Sunday, April 26, 2009

Why Charter?

I've been looking at some postings on other blogs about the issue of Chartership and what it means.

As we all know, opinion is divided on whether or not CILIP membership is worth the money, and one area where people often justify the spend is that is gives librarians the opportunity to Charter.

I plan to write a short series of posts looking at the pros and cons of chatership and linking to other blogs where the debate has been raised.

Of course there are many other things to consider when deciding whether or not to hand over your hard-earned cash to CILIP. And other aspects will certainly be drawn upon in this discussion.

If there is any particular aspect of the value (or lack of value) of Chartership that you feel should be raised please do let me know.

This discussion has been had several times already, but there are new professionals coming in all the time and new Chartership candidates starting the process along the way - so it's worth keeping it going. People are obviously continuing to choose Chatership as an option, why is that? There must be some value in it, or people would not continue to register.

Personally I got a lot out of the evidence collection process. And I wonder if the value is in the process, rather than the qualification. (Although having said that, if I do fail (and I'm hoping to find out in May), I will resubmitt, so there must be something in me that wants that piece of paper).

A key part of Chartership is reflective practice. Perhaps a little reflection on why we do it in the first place would be useful?

Are you Chartering and loving it? Why? (see this summary of a related talk)


And the official line? This is what CILIP say about the benefits of membership.

5 comments:

annewelsh said...

Hi Katherine

Thanks for the link, but just for clarity, I'm not "chartering and loving it". My post is a reflection of an excellent talk at Cilip in London, by Caroline de Brun and Angela Jefkins, who are already chartered and loved doing it. I don't want to take the credit for their ideas and enthusiasm! All I've done is a bit of reportage. :-)

Best wishes

Anne

Katharine said...

Thanks for the clarification Anne, I'll re-word.

Danielle said...

Hello,

I just wrote something and after 2 rounds of CAPTCHA and putting in my wordpress ID it was lost...

Basically I am undecided on the value of chartering. None of the colleagues I am friendly with have done this and many are not members of CILIP even. Job descriptions, at best, list chartership as a desirable rather than an essential attribute. Chartering costs £100 (not a lot, but something) and it is unclear where it gets you.

I just went to the Cilip page on Chartership and it still isn't clear to me why I should charter! Can they not provide a concise description of why chartership is "the ‘gold standard’ for library and information professionals"? The clearest thing I could find on there was a step by step list of how to charter here: http://www.cilip.org.uk/qualificationschartership/FrameworkofQualifications/stepguidecharter.htm

I am slightly suspicious of a formal mentorship process as well. I think I would prefer to pick and choose the advice I take to heart from the people I know and work with.

Having said all this, I am still curious to read your upcoming pros and cons, Katherine!

Regards,
Danielle

Katharine said...

Hi Danielle,

Thanks for this, I'm sorry you had a hard time posting the comment - I'm new to Blogger - and I've had a look at the settings but can't seem to find a way to make it easier - I'll chat to some colleagues tomorrow and see if they can advise.

As for the upcoming posts, perhaps I will start with Mentoring and how it helped me. Thanks for the idea.

The Lonely Librarian said...

Hello

I completely agree with Danielle. I didn't find the information provided by Cilip very useful either as to why I should do it. But I found Margaret Watson's book "Building your portfolio" very helpful. It confirmed all my expectations and reasons for wanting to do it and I have now decided to give it a try and posted my registration.
Best wishes
Katja
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