Libraries Connected Seminar: Connecting Communities, 20 & 21 June 2023

Salma Barakat is currently in a seconded role as the DWP Library Partnership Coordinator in Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead (RBWM). She works in partnership with the DWP and their clients, sign posting those who are finding it difficult to get into work onto relevant services and partners as well as organising monthly job fairs with local employers. She has over 19 years’ experience in libraries, starting as Bookstart Officer and working in partnership with the SureStart Centres in Slough. Roles since she joined RBWM include Outreach, Advocacy and the main lead for the digital team before being seconded to her current role. Personal strengths include excellent skills in customer service, training, communication, networking, and time management. She is also self-motivated, able to influence at all levels within and across organisations which produce strong and effective partnerships.

Ruth Carlyle trained as an information scientist in the pharmaceutical sector before moving into the voluntary sector. Notably, she set up the first information service at the Motor Neurone Disease Association and developed local cancer information and support services for Macmillan Cancer Support.

She joined Health Education England (now part of NHS England) in April 2017 as Head of Knowledge and Library Services across the East of England and the Midlands, extending from April 2021 to include the North of England. In this role, she provides professional advice and strategic leadership to NHS knowledge and library services based within local NHS organisations. Ruth is the co-lead nationally for NHS libraries’ work on health literacy and patient information. Her doctorate is on public involvement in decision making in the NHS.

Contacts:

Twitter: @RuthCarlyle

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ruthcarlyle/?originalSubdomain=uk

NHS knowledge and library services: https://library.nhs.uk/

Fiona Diaper is in her 5th year as an Outreach Librarian with North Yorkshire Libraries. Prior to joining the library service Fiona spent 15 years in the Museums sector working with voluntary and independent museums in York and North and East Yorkshire in curatorial, development and leadership roles.

Fiona has an MA in Museums Studies from the University of Leicester and a BA (Hons) in History with Archaeology from the University of Winchester.

Paul Clifford is a dedicated local government professional with 30 years experience working across a number of organisation including the South Yorkshire Pension Authority, Leeds, Barnsley and Oldham Councils. More recently, Paul has led on the delivery of the ambitious growth plans within Barnsley which includes the highly successful Glassworks retail and leisure scheme, development of strategic growth clusters and the development of the Principal Towns investment programme.

From august of last year Paul has been employed in the role of Director of Economy at Oldham Council responsible for driving forward the ambitious £280m Creating a Better Place programme, delivering the ambitious Green New Deal strategy which will see the borough being carbon neutral by 2030 and working within the Greater Manchester Combined Authority City Region to shape the emerging Mayoral Development Zone – Atom Valley ensuring that growth opportunities are accessible to Oldham residents and businesses.

Paul Howarth is the Director of Audiences and Content at Suffolk Libraries, the independent charity and Arts Council England National Portfolio Organisation that delivers library services across Suffolk. Paul has worked in libraries in a range of roles covering 23 years and has contributed to many regional and sector-wide projects and developments. His current role includes responsibility for physical and digital library resources, cultural programming, and data informed marketing and audience development. In 2022/23 Paul worked closely with The Audience Agency on a research project into the behaviours and perceptions of library users and non-users, and the barriers faced in wider engagement with library services.

Dionne Hood is the Library Development Manager for Bradford libraries and is responsible for the service’s Reading and Culture offers.

Dionne came into libraries after working as a college lecturer, a museum deputy manager and self-employed ceramicist. Dionne is a mixed media artist and is part of the ‘Adventures of…’ collective of women artists.

Isobel Hunter, MBE is the first CEO of Libraries Connected and led its transformation from a membership body into a professional team. Under her leadership the team has more than doubled in size and secured over £3 million additional income to deliver development programmes including for diverse leadership and income generation. Isobel was awarded an MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours in 2021 for her work to help library services adapt to the COVID-19 and her focus of the past year has been supporting libraries to recover from the pandemic. 

Isobel began her career as an archivist and for 15 years she managed extraordinary collections including at the Wellcome Library, Marks & Spencer and the National Gallery. She then moved into sector leadership roles with the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council, Arts Council England and The National Archives. The focus of these roles was capacity development in libraries, archives and museums, achieved by capitalising on the expertise within these sectors.

Isobel believes in the power of libraries to change lives and to build stronger and happier communities.

Ayub Khan is Libraries Connected President and Head of Universal Services for Warwickshire County Council. He is an active member of several national bodies representing arts and culture including Deputy Chair Arts Council England (Midlands). He is a Fellow and past President of CILIP - the Library and Information Association. In 2013, Ayub was awarded an MBE for his services to Libraries and Communities. Ayub’s interest extends to international development, with a strong focus on diversity and inclusion. He has worked on library developments for the British Council in several countries. He began his career in children’s service. 

Andrew Laird is passionate about innovation and radical reform in public services. He is the co-founder and Chief Executive of Mutual Ventures, a specialist public services consultancy working with central government, councils and the NHS to make public services better, more sustainable and more connected to communities. Andrew has a particular interest in the Levelling Up agenda and is working with a range of councils to explore how they can make best use of existing and new social infrastructure, including libraries.

Andrew hosts the Radical Reformers podcast for public service leaders and is a Non-Executive on the Board of PossAbilities CIC (an adult social care organisation based in Greater Manchester). He is also a Commissioner on the Poverty Strategy Commission and a member of the DCMS College of Experts.

Dave Lloyd has worked in Public Libraries for close to 30 years and presently holds the post of Service Development Manager for Coventry Library Service. He is also the lead for Libraries Connected Information and Digital Universal Offer and represent Libraries Connected on the DCMS 's Media Literacy Taskforce Steering Board. David has recently retired as a trustee for Coventry Citizens Advice a post he held for 19 years.

