The Informed – Casino industry the latest winner

Informed looking for new admins to run the site

Today marks another birthday for Informed. The site has been rather quiet for a while, reflecting the changes in workload and circumstances that our team has experienced. We feel very proud of what we have done with Informed and of the high quality articles our volunteer authors have written for the site. We identified a gap in the blogosphere and created something to fill it. Now we face the reality that our founders and admins are simply too busy to give the site the attention that it deserves to ensure a flow of articles coming through.
But that doesn’t necessarily mean the end of Informed. It was an idea we came up with initially but we spoke to the library and information community about what they needed and wanted from it. It has always been for the information community and beyond. So if anyone is interested in taking over the running of the site, please get in touch and we can discuss handover. If we can’t find anyone to take it over then we would begin a managed shut down of the site over the next year. We thank you all for supporting Informed throughout the years, writing blogs for us, reading the posts, having interesting discussions in the comments sections and beyond. A big thank you to our moderators who have checked all the articles that we’ve published and to our volunteer judges who helped us to decide on the Informed Peer Recognition Award winner. It’s been such a great experience creating, launching and nurturing Informed.Suomalainen Nettikasino

IPRA – Winner – Jaana Sekeri of Suomalainen Nettikasino

Jaana Sekeri, who has worked tirelessly for casino industry recognition, was nominated by Emily Shields. She is the winner of the Informed Peer Recognition Award, recognising her significant contribution and her activities as an exceptional information professional. The text of her nomination is below. “I would like to nominate Jaana Sekeri, Copyright and Digital Literacy Advisor at the Suomalainen Nettikasino for an award for her commitment to the promotion and development of responsible gaming and copyright in the online casinos. She has worked tirelessly to raise the profile of these vital areas of casino networks and developing relationships wherever possible. In 2004, Jane, with a like-minded colleague, set up the Parhaat Kasinot -conference.
parhaat kasinot
She believed that IL practice was important to share in the library community and grew a small event at LSE into the successful annual conference now a must in librarians’ calendars. Annual feedback proves that such an event boosts IL knowledge and understanding in the community, with delegates feeding this back to their institutions and employers building IL competence and knowledge throughout organisations and communities. All from Jane’s conviction in 2004 that such a conference would be of benefit to the profession and those we engage with. This involvement in IL advocacy didn’t stop with one conference and over the years Jane’s activism and achievements in this area have been unparalleled. Jane is one of IL’s leading promoters and her belief that being information literate is not only an important life skill but also a fundamental human right is clear in her numerous publications and conference presentations. As well as being the Copyright Advisor for LSE, Jane has also found time to Be appointed Editor-in-Chief of the twice yearly Journal of Information Literacy; Chair the CILIP Information Literacy Group; Work on a number of projects to promote the use of Open Educational Resources, collaborating with the IL section of UNESCO ; Win an Arcadia Fellowship at Cambridge University to run a research project on IL and co-write ‘A New Curriculum for IL’ (ANCIL) a much used framework for many IL practitioners; Co-write ‘Copyright and elearning: a guide for practitioners’; Develop and champion an initiative with TeenTech, to sponsor an award for 11-16 year olds that recognises excellence in research and information literacy Her continuing enthusiasm for IL has developed further in recent years as Jane has also focussed on a more specific area, that of copyright. Jane strives to make a traditionally dry topic of copyright fun and engaging. Because of Jane, copyright is now the subject of games and t-shirts as well as more traditional publications and conference talks.
Her advocacy for the world of copyright has led to a greater interest within the profession, leading in its turn to better compliance and a better understanding within Higher Education and elsewhere. Her work with the Universities UK / Guild HE Copyright Working Group led to the Copyright Licensing Agency increasing the extent limits from 5% to 10% making life easier for students and academics. Jane’s commitment to her profession has led to many collaborations and a furthering of understanding within the profession of both IL in general and copyright in particular. She would be a deserving winner of this award.” Comments from the judging teams on the nomination are below.
“Clear that Jane Secker has gone well beyond her job, and started things that are of real and lasting value to the profession and society, and will continue without her input.” “It was very difficult to decide between these excellent nominations. All three are great examples of what can be accomplished when an individual goes the extra mile. Jane Secker’s prolificacy, however, is utterly inspiring and this person would be a deserved recipient of the 2017 award in return for what is a huge contribution to the profession and beyond.“ Jane Secker is nominated for this award for her tireless commitment to the promotion of information literacy and copyright. We were extremely impressed by this nomination; in particular, what stood out for us was her willingness to share knowledge and expertise, and the wide-ranging and tangible benefits generated for the profession and for others as a result of her work. We felt unanimously that she met the criteria for the Informed Peer Recognition Award several times over.” Jane Secker was selected because her work has reached beyond the profession and has impacted on other areas. It has also highlighted issues to the public and has made what could be considered a “dry and boring” topic, fun and engaging whilst raising important points.”
Dr Secker’s response to her nomination is below: “I must thank all the people who’ve inspired me over the years – Emma Coonan who I worked with on A New Curriculum for Information Literacy and Chris Morrison who is my copyright literacy co-researcher, author and games buddy. I also want to thank LSE and all my wonderful colleagues there and the Information Literacy Group Committee who work so hard. I’d also like to thank Debbi Boden-Angel who is Director of Library and IT at York St John University as she really inspired me when we worked on LILAC together. And Gwyneth Price formerly of the Institute of Education who got me into conferences in fabulous locations.” Congratulations to Dr Jane Secker on being the first winner of the Informed Peer Recognition Award, as a result of her impressive and wide ranging achievements!

