Why Cilip?

This morning I found incoming traffic from Informationoverlord, thanks to a link to yesterday’s post by Emale. He (I presume Emale = e-male, sorry if I presume too much) was commenting on an interesting post entitled ‘Cilip: What Is It Good For?’ posted at the end of last month.

A couple of general observations before I pass on -

1. I couldn’t help noticing that while most posts on the Overlord’s first page had garnered no comments, this one has 21, spanning the time from the day after it was posted to yesterday. Who knew Cilip was more controversial than music copyright, Ryanair, Manhunt 2 and a “sex-romp case”?
2. I also noticed that although the post went up on 26 January, the first comment from a Cilip representative / employee was not until 11 February … indicating, perhaps, that RSS flows slowly to Cilip HQ … or the Overlord has just made it onto Matthew Mezey’s feed reader … or Cilip Comms has to approve what is posted (not intended as a criticim) … and move pretty slowly (which would be a criticism)

But those just in passing … what I really wanted to say was that Cilip is a massive organisation, incorporating staff, central [voluntary, elected] officers, [voluntary, elected] geographic branch officers, [voluntary, elected] special interest group officers and a whole host of other members who pay their subs, turn up at the events they choose and read what they like. This is a huge constituency, and I’m sure that each individual’s combination of reasons for being a member will be different.

For what it is worth, here, in no particular order, are my own reasons for being a member:

• Cilip in London – As regular readers of this blog know, I’m a semi-regular attender of the Sekforde Arms meetings – good talks, an eclectic and ever-changing mix of information people … and free sausage, chips and sandwiches.
• Library + Information Update - Elspeth Hyams has worked wonders. No longer a publication I file straight in the bin, there is always at least one of the feature articles I want to read, and the news keeps me up to date with new public and academic library initiatives without boring me with the minutiae.
• Health Libraries Group - When I joined DrugScope (my first health role) five years ago, I can’t tell you how helpful the HLG was with publications, events and informal advice from other members. They publish The core collection of medical books, run fantastic conferences and have two equally active subgroups.
• The Gazette – Like a lot of people, I was sceptical when they introduced editorial content. However, in practice, it’s great for flagging up events I might be interested in and it seems to manage to complement Update rather than competing with it.
• Cataloguing & Indexing Group - The two years I spent working in Scotland, CIGS events and the Rare Books Group Newsletter & events were the only reasons I maintained my membership. CIG south of the border has been quiet for a while, but has come back with a vengance since the last conference – we’ve had events on blogging, RDA and MARC21 (London already, Manchester in April) and loads of visits (RHS Lindley next week – can’t wait).

So, I guess for me Cilip is all about keeping informed and networking. Further, I’d say that, as a member, I think of Cilip as something that I am part of, that I can contribute to, and, if there are enough other members with similar views, change.

PS Cilip’s website is down at the moment, so I’ll have to do the links later