Lauren Lucas is Adviser for Culture, Tourism and Sport at the Local Government Association (LGA): the national voice for local government in England, working to support, promote and improve councils, where she is the policy lead for culture, including libraries, archives, museums, heritage, arts and the creative industries.

She is a member of the English Public Libraries Stakeholder Working Group, convened by Arts Council England and works closely with Libraries Connected and other key national library stakeholders to support the sector. This includes the LGA and Arts Council England’s programme of library peer challenges and leadership training for cultural services. She coordinated the work of the LGA’s recent Commission on Culture and Local Government and is the author of its report, Cornerstones of Culture. Before joining the LGA, Lauren led the policy team at the Local Government Information Unit (LGiU), developing research and programmes on a wide range of policy areas, from adult social care to housing and commissioning.

Previous projects include establishing the Havering Museum in Romford, coordinating Havering’s 2012 Games programme and leading the LGiU’s work as part of the Fawcett Society’s Commission on Women in Local Government.

Lee Elliot Major is Britain’s first Professor of Social Mobility, based at the University of Exeter. He was previously Chief Executive of the Sutton Trust.

His work is dedicated to improving the prospects of disadvantaged children and young people. He works closely with school leaders, universities, and employers as well as Government policy makers.

His Penguin book Social Mobility and Its Enemies has attracted attention across the world and widely acknowledged as one of the seminal texts on the topic.

Lee is one of the most prominent public voices in national education debates – recently described “as quite a remarkable bloke” on the BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. He regularly advises the Government on education and social mobility, and has championed several reforms to improve the prospects for disadvantaged young people.

He is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences and serves on the Strategic Advisory Network of the Economic and Social Research Council. He is a member of the Department for Education’s NTP Strategic Tutoring Advisory Group.

He was awarded an OBE in the 2019 Queen’s Honours. He is the first in his family to go to university.

He holds several academic posts including Associate, London School of Economics, Centre for Economic Performance, and an Associate Member, Nuffield College, University of Oxford.

Elli Narewska is Head of primary education at the Guardian Foundation and runs the NewsWise programme, developing and delivering media literacy resources and workshops for schools and families as well as teacher and librarian training. Her work aims to make the world of news and media accessible to all young people, raising aspirations and giving them opportunities to make their voices heard. She has worked in news education for over a decade, with particular interest in digital literacy and critical thinking. Prior to this, she was a secondary English teacher working in London comprehensives as well as a variety of SEND settings.

You can follow Elli on Twitter @GetNewsWise @ellinarewska

Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay was appointed Parliamentary Under Secretary of State of Department for Culture, Media and Sport on 7 February 2023.

He was previously was Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport from 30 October 2022 to 7 February 2023, and Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Minister for Arts) at the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport between 30 September 2021 and 20 September 2022.

He was a Lord in Waiting between 14 February 2020 and 20 September 2022.

Petra Roberts is Strategic Service Head for Culture, Libraries and Heritage at Hackney Council.

Petra is passionate about supporting local cultural organisations at risk and fostering greater community cohesion. In 2018, Petra led a philanthropic legacy project that saw the installation of the first permanent sculptures honouring Windrush heritage in the UK which went on to win the prestigious Turner Prize.

Other initiatives that Petra has led on include the Mayor's naming review into a diverse public realm, the Libraries service review and the Discover Young Hackney festival engaging thousands of local people with arts and culture – many for the first time. Previously to local government, Petra worked in various roles in the cultural sector, the National Health Service and as a grantmaker at the National Lottery Fund.

Baroness Sanderson of Welton worked in Fleet Street for seventeen years before moving into government, working as an adviser to The Rt Hon Theresa May, MP, first at the Home Office and then at No10 Downing Street.

She entered the House of Lords in 2019 where she focuses on a variety of issues including social infrastructure, the legacy of the fire at Grenfell Tower, domestic abuse and child sexual abuse.

Nicci Shepherd is the Events, Engagement and Information Manager for Hampshire Library Service and one of three Climate Change Champions in the service’s senior management team. Working across external and internal engagement she is committed to ensuring that Hampshire Libraries support their communities to face the challenges of climate change together.

Lyusyena Shum is Executive Director of the "Library Country" Charitable Foundation (Ukraine, Kyiv, www.livelibrary.com.ua), Board Member of the ANTS National Interests Advocacy Network www.ants.org.ua, an expert in the implementation of cultural innovations.

Professor Nick Tyler is Director of CTS and Director at PEARL (Person Environment Activity Research Laboratory). Nick has been following the idea, that the world should be a better place for all species, through a forest of different influences that have come together in the PEARL concept. These influences include understanding what it takes, as a small individual in a large orchestra, to create something that could never exist without such coming together of people, ideas and time; figuring out in industry how products, people, vehicles and time had to be brought together so that people could have the medicines they need; developing new ways of looking at what we mean by engineering and education, society and time; and asking how we as a species might come to figure out the world around us – including people, animals and plants. Each of these brings together the concepts of people, ambience, time and space, and Nick created PEARL so that we can bring these together to find ways of both understanding and communicating how we might be able to live in a better world. The idea continues to lead; we continue to follow; the world awaits.

Vickie Varley is Senior Development Officer (Digital, Information, Stock, Adult Health and Wellbeing and Volunteers) for Oldham Heritage, Libraries and Arts. 

She has worked in public libraries for over 20 years in various roles and is lucky enough to have led on lots of exciting projects, including some to explore the climate emergency with communities in Oldham.

Climate Connections started as a short term funded project and has become part of the day to day in one of Oldham’s smallest libraries.