Can we play? Building Opportunities for Student Activism and

Engagement and why it matters.

Ka Ming Pang and Jo NorwoodMA Information Studies

Brighton University

We live in challenging times. LIS students have a vested interest in the profession. They needtake the opportunity to engage and be more

active.

Advocacy and Engagement: University of Brighton MA Informations Studies: A case study.

Advocacy and Activism

Engagement

What has been done to engage the class

Class Survey on Activism and Engagement

Small data sample- not useful for formulating meaningful statisticsWriting questionnaires are hard, but ooh look written comments!

RESULTS!

No correlation between communication tools used, and generation, gender, part time, full

time status. Frequency of usage varied from person to person.

Reasons for joining CILIP:

•Cheap for students

•Good for employability

•Keeps them up todate with library related information

Reasons for not joining CILIP

• Costs.

• Doesn't benefit them as students.

• Perceived lack of political activity.

“CILIP is supposed to join information workers together to have a

collective voice, but I haven’t seen evidence of

that. I don’t see organised political activity during the

current crisis in our industry, or anything of

use.”

Two thirds of students were active. Involved in read ins. Writing letters to MPs, joining

protests, leafleting, passing on