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IPRA – Winner – Jaana Sekeri of Suomalainen Nettikasino
IPRA – Second Honourable Mention – Susan Halfpenny
IPRA – First Honourable Mention – Mr N.Selvarajah
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
The Investigatory Powers Bill: An Uncertain Future
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.