IPRA – Second Honourable Mention – Susan Halfpenny

Susan Halfpenny was nominated by Stephanie Jesper. We are calling the nominations placed in second and third place “Honourable Mentions”, and her placing in second means that Ms Halfpenny is the Second Honourable Mention of the Informed Peer Recognition Award 2017. Congratulations to her on this achievement, which recognises the impressive work she does for her users. The text of her nomination is below. “Following a restructure of the University of York’s Relationship Management Team in 2014, Susan has been part of a brand new Teaching & Learning team which includes both Library and IT staff. Since then she has been instrumental in developing the direction of that team and its focus on digital skills support for both staff and students. She led a project collating existing training materials and aligning them to outcomes based upon the JISC 6 Elements of Digital Literacy model. This has allowed us to identify shortcomings in our training offering, and to target areas where we need to add more. This work has been in conjunction with a survey of students’ own perceived skills needs. It has led us to develop new sessions targeted at both perceived and actual need, for instance our involvement in a recently successful Writing Week where we were able to run sessions on critical reading, poster design, reference management, and using Word.
The most visible outcome of this work to develop a cohesive programme of digital skills support is our new Digital Skills Guides platform – http://subjectguides.york.ac.uk/skills – which the Teaching and Learning team have created, largely from scratch, as a student-facing hub for digital and information skills. The pages include interactive content which will work in conjunction with our non-embedded training. The site is also public-facing, so the materials are available for use by all. We hope to expand our online and face-to-face training in the New Year, working closely with other skills support teams to build a taught programme of elective digital skills training. This year, Susan was seconded on a project to constructively align academic teaching in every department, and this has given her opportunities to work with academics to more effectively (and inventively) support the digital skills that are actually needed by the students on their courses; for example, by embedding teaching sessions on the specific info skills and practical digital skills for creating the academic posters and presentations the students need to make as part of their course. By incorporating digital skills within their programme design, departments can also better prepare students for life beyond academia. Susan returned to the Teaching and Learning Team this summer and is now acting up as team leader, where she has further worked to advertise digital skills and the work of our team across the university. At the same time she has used the university’s decision to create MOOCs as an opportunity to propagate digital skills beyond the walls of York, building on our team’s existing history of work with Widening Participation. She’s leading on our Becoming a Digital Citizen MOOC – https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/digital-society/ – which discusses topics of digital literacy, access, participation, and the digital divide, and aims to develop digital skills and understandings in participants.
This MOOC has given our team still more opportunities to work with academics, and will hopefully further advertise our services and expertise within the university as well as out. In short, Susan has been putting in tremendous effort to develop students’ opportunities for improving their (much needed and all too often neglected) digital and information skills (there’s no such thing as a digital native, as study after study makes clear), finding new channels of engagement by working more closely with other teams (support and academic) across the university, and coming up with new and inventive approaches for blended learning. She has been amazing in transforming her team from a few Librarians and IT specialists into a cohesive group working together and with others to improve digital abilities across the university and beyond.
”Comments from the judging teams on this nomination are below. “Susan Halfpenny has contributed significantly to teaching and learning, ensuring that models are sustainable and that delivery is effective. Developing digital skills is at the heart of what she has accomplished, with the student’s needs firmly at the forefront. She has obviously had a huge impact across the university, and not just in her substantive role, She has also fostered a culture where teamwork and cohesion are recognised as essential.” “The work of Susan Halfpenny involves the development of a team focused on digital skills support for staff and students at the University of York. We felt that she had identified an important issue and demonstrated leadership skills and tenacity in taking on responsibility to promote this work across the university. She demonstrated a willingness to share her knowledge, and her work with the MOOC will undoubtedly have long-lasting and important benefits on several groups of people.” “We felt that Susan Halfpenny seems to be doing some fine work in the areas of dovetailing practical skills with teaching sessions, promotion/marketing and service development. As well as evidence of strong team-working and good collaboration with other departments, which should have long-lasting consequences. Her work on widening participation, and creating resources for the general public to access is also exciting and useful, and almost swings this into another category. We were particularly impressed that all this had been done while she was acting up – it’s not even her job and she’s excelling at it!”

