Meet the President

AMANDA QUICK

The President has hidden the names of seven Doctor Who stories in her article. Can you spot them? (The answers can be found on page 16.)

What Stephen Fry might find Quite Interesting about me is that I spent my pre-school years as an unearthly child in a hippie commune. My young mum decided it would take a whole borough to bring me up, so we decamped to a shared house in East London. Our entourage incorporated a children’s theatre group named Soapbox. Growing up around performers rubbed off on me! Us children in the commune would frequently demand our ‘Equity rates’ (ice creams).

Once installed in school and a ‘normal’ home, my natural preference for order over chaos emerged. I was a voracious reader. I used to buy 10p stamps at school to save towards a whole book, which might cost as much as 60p. Many of my old books bear evidence of my first foray into cataloguing. Books were ordered by author and then a running number – so ‘Little women’, for example, was A9. I hadn’t yet grasped the principle of hospitality so new books just got added on the end of the relevant letter! In the days before Idea Stores, I considered a Saturday morning well spent if I went for a swim in East Ham baths, a cup of Horlicks in the adjoining café and half an hour upstairs choosing library books. I gorged on reading during my years as a student in Oxford, navigating the Bodleian’s guard book catalogues like a pro.

After two years as a stressed English teacher, I went back to the drawing board: I fancied a DPhil, but couldn’t dream up a suitable thesis; I considered publishing; I temped for Blackwells and packed parcels for a wonderful antiquarian bookseller. Yes, I do have trouble fitting my CV on two sides of A4! In 1997 I got my first library post as a Subject Assistant at Oxford Brookes University. I look back on Brookes with great fondness for the team and the enjoyable introduction to librarianship, including my first glimpse of wider professional activities courtesy of the local CILIP branch. I found it tremendous fun to explore other libraries (Windsor Castle, the Natural History Museum and the new British Library, as well as regular ‘brown bag lunches’ around Oxford). Special Interest Groups are a refuge for the terminally nosy.

I studied for my library MA in North London, travelling from Oxford and then Birmingham. Memories of library school include a diet of bacon and avocado sandwiches and long evenings with a G&T and the electronic scissors, trying to meet word limits.

My first professional post was as Bibliographic Librarian at Peters Bookselling Services. The highlight of my time at Peters would definitely be meeting Philip Pullman. Lowlight? The weekends spent reading endless Animorphs, Sweet Valley High and Lucy Daniels books for review purposes. I could feel my brain atrophying! The work at Peters could be isolating, but I was grateful for a comprehensive and stimulating Chartership programme.

Which leads me to the Career Development Group. Like many of you, my first contact with the group came at a Chartership course. I was impressed with the welcome, and responded to the call for committee members. West Midlands Division was run by an unstoppable band of two! I was lucky to arrive at the same time as several other enthusiastic recruits. We enjoyed meeting to plan courses, visits and ceilidhs. The committee provided a support network for us to finally put those Chartership submissions to bed. Like many candidates I ended up having to write about two posts: after Peters, I had come full circle to academic libraries, becoming a Subject Librarian at the University of Worcester – a post I found immensely rewarding.

Children know not to accept sweeties from strangers; information professionals ought to be warned against the perils of accepting alcohol from group officers. I first attended National Council as a divisional representative. I vaguely recall a glass of wine, Isabel Hood telling me I was ‘a good woman’, and suddenly I was Associate Advertising Officer. This led to becoming Events Coordinator, a busy but enormously fun post that took me from Edinburgh to Brighton, Chesterfield to Hatfield organising national conferences, the group’s Umbrella sessions and other events. In seven years of involvement with the group, I have met inspiring colleagues, developed leadership and organisational skills, made lifelong friends, learned a few hard lessons and had many memorable moments. Two years serving on the committee of Libraries for Nursing, another active and committed group, further convinced me that committee work can bring a higher level of professional purpose and fulfilment.

I currently work at the University of Abertay Dundee as an Information Specialist (Academic Librarian). My subject portfolio includes Biotechnology, Computing, Engineering and Forensic Science. I’ve given up hope of ever managing a subject I actually understand! Fortunately I work with supportive academics as well as a committed and energetic library team. Abertay is challenging: the last year included an Information Literacy external review; involvement in assessment; wrestling with wikis; delivering external training courses; a gazebo and all the usual collection and liaison work. I don’t have specific career ambitions but would like to remain open to new possibilities and to make a positive contribution wherever I work. My dream is to find a job that makes me bounce out of bed in the morning (this is not just a fantasy – I once knew a woman who was a part-time potter and part-time lay magistrate, and she just couldn’t wait to start each new day!) I achieved Revalidation last year and at some point intend to apply for Fellowship. Continuing Professional Development is for all library and information workers: CDG is a group that welcomes frontline staff, backroom staff, managers, students, directors, lone workers, home workers and more besides.

I think we should consider introducing a medal for the long-suffering partners of group officers. My husband knows the names and roles of everyone on Council. I was a bit worried when he kidnapped my MA coursework and started to design his own faceted classification scheme for Dungeons & Dragons books, but this craze seems to have passed. (He still thinks the Seal of Recognition sounds like a magical artefact.) Without Martyn to collect me from the station at unearthly hours and generally keep me sane, the role of president would be even more daunting.

Brought up a fervent atheist, I have been a Christian since my teens and my faith is very important to me. I lead worship at my local Baptist Church and have often wondered whether one day I will get my events muddled – opening a CDG conference with a song or preaching the benefits of group membership. I anticipate spending a lot of this year praying for wisdom!

When I was a teacher, I barely had energy to hold it together in the classroom; I certainly didn’t have an appetite for the professional scene. To me, being a professional is about having that more expansive vision; seeing your own patch in context; understanding the similar pressures and challenges we all face as well as the idiosyncrasies of the different sectors. Being a professional is about having a persistent identity even when you are unemployed, as I was for five months in Scotland. It’s about being part of a dynamic community. The Career Development Group is dynamic precisely because it embodies this meeting of different sectors and levels and regions.

2008 promises to be an exciting year for the group, with the invasion of Cardiff for our national conference in April and many plots and plans besides. It’s a year of change as we adjust to the new CILIP governance year, Council and Policy Forum. We will seize whatever opportunities we can to feed into these bodies and to keep tabs on the associated debates, reports and shenanigans… Our collaborative partners will be increasingly valuable in these pressured times. We are trying to work smarter, experimenting with virtual meetings and online tools; keeping costs down and pursuing revenue streams while trying to provide clear member benefits. We will fight tooth and nail to retain printed publication of this journal when all around us are losing theirs. (I like to read Impact while stirring my pasta!) In the National Year of Reading, we’ll continue to promote wider access to information and books both at home and abroad. CDG has a reputation for resilience and adaptability, for playing the long game. I confess to occasionally being gripped by the hand of fear when venturing into untried territory, but after the initial earthshock usually end up a great enthusiast. My presidency is only nine months long – blink and you’ll miss it – but I hope during this time I can be a responsible, communicative and encouraging leader to this fantastic team.


Amanda Quick
CDG President 2008
manda_quick@yahoo.co.uk