH)

The new GIG business plan for 2016 outlining our priorities for this year has been signed off by CILIP and is now available to view.

Statement on championing fair and balanced copyright following the EU Referendum by Naomi Korn Chair of LACA - Libraries and Archives Copyright Alliance:

"Following Britain’s decision to leave the EU, right now in terms of copyright, it is unclear about what this will mean for us, our member organisations and UK users of copyright works through library, archive and information services.

Until we know more, it is business as usual for LACA (Libraries and Archives Copyright Alliance).

This means that LACA, supported by CILIP will continue to robustly represent the best interests of our members and users, through lobbying and advocacy as well as working with our colleagues in Europe and Internationally.

As and when we can establish more clarity about the legislative impact in consultation with Government officials and other colleagues, LACA will provide published guidance to the community.

LACA’s commitment to ensuring that copyright laws are fit for purpose and support our staff and users is unambiguous - and we will continue to work with our colleagues across the world to champion a fair and balanced copyright framework which respects the rights of copyright holders whilst placing equal value on the importance of users' liberties."

On Monday 20th June the finals of the TeenTech Awards took place at the Royal Society in London. The event saw over 120 teenagers set up their stalls over three floors, and showcase their innovations, creations and prototypes. This year there were 50 entries to the Research and Literacy Award that is sponsored by the CILIP Information Literacy Group.

Members of the ILG TeenTech working group, the ILG committee and LILAC committee were all involved in judging this year. The entries were whittled down to the top five teams who presented their updated research to the judges at the finals. All five teams demonstrated their understanding of the importance of research to inform the development of their project.

One of the highlights was the team from King Edward VI School, who had used the research map provided by CILIP's Information Literacy Group to highlight the range of secondary research they had undertaken to develop their innovation ‘NavBand’.

Both the teams from Oakham School were impressive and had worked on expanding their use of resources in order to support and widen the scope of their investigations. The ‘Pet Connect’ team need to be commended for their additional research

Our worthy winners this year were K-Charge from Oakham School with their shoe that charged a battery from the kinetic energy generated by walking.  Their attention to detail with both their primary and secondary research was impressive. Their time management and planning detailed throughout ensuring that they stayed on target. The team will receive an invitation from TeenTech Patron HRH Duke of York KG to a special reception at Buckingham Palace in the Autumn.

ILG have supported the awards by producing Research Smarter; a set of sheets that guides groups through the information gathering processes from initial ideas, development and patents and copyright that can be accessed free of charge from the website:

Rebecca Jones and Rowena Macrae-Gibson from the ILG committee judged the finalists. The winners were presented with their prize (£500 for their school library and £50 each for the students) by Rory Celan-Jones, BBC Technology Correspondent, and Rebecca Jones in a star studded ceremony.

Credit should go to Darrly Toerien, the Head of Library and Information Services at Oakham School who persuaded his school to enter the competition this year. In addition to the ILG award, Oakham School won awards in two other categories.

Scott Bonner’s library in Ferguson, Missouri, became the focus of worldwide attention in the aftermath of civil unrest over the police shooting of unarmed teenager Michael Brown. Scott will be a keynote speaker at this year’s CILIP Conference and here he talks to Update’s Rob Green about the lessons he learned and how the library and its staff helped unite a broken community.

On Saturday 9 August 2014, a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, shot and killed an unarmed teenager, Michael Brown.

The fact that the police officer was white and Michael Brown was black triggered a wave of reaction that culminated in protests and clashes on the streets of the small city. Heavy-handed policing of early memorials resulted in large numbers of people taking to the streets. Tear gas, rubber bullets and curfews were all deployed in the ensuing days amid reports of looting and violence.

This largely played out on social media before the increasing tension in the city of 22,000 people caught the eye of the local and national media. As the tension mounted Scott Bonner, Director of Ferguson Municipal Public Library, followed the proceedings.

 ‘I first became aware of Mike Brown being shot via social media – like everyone else,’ says Scott. ‘I was tracking it that night on social media and trying to make sense of it… I had to make the decision next day whether to open the library. So I would stay on social media at night and get up early in the morning to check the news and see what the official word was.’