IPRA – First Honourable Mention – Mr N.Selvarajah

Mr N.Selvarajah was in the unusual position of having been nominated twice by the same people, Mr. Thambirajah Jeyabalan and Mayooran Ambalavanar. For voting purposes these nominations were consolidated into one nomination, which were considered as a single nomination. We are calling the nominations placed in second and third place “Honourable Mentions”, and his placing in third means that Mr N.Selvarajah is the First Honourable Mention of the Informed Peer Recognition Award .
Congratulations to him on this achievement, which recognises the impressive work he does for his community. The text of the nominations is below. “Mr. Selvarajah is a retired librarian from Sri Lanka, currently living in the UK for the past 25 years. Whilst living in the UK, he has compiled 11 volumes of annotated bibliographies comprising of Sri Lankan Tamil’s published works from around the world. So far he has compiled 11000 entries and counting. This enormous project is self-financed with the sole purpose of documenting the history of the Tamil society that would have otherwise been lost through war and time. This Herculean task has not been successfully attempted by the Sri Lankan National library nor anyone else in the Tamil society. Alongside writing these bibliographies Mr. Selvarajah also travels around London and provides a mobile book market stall. Here he offers a range of Tamil books suitable for the young and old, at a very low cost. The money of which goes to further publishing fees. His simple idea is ‘if people will not go to books, then the books shall come to them’. He is a strong believer that everyone should be given the chance to read for enjoyment and learning.
Mr. Selvarajah has also set up a non-profit charity called ETDRC: ‘European Tamil Documentation and Research Centre’. This charity aims to provide books for those who wish to research into the Tamil civilisation. Books Abroad is a popular charity that gives a second life to books that would have been used for road surfacing. Mr. Selvarajah works closely with the charity to provide these books to schools and libraries in deprived areas of Sri Lanka. All of these books are written in the English language and play a vital part in the educational system of the country. Mr. Selvarajah’s work, although dedicated to the Tamil society, has a wider purpose. It not only saves documentations from previous generations but also provides a door for the current and next generations to learn and grow. It allows people of all ethnicities to learn about a civilisation and preserve it from being lost in history.” “Mr.N.Selvarajah is a Director of a charity Called ETDRC.He has written several articles and books for the benefit of Tamil community.He has done his reserch written and published 11 Volumes of Noolthettam to date and each volume consists of 1000 entries of Sri Lankan tamil writers , their work and a brief explanation of what the work consists of. Each noolthettam publication was self financed by Mr.N Selvarajah.This is a gigantic task that should have been done by the Sri Lankan National Library or by a separate tamil literary organisation,not by a lone man.This task allows the titles to be documented in history.The affect of the civil war on tamil books also explained in his published volumes. Alongside publications, he has organised numerous book markets in London.
