Introducing CILIPS President 2012: Peter Reid

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a librarian in possession of a presidential chain must be in want of a blog. Through the good offices of Mistress Hanlon, letting agent in Glasgow, I have now taken possession of the presidential blog from my predecessor, Alan Reid.


I really must begin with an apology for not having been on the blog sooner. February and March are my heaviest teaching months and I have just completed delivering my big Masters module on Managing Library Services which has been good fun, well the students perhaps remain to be convinced about the fun aspect.

I am looking forward to the coming months very much. Being selected to be the CILIPS President is the greatest possible honour and I do sincerely hope to be worthy of the trust that has been shown in me and that I represent our profession to be best of my abilities.

The diary is already filling up with events and I am really excited about attending these and meeting as many of you as I can. Next month, I will be reporting back on the blog about LILAC in Glasgow, the Irish Library Association / CILIP Ireland Joint Conference in Belfast, the Scottish Local Studies Day School in Perth and other events. I also hope to use the blog to give you a bit of an idea about the life of a “library school” academic.

I would really like to pay tribute to Alan for the sterling job he did as President in 2011. He was a superb CILIP Scotland President who exhibited dedication, hard-work, enthusiasm and sheer professionalism at all times. He has been inspirational to all of us and particularly to those of us who have had the opportunity to work closely with him both in Policy and Resources Committee and in CILIPS Council. I would also like to pay tribute to Susan, or Mrs Reid as followers of this blog have come to know her as, who has steadfastly supported our organisation and our events over the last year.

I am also thrilled to have my good friend Dr Audrey Sutton from North Ayrshire as my Vice President for the year and know that she will be a fantastic ambassador for CILIPS in 2013.

We know that times are tough but in choosing Enriching Society as the theme for the year, I want us to be able to showcase how good we are as a profession, to shout about the fantastic contribution that libraries and information services make to our communities and to our society on so many different levels. I am confident that through our events, both nationally and locally, we will be able to do that loudly and clearly; National Libraries Day last month was a starting point but let’s keep that momentum up and shout loudly about how fantastic libraries (and librarians) are.