Sue Lacey Bryant: What Brings People Into the Profession（图）

Sue Lacey Bryant takes on the role of CILIP President from January,and here she introduces herself and looks at her inspiration and motivation in a career that has spanned sectors–including public and academic libraries,but primarily health.Sue retired from her role as Chief Knowledge Officer for the NHS in England this year and is currently Visiting Professor in Knowledge and Information Mobilisation at Manchester Metropolitan University.

IN my case,I have the staff of Rochester Public library to thank for inspiring me.The Children’s Librarian was ever interested in what I was reading as a child,and she pointed me to different authors.

She drew me in as a Saturday helper.Shelving,using Browne issue,choosing my books for the week,and stopping for a hot jam doughnut on the walk back to the bus stop,were all part of the pleasure.It was she who first suggested I might become a librarian but the idea of becoming an information scientist was seeded in my teens.

Inspired at an early age

Attending a consultation on new bus routes held at the library,I saw that people from more disadvantaged areas of the Medway Towns might be impacted more than others.I wondered if,and how,information about these changes was reaching them?

Meanwhile at school I was learning about Rev.Chad Varah–scriptwriter for The Eagle comic,famed as the founder of The Samaritans.The first church service he took was for a 13-year-old so afraid when she started her periods that she took her own life.Chad Varah vowed to do all he could to promote sex education,and to help people contemplating suicide.For me the dreadful penalty of ignorance came across‘loud and clear’.

Scroll on to a spell working as a library assistant one vacation.The Area Librarian gave me a tour of services of every shape and size and described the different types of careers open to librarians and information specialists.I realised ours is a practical profession through which to make a positive difference.

Fifty years on,I have recently retired as the Chief Knowledge Officer for the NHS in England and have become a Visiting Professor in Knowledge and Information Mobilisation at Manchester Metropolitan University.

Starting out

I worked in the Current Periodicals Room at Birmingham University Library between University and heading onto a Postgraduate Diploma in Library and Information Studies.I observed Mr Nicholls,the Deputy Librarian,managing by being approachable,walking and talking in the corridors,setting projects that arose out of these conversations.

At Birmingham Polytechnic,a fifth of the core programme focused on management,complementing courses on bibliography,cataloguing and indexing,information retrieval,plus libraries and society.Together these gave me a sufficient basis in information science from which to draw,especially in the early years.Equally significantly I met my husband-to-be on the course,and that has made all the difference.

I was fortunate to go straight on to join the final year of a British Library funded user education research project at Newcastle Polytechnic,working with inspirational librarians of the day like Daphne Clark who founded CILIP LIRG.Developing tape slide programmes that academic librarians all around the country could customise and use in local workshops,I see that we were using the cutting-edge technology of the day to introduce undergrads to the literature of their subject and pushing to take wasteful duplication out of our ways of working.

Next,I joined the staff of The¬Library Association for three years,as the Professional Assistant to the late Kate Wood,Education Secretary,a fantastic role model.I learned a lot about workforce development,governance,implementing systems and processes,shaping policy,leading a team,and working with different stakeholders.It was fascinating,yet I had an itch to roll up my sleeves and run a service.When the opportunity arose in the form of a new and hybrid role as Health Education/Information Officer at Croydon Health Authority,I applied without hesitation.Joining the NHS in December 1982,I immediately knew I had found my niche.

Information for all

I have never forgotten my induction week;the health visitor only took me to houses where there were more,and larger,dogs than children;the district nurse to homes where you really didn’t want to drink a cup of tea,and even less to use the loo.They saved Environmental Health till the Friday...I listened and learned.Setting up a new library for public and community health teams,I developed the role as an information broker,aiming to make access to the collection and the service as easy as possible.I worked to promote information flows,and to exploit the whole range of information forms and resources to inform planning,practice,and learning.

It wasn’t long before contacts around the city began sending a trickle of patients who needed information.In response,we launched Croydon Healthline one of the first telephone health information services in the country.In the context of the government’s Don’t Die of Ignorance campaign about HIV/AIDS,which was both coy and alarming,we brought forward the launch to November 1987.I was learning new skills–fundraising,marketing,engaging with the press.I managed to get BT South-East on board,and they delivered our directory of tapes to every household in Croydon with the telephone bills.

A portfolio career

Moving to Buckinghamshire with a young family in 1990,my career took a quite unexpected turn.I became a Practice¬Librarian by chance.I was asked to give the local Health Centre some advice on managing their collection of training resources for GP Registrars and was surprised to come out with a part-time job.Soon I was working for seven practices–running staff libraries,patients’libraries,current awareness services,doing health promotion displays.I couldn’t believe how little help primary care staff received from NHS libraries in terms of addressing their information needs.I loved being part of these teams.

Drawing on my experience of working as a One-Person Librarian,I wrote a guide to“personal professional development for solo librarians”for LA Publishing.This led to invitations to speak in Berlin and Copenhagen,to learn from colleagues across Europe,and to work with Deutsches BibiliotheksInstitut on their curricula for continuing professional development for‘special’librarians.I have always seen the value of investing in my own professional development.Certainly,completing a part time research MSc on the information needs and seeking behaviour of GPs around this time helped to forge the way to becoming the Knowledge Manager for the local Primary Care Group,and then for the Vale of Aylesbury Primary Care Trust(PCT).

Working over a larger geography enabled me to take a more strategic approach,for instance forming a consortium with partner libraries to introduce 24/7 access to medical databases for staff and learners ahead of the national service and upskilling users in literature searching.In parallel,I was learning that many of the descriptions of knowledge management(KM)are obscure.To share how practical a discipline it is,I started using a simple ABC:A for Applying evidence into practice,B for Building know-how,C for Continuing to learn.In recent years,I have added D for Driving innovation to the mantra.