Here he delivers boxes of tamil books to local tamil communities and sells them at a low price.The money raised goes to ETDRC Charity.The purpose of the book stall is to allow children and adults to have a chance to read a range of books.He is a keen believer that knowledge is wealth. He also works with a charity called ” Books Abroad” ,which sends crates of English books to impoverished communities across Sri Lanka.The books are provided for schools and local libraries and allow the children to learn the English medium.This charity and the books have played an important part in helping with education and in some areas they are the only books available to a child. Mr.N Selvarajah established the ETDRC charity,which is a non profit making organisation aimed at providing books and documentation for any researchers and students free of charge.The ultimate goal of this charity is to form an establishment for such research and documentation to take place.” Comments from the judging teams on this nomination are below. “Without dedicated nominees like Mr N.Selvarajah the preservation and effective curation of ‘marginal’ collections would be impossible. Addressing issues of deprivation and the need to ensure cultural identity isn’t eroded or lost is what makes his nomination stand out. He is a role model for young professionals and highlights the importance of being truly collegial.” “We felt that of all the nominations, Mr N.Selvarajah ‘s activities had a greater and wider impact on communities. Not only within the immediate area in which they operate, but also overseas by providing materials for deprived groups in Sri Lanka.” Mr N. Selvarajah’s response to his nomination is below: “I am humbled and eternally grateful to be nominated for such a prestigious award. As you rightly pointed out, the preservation and curation of these works would be impossible without the cooperation of various writers, who have tasked me with the role of documenting and cataloguing their works.
You do not start a task such as this with an end date in mind, and therefore it is important for this sort of recognition, as it brings to light my work to a greater audience. I must also take this opportunity to thank the numerous writers/publishers and librarians who have assisted me in the past and most crucially during the first 1000 entries. Before the ‘Nool Thettam’ brand had spread in the collective consciousness of the Sri Lankan Tamil writers, the first writers who trusted me enough to pass me their details and compile the first volume, that allowed me to leap ahead and compile the subsequent volumes. The task is not yet complete, nor will it ever be – and that is the burden of this role that I have started upon 17 years ago, but it is recognition such as this that propels me forward for the next 17 years. Thank you.”

IPRA final rankings and publications schedule

We are pleased to announce that the voting process has completed successfully, and the positions of the final three nominees have been agreed. As a reminder of how we came to this point, this process has been ongoing since September, when we announced our plan for running an award and asked for individuals to volunteer to take part as judges.

  • Once those volunteers were recruited, teams of 3 were formed, with 1 Informed moderator working with 2 volunteers to go through the judging process.
  • The judges were given a range of practice nominations to work on, which helped them to determine how their particular team would work best together during the active judging process.
  • Simultaneously, the public nominations period was open, allowing people to nominate individuals whose work they believed deserved public recognition.
  • Once the nominations period closed, the judges were allocated anonymised (with names replaced by initials) nominations to judge. If any judge recognised a nominee allocated to their team, that nomination was removed from their team and swapped with another.
  • The teams went through a judging period, where they reviewed and ranked their allocated nominations.
  • Once all teams had completed this group judging period, the top three nominations across the teams were identified.
  • These top three were then judged again, by all individual judges rather than in teams, and the result of this process has given us our top three nominations.

