Dear me. So we don't want CILIP to take on any role that might upset anyone for any of a hundred different reasons. Wake up! Whilst the LA fiddles with name changes they prefer to ignore the bonfire that other professions are making of our "professionalism". Any organisation that allows adverts to be inserted into its vacancy supplements offering the equivalent of a poke with a sharp stick and a packet of peanuts in exchange for the professional services of a trained librarian (have a look at some of the adverts for school librarians if you doubt the accuracy of this description) deserves a boot up the backside from its disgruntled members.
We may lack the traditional clout of the BMA when it comes to negotiating and setting standards on behalf of its members, but that doesn't mean that things can't change, or that the LA/CILIP - proud upholders of standards of professionalism when obliging its own members to jump through hoops like well-trained poodles when it comes to acquiring chartership - should meekly accept whatever remuneration other organisations care to proffer to its members. Professionalism might not equal high pay, but our job will never receive the respect it deserves until fair pay becomes a sine qua non.
Meanwhile, it's hard to maintain the fiction of professional standards cross-sector when dinner-ladies are plucked off the playground, ensconced in reclaimed stock cupboards and glamourised with the title "School Librarian". Instead of devoting hours to agonising about logos perhaps the LA/CILIP might spend some time reflecting on the fact that the BMA doesn't accept that you become a doctor by donning a white coat, and the GTC refuses to grant qualified teacher status to applicants who have merely sewed leather patches to the elbows of their fifth-best sports jacket, and give some serious thought as to how its activities can genuinely promote the best interests of the profession.
CILIP may well never attain the professional status of the BMA. But it's something to aspire to, and refusing to accept adverts from organisations that offer insulting rates of pay would be a start.
John Addison
Deputy Librarian
Education Centre Library (0161 627 8463)
Royal Oldham Hospital (NHS) Trust
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