Over a period of 17 years,I built a portfolio career,part employed and partly working as a freelance information specialist.I supported a wide variety of clients alongside my input to general practices.For Cooperation for Development,a non-government organisation,I set up an Education Development Centre.As a Knowledge Architect with Doctors.net.uk,I thrived in the buzz of the early dotcom era.I undertook many short projects for the NHS such as advising on the development of Public Health and Health Promotion libraries,evaluating information products.

Informed decisions

While I retained my conviction that library and information professionals can inform better research,and better decision-making,working across so many settings underlined the huge influence of system drivers and human factors of change.Evidence is never the only voice in the room and,indeed,evidence does not speak for itself.

I was fortunate to work to the far-sighted Sir Muir Gray,first Chief Knowledge Officer for the NHS on a project to support the development of primary care and public health librarians.Being hosted by Milton Keynes PCT in this role created an opportunity to pitch an idea for which we secured funding from the Health Foundation.Managing the Quality:MK programme was exhilarating.It was founded on three principles:clinical leadership,patient involvement and evidence-based practice.As one stream of the work we developed the role of Commissioning Librarian,and ran journal clubs across practices,focused on applying actionable knowledge to make an impact on care.

CILIP President Sue Lacey Bryant

Joining a two-year Leading Improvement Teams programme was part of the deal,and suddenly I was packing away a kitbag of trusted tools and techniques.I wished I had got some of these quality improvement approaches under my belt earlier–driver diagrams,process mapping,Thinking Differently.I strongly recommend that information professionals find a way to build these tools into their repertoire as they complement KM tools and techniques like After Action Reviews and Appreciative Inquiry.

Recruited as a full-time Chief Knowledge Officer for Milton Keynes PCT in 2009,the span of the work grew from heading up on knowledge management and knowledge services,business intelligence and primary care IT,to include governance and engagement with primary care and the public.A series of organisational changes in the NHS followed,channelling me into ever more senior roles as the PCT evolved into a Clinical Commissioning Group for which I became a director in 2012.This was fabulous experience.I thoroughly enjoyed leading on organisational development and on the specification of our requirements from a newly established Commissioning Support Unit,and the leadership development of the new clinically led Board.Like my initial induction in the NHS,supporting our clinical Chair as the managerial lead on urgent care was an eye opener and it really highlighted the challenge of getting research into practice.

Once the CCG was fully fledged,I started to get itchy feet.Equally important my father was terminally ill and had come to live with us;I wanted to rediscover some of the hours in the day.Spotting a vacancy for a part time tutor with the former Health Education England supporting the development of GPs and practice managers,I resumed portfolio working,also working as a Quality Improvement facilitator in primary care.I loved both roles.

Knowledge for Healthcare

Within months I was asked to put some time in to facilitate HEE’s regional library leads to develop a national strategy for NHS knowledge and library services in England.This was an extraordinary opportunity to draw on all that I had learned through my career with the goal of ensuring that the right knowledge and evidence is used,at the right time,in the right place,to achieve excellent healthcare and health improvement.Knowledge for Healthcare was published in January 2015 and has since guided the work of the national NHS knowledge and Library Services team,now part of NHS England.

A second exceptional opportunity arose up through that time.Speaking at a CILIP conference in Brighton in 2015,I asked“Will a robot take our jobs?”.Three years later I was asked to join the Board and become Programme Manager for the Topol Review,an independent report on preparing the healthcare workforce for the digital future.It was an extraordinary experience–and I’m proud to have taken a leading role in the production of this seminal report on which so much NHS planning is now based.

That experience prompted me to propose that CILIP undertake research into the impact of AI,machine learning,automation and robotics on the information profession.The findings of this review,conducted by Dr Andrew Cox from Sheffield,led to the expansion of the Professional Knowledge and Skills Base,our sector skills standard.It also informed the second iteration of the Knowledge for Healthcare strategy which spans 2021-2026.

Knowledge management and mobilisation is all about putting knowledge to work,and it is core business for our knowledge-intensive NHS.This is the work of health librarians everywhere and so I am especially honoured to receive the prestigious Walford Award from the CILIP Knowledge&Information Management Group in 2018,and the Cyril Barnard Memorial Prize from CILIP Health Libraries Group in 2024.Recognition by one’s peers is very special.

It is a rare privilege to have the opportunity to lead the development of a strategy for knowledge and library services and then lead its implementation for over a decade.It was equally a rare privilege,working with a talented and experienced senior management team,to lead such expert and committed staff,all with the support of a fully engaged Director.This is a magic combo,and together we worked some magic.

Earlier this year a colleague commented on“the huge difference to the quality and perception of NHS Knowledge&Library Services”achieved over that period.He noted:“It has been a challenging tenure in terms of austerity and successive governments who have not adequately funded public services,but we have made great strides at national level,and I think that is reflected in better equity to all NHS staff with a core offer of key databases,journals,textbooks and most importantly access to professional librarians who are well trained and capable.”

My enduring thanks go to all my former colleagues in the NHS at every level of the healthcare system,to whom our success is a testimony.As the proverb goes:“If you want to go far,go together”.And of course,that journey continues.

From Chartership to President

I became a Chartered Librarian in March 1980.The certificate is signed by W.L.Saunders,then President of The LA.He was an eminent academic librarian with an international reputation for his work to raise standards within our profession.Wilf chaired the advisory group for the British Library funded research project I worked on through 1979.Forty-five years later,I am in awe to be taking up the post of President of CILIP.As Isaac Newton might say,we stand on the shoulders of giants.

You can read more about Sue’s presidential role for CILIP in the first issue of 2025,out on 13 February.