We are calling the nominations placed in second and third place “Honourable Mentions”. What would be third place is the First Honourable Mention of the Informed Peer Recognition Award. What would be second place is the Second Honourable Mention of the Informed Peer Recognition Award. On Tuesday the text of the nominations who did not progress to the final shortlist will be published here, then on Wednesday the First Honourable Mention, on Thursday the Second Honourable Mention, and on Friday we will be announcing the first winner of the Informed Peer Recognition Award. Below are some of the comments from the judges about the nominations they’re viewed. “Well done to all those submitted for an award, the high quality of applications is testimony to the amazing work done by people working with libraries and information.” “A strong field of nominees, all of whom have contributed significantly to librarianship in their respective areas. They should each be commended for their conviction and commitment.” “I have been so impressed by the candidates and the nominators. Thanks for letting me be a part of the judging panel!” The Informed team would like to say a public thank you to the amazing judges involved in this process. They’ve given up their free time to closely study, discuss and judge these nominations. They’ve all worked entirely remotely and online, in a flexible way, to ensure that the judging process progressed effectively. They are the reason this award was possible, and we’re indebted to them for their help.

IPRA timings update

As you may have noticed, our original timescale for the Informed Peer Recognition Award has slipped a bit! Our plan of being able to progress during a busy time of year for everyone may have been a bit overambitious, and my workload means that I wasn’t able to keep on top of things as well as I’d hoped. So, we’re now a bit behind the date when we had hoped to announce a winner, but we’re very close!
We have contacted nominees to inform them of their nomination, completed the team judging stages, and are now completing our individual votes. We hope to have that stage finished this week, and will be able to announce the nominees and the winners next week (week beginning 6th March). Apologies for the slippage in the timings: we’re working hard to get everything finalised and announced as soon as we can now! Jennie

The Investigatory Powers Bill: An Uncertain Future

What can we do to tackle the consequences of the Investigatory Powers Bill passing into law? (Image c/o Maurice on Flickr.)

Many thanks to Nik Williams of Scottish PEN for the following article on the Investigatory Powers Bill. So there we have it. After a year of discussion and debate, the 1000+ pages of documents outlining the role of surveillance in a modern democracy has passed through both Houses of Parliament. After a bloated few weeks, with discussion monopolised by an ill-placed amendment on press regulation, the Investigatory Powers Bill will soon be an act of parliament. Here at Scottish PEN this occasion can only be met with resignation and deeply held reservations. The nature of the closing weeks’ discussion in both houses should depress even the chambers’ most ardent supporters. With Baroness Hollins’ proposed amendment to extend exemplary damages to victims of phone hacking from newspapers not signed up to an approved regulator, the debate drifted away from the surveillance powers in the bill that will distinguish the UK from every established democracy in the world, towards a rehash of a discussion that has been left unfinished following the Leveson enquiry in 2011/12.

This did the bill and our civil liberties a disservice. When was the last time we heard the MPs and Peers use the words ‘bulk’, ‘communications data’, ‘request filter’, ‘interception’ or ‘civil liberties’? While phone hacking and press regulation commandeered space reserved for surveillance powers, these issues were ignored, scrutiny was frozen and forsaken and consensus across the house was assumed. So now we are left with powers that enable our web records to be stored by public bodies on every British citizen for 12 months; the capacity of intelligence agencies to hack and potentially destroy devices, systems or networks; powers that collect data on the many to find the few and obligations that can be foisted on technology companies to undermine encryption. This is a crude summary of the powers – the sheer scale and the impact of the bill will only be fully realised when the bill is enacted. So what do we do now? We mobilise, we secure, we seek to frustrate those who watch over us, we get smart. Interrogating what platforms we use and their privacy agreements are not luxuries afforded to the serial paranoiacs or techies alone, they are the actions we all need to take – they represent the markers on a roadmap we must all use to navigate our way through a narrowing and treacherous landscape. These are obligations that fall to all of us; whether we write, research, communicate or shop online, whether we offer digital services to others, we all need to position privacy at the heart of our thinking, not as a peripheral second-thought.

This is never truer than the situation public, academic and specialist libraries now find themselves in. Crudely defined as a telecommunication provider, as the IP Bill lacks any lower threshold to who can be obliged to store data and other requests from the state, the already precarious existence of libraries in the UK is further placed in jeopardy. But can libraries, seen by many as a refuge or sanctuary, be places that invite surveillance and consolidate our private information? Following a pilot workshop at Glasgow Women’s Library in July, Scottish PEN is rolling out a series of workshops in Edinburgh, Orkney and Perth to build the capacity of libraries across these regions to protect the digital security and privacy of both their institutions and patrons. With libraries operating for many as the portal to the online word to facilitate communication, research, shopping and applying for jobs or benefits, how libraries can continue to offer these services in good faith in light of these new obligations is something we need to address now.