Unrest began to flare shortly after Michael Brown’s death. Memorials held on the Sunday began peacefully, but reports of unrest began to emerge following evening candlelight vigils. Around 150 riot police were deployed on the streets and unrest escalated to violent protest, looting and arson.

Ferguson’s population is largely black and there was widespread anger at the lack of action against the police officer. The protests continued throughout Sunday night and on the Monday morning Scott headed to the library.

He said: ‘I came into work fully expecting to open the library. But the first words out of one of my employee’s mouth were “if you open today you are an idiot’. So I said: “OK, let’s talk - why would that be stupid?”’

The issue turned out to be a large ­gathering outside the local police station, just a few hundred yards down the road from the library. Scott realised that the likeliest outcome would be that the police would try to disperse the crowd by forcing it past the library – because that end of town had not had money spent on revitalising it.

He said: ‘We had seen tear gas and rubber bullets appear and we did not know ­whether those tactics would be used during the daytime – I couldn’t get the image of tear gas floating past the parking lot out of my head, so then I said we are going to open after that crowd gets pushed through.’

Scott sent his staff home and said he would call them when the crowd had gone and he was ready to open. However after the crowd had passed and Scott felt it was safe to open the library he discovered the internet was down and decided to wait until the problem was fixed. 

‘But of course it never came back up,’ says Scott, and the library remained closed all day. ‘Nobody gave me any criticism for that – I never heard anything from the board, or the staff or patrons. But the next morning as I was taking my shower I stopped and it dawned on me that I had done wrong. If we had already been open and the internet had gone down we would have stayed open, we wouldn’t have closed. I had taken the easy path.’

That realisation was a turning point recalls Scott, who says. ‘I decided that morning that the rules were – "If safe, open. If open, do everything we can."

‘No other thing would keep us closed. I changed the way I do librarianship and the way the library worked – from that moment forward we were open.’

And it was not just open, but open and proactive. Scott and his team were adamant that the library could and should be there for people who needed it. He said: ‘In times of fear and doubt, libraries provide comfort and knowledge. They provide stability and they are not trying to sell you anything. The library doesn’t have an agenda; it’s open to every human being; it doesn’t discriminate or play favourites. 

'We have a reputation that makes us open to everyone and at times like that people needed somewhere to gather where they feel welcome and no one is trying to play them or use them. In Ferguson at that time everyone had an agenda.  The way it turned out, our only real agenda was to provide opportunities for people to get together.

‘In a crisis the important role of a library was to say yes when people ask if they can help. People were desperately looking for ways to help and to have some sort of control.’

And that is exactly what happened. Ferguson’s library became a unifying hub, offering practical support to people from all walks of life. The protests in the city saw business suffer – either directly through looting and arson – or indirectly as people stopped ­coming to the city. 

The library hosted the Small Business Administration, a US Government agency, that provided emergency loans and other support to local businesses. Listening sessions were held, that literally surrounded business owners with people who could help them.

Scott says: ‘We had an inner circle of owners and an outer circle with political and ­organisation representatives. Someone would raise their complaint and then someone from the outer circle would come forward and say “this is what you can do".’

Children were due to go back to school at around that time, but the local schools department kept them shut, meaning many parents were stuck for childcare at short notice. 

Scott said: ‘When you work three part-time jobs just to survive and you could lose one at any time, even if you have a great reason for not showing up to work you are screwed. Children were stuck in that summer slump.

‘A teacher came in and said if you have some tables I can get some teachers together and we can do something. I said yes and we blew it up as big as we could.’

The idea caught on – not only with locals, but also with the media who freely admitted to Scott that they were looking for a new angle and the ‘School for Peace’ was it. Scott says: ‘It was the counter melody of the song of Ferguson, the first positive story to come out of Ferguson.’

The schools were supposed to open on the Thursday following Michael Brown’s death, but stayed shut for almost a fortnight. ­During that time, more than 200 pupils and 100 volunteers signed up to help deliver the library’s School for Peace. It grew so big that they took over the local Methodist church as well. 

Many more programmes were initiated during the period, with many of them continuing to this day. 

Scott says: ‘The main thing we did was just do what we normally do – but louder, busier and with even more activity going on.  We tried to muscle our way into the public consciousness so they would realise we are there to use.’