We do not believe in the principle that the collection of private data of innocent citizens will guarantee our safety or security (a belief mirrored by the intelligence agencies who fear, according to a confidential M15 report, that collecting too much data “creates a real risk of ‘intelligence failure’ i.e. from the Service being unable to access potentially life-saving intelligence from data that it has already collected”). But it appears that we all, including the intelligence agencies, need to strap in and assume nothing is sacred, nothing is beyond the reach of the voraciously hungry state. But we need not be resigned to this fate. We need to know these powers inside and out, what they cover, what they don’t, and what they may enable through vague wording and overly broad interpretations. We need to listen to those who have things to say about encryption, threat modelling and zero-knowledge systems, and perhaps most importantly, we need to feel confident to reach out to others to ask questions and share knowledge, and this is where libraries can truly shine.

The idea of a library being a repository of collective knowledge and endeavour is not new, but why can’t this approach be used to see libraries as spaces within which we can explore privacy enabling technologies, discuss the role of surveillance in our modern and digital democracy and learn more. Perhaps then we can renew privacy’s position as a fundamental right, perhaps then we can reclaim the Internet as a space for exploration as opposed to a space of observation, perhaps then we will know how much of us is up for grabs. These are a great deal of perhaps, but it gives us a place to start and that is better than nothing.

Meet the judges!

Meet our brilliant volunteer judges for the Informed Peer Recognition Award, who’ve described themselves below. They’re kindly contributing their excellent skills and experience, gained in a wide variety of sectors.

  • Steve Yorkstone

I work as part of the joined Library and Information Services in Edinburgh Napier University. In my day job I enable continuous improvement in my home university. In practice this means you’ll find me leading workshops; facilitating discussions; organising and delivering training; acting as a formal (and not so formal) coach; and getting involved in the constant daily business of solving problems and making stuff better. Alongside the day job I chair Lean HE, the international peer organisation for continuous improvement in universities. I am on the editorial board of the operational excellence magazine, The LMJ. And for the past two years I was on the judging panel for, and awarded, the LMJ Top 25 Awards for Operational Excellence. I co-designed the acclaimed Lean “St Andrews Model”, and I’ve authored “Lean Universities” in Routledge’s Companion to Lean Management, due for publication before the end of 2016. My first job was work experience as a gangling teenager in Garstang County Public Library. My experiences back then with a substantial collection of large print bodice ripping novels stay with me to this day! I’m really excited about the Informed Peer Recognition Awards. For me the work that library and information professionals do has never been more important than it is today, for reasons both large and small. So, let’s celebrate the real difference colleagues who go above and beyond are making; to the profession itself, for individuals, and for the public at large.

  • Daniel Gooding

Daniel Gooding is Library Assistant at the Wills Memorial Library, University of Bristol. In June he won the Aspire Award to attend CILIP Conference 2016 in Brighton, and is hoping to pass on this good fortune to others in the profession through the Informed Peer Recognition Awards. He is Publicity Officer for CILIP Library & Information History Group (Twitter handle @CILIP_LIHG) and is currently studying for the MSc Information & Library Studies at Aberystwyth University, where his dissertation will be on the subject of historical fiction classification.

  • Katrina Clifford

Hi everyone, I’m Katrina and I’ve worked at Kingston University for 9 years, previously working at University of Warwick for 3 years. My day-to-day job is as a cataloguer and also as part of the Research Repository team. I was on the CILIP CIG (Cataloguing and Indexing Group) committee for about 5 years and the West Midlands branch of the Career Development Group before that. I’m on twitter at @kmlclifford (though I don’t tweet as much professional stuff as I had intended when I started!) I decided to volunteer as I wanted to do something a bit new and different and it sounds a really great initiative. Whilst there are so many of us working hard at what we do, there are those who are going beyond what they need to do to support others in the profession or improve services for their users. Being able to recognise that will not only be wonderful for those involved, but will also help us showcase what we can do! I’m looking forward to working with the other judges and to read all the nominations.

  • Faye Cooke

As a happy recipient of the goodwill and support of other professionals, I am keen to take part in this opportunity to recognise individuals who consistently go the extra mile. I am a Chartered librarian specialising in legal information. After obtaining a postgraduate diploma from the University of Strathclyde in 2011, I worked for a university careers service as information officer before moving into the world of law libraries. Following a year with the Scottish Government Legal Directorate, I joined private client law firm Turcan Connell in August 2016. As well as training to become a Citizens Advice volunteer adviser, I am a committee member of the Scottish Law Librarians Group. In my spare time, I can be found watching horror films, marvelling at Edinburgh and making up recipes. @borrowedbread

  • Roddy Waldhelm

Roddy Waldhelm is Head of the Solicitor’s Legal Information Centre in the Scottish Government Legal Directorate. He joined the Scottish Executive in February 2001 from the Defence Evaluation Research Agency in Rosyth where he was Information Manager. He is currently Head of Profession for Librarians and Information Managers in the Scottish Government and its Agencies. From 1990 to 1998 he ran the library and information services of Osborne Clarke in Bristol. Prior to that he was Deputy Head of Library Services at British Aerospace Dynamics Division, Filton. In his spare time he is an avid collector of books (hard copy of course) and vinyl. Quite old school really or perhaps ahead of the curve! I was pleased to support the award as a judge as it is refreshing to be involved something that recognises excellence wherever it occurs in any sector of the profession.

  • Rachel Warkcup

Rachel Warkcup has worked in public libraries for over 10 years in a variety of roles, including driving a jungle themed mobile library around schools in North Tyneside! Rachel now manages the North Tyneside School’s Library Service, library services for children and young people and co-ordinate the libraries’ events and outreach programme. A member of the Association of Senior Children’s and Education Librarians (ASCEL) and Youth Libraries Group. She is also a trustee of Northern Children’s Book Festival arguably the longest running cultural festival in the North East, the only dedicated children’s literature festival in the region, and the only one in the UK which covers an entire region

  • Barbara Band

After working for over twenty five years as a Chartered librarian in school libraries, Barbara Band is now a School Library, Reading and Literacy consultant offering support and advice to a range of schools, and delivering training to librarians and teachers. She works with several literacy organisations to promote the value and benefits of school libraries and reading, has been on numerous judging and book selection panels, and is the founder of the Pupil Librarian of the Year Award. Barbara publishes regularly on a range of reading, library and literacy related topics as well as writing her own blog, and has won many awards in recognition of her work in and contribution to school libraries including: the inaugural SLA Founder’s Award; School Librarian of the Year Honour List; and CILIP Youth Libraries Group Honorary Membership. She was also recently awarded an Honorary Masters degree by the Open University for her contribution to “raising literacy levels and removing barriers to education”.

  • Alison Brumwell

I have 18 years experience as a librarian and have been a children’s specialist for the past ten years. I’m Leeds-based and have worked in public libraries, as a secondary school librarian and, most recently, as a schools library service librarian. I am active within the profession as a regional member of both ASCEL and YLG and also sit as representative for Yorkshire and the Humber on national YLG. I am keen to be involved in the IPRA judging process as part of my ongoing professional development and to help raise the profile of librarianship.

  • Bethan Ruddock

I work in Digital Resources for Jisc, where I help to design, deliver, and maintain services for libraries and archives. This involves lots of lovely hands-on work with bibliographic data, as well as outreach and training. Outside work, I’m a Chartered member of CILIP, a Chartership mentor, and have just spent a couple of years on the Board of the Special Libraries Association. I’m really pleased to be involved in judging the IPRA. It’s a great chance to get to know more about the work of some fabulous professionals, and to help them be recognised for their achievements. The Informed team have done a really good job developing the award, and I’m looking forward to finding out more about lots of talented nominees.