It worked on many different levels. Not only did it offer people a safe space and practical support when they needed it most, it helped to reinvigorate the library itself by reminding people of its existence.

‘I started as the director five weeks before this happened,’ says Scott, ‘so I was brand new. The sense that I got was that not too many people knew the library was here. It had faced huge budget cuts over the past five years and had cut down on special programmes, staff and hours. It had drawn in on itself because it needed to do that to survive. A lot of people had stopped thinking about the library. Now everyone knows that we are here. We are crazy busy. We are standing room only some days. 

‘We are doing more programmes than we have space for and the issue we have now is how do we do this with limits we have on space and staff. Whenever we stepped up the community responded very positively.’

Now the biggest fear for the library is that funding will dry up. The library received tens of thousands of dollars in donations after being thrust into the media spotlight. However, since then it has seen a reduction in its core funding which comes from a property tax in the city, and Scott can see a time when he has to rein in the library’s ambition. 

‘It’s incredibly frustrating,’ says Scott. ‘I have this powerful need to help people and I can see all these needs in the community and I can see all the ways we can do good.’

Scott adds: ‘Libraries are absolutely vital every day, but they are particularly vital in times of crisis. When people are questioning themselves and wondering why something has happened, the library has a role to play to give them perspective; to give them information; to give them a place to gather and to start putting things back together. My belief in the library mission has been magnified by the power of ten.’

Book your place at the CILIP Conference, 12-13 July 2016

The CILIP Conference is the UK’s largest gathering of library and information professionals, attracting delegates from across a wide range of sectors. In 2016 you can join us in Brighton for two days of discussion, debate, knowledge sharing and inspiration. View the full programme.

Book your place

Update magazine

This article was originally published in CILIP Update Magazine, June2016.

There are lots of ways for CILIP members to access the full range of articles published in Update, including

• A monthly print version of the magazine
• A digital version of each new publication
• The full archive of previous editions
• Downloading the Update app on Android or Apple.

Non-CILIP members can subscribe to the digital version of the magazine or join CILIP to get access to the full range of benefits.

Find out more about Update Magazine

Visit the Poetry Library and the Hayward Gallery Library in London with CILIP in Hants and Wight.

11am Poetry Library
12pm Hayward Library

These are both in the Southbank Centre, the arts centre on the South Bank of the Thames, and in walking distance from London Waterloo Train Station.

The information and library profession is built on a strong foundation of shared ethics which promote literacy, creativity, understanding and a respect for evidence. These are the values that unite us as a global community. As we look ahead to the future of the UK, these values will be more important than ever and CILIP is committed to promoting them wherever possible and defending them wherever necessary. 

We will be engaging with the UK Government to ensure that our profession, is accounted for during this transitional process and that our needs and the needs of our users are recognised and protected. In the short-term, our first priority will be to review the impact of this referendum on people working in the information professions in the UK and develop any necessary actions to support them.

A short Annual General Meeeting at 1.30pm at Bournemouth and Poole College, (underneath the clock tower by the Lansdowne roundabout), followed by a quick tour round two of their four libraries by Sarah Bedford (one of their Team Librarians, and an CILIP ARLG Southern committee member).

Then a 10 minute walk (please let us know if you have any mobility issues) to the cliff-top Russell-Cotes Art Gallery and Museum for a guided tour at 3.00pm (lasting approx. 45 mins).

On the 24th June 2016, the UK-based Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP) and the Archives and Records Association (UK & Ireland) (ARA) released further data from the report on the UK information workforce.

Factsheets have been published which provide key statistics about the demography of the workforce in Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales, English regions, and the key sectors where library, archive, records, information and knowledge workers are located.

It is intended that the full data set will be available to members through an online data platform later in the year.

The factsheets are accessible at:

www.cilip.org.uk/workforce
www.archives.org.uk/workforce

CILIP's New Professionals Day 2016 is our annual conference aimed at those library and information professionals in the early part of their careers. There will be a variety of workshops and presentations to share information, provide support and offer networking opportunities. If you are still studying at university, have recently finished your information qualification or are in your first professional post, then this event is for you.

You can follow the event on Twitter at #cilipNPD

This is a free event for CILIP members and includes lunch. For non-members there will be a charge of £22.50

Further details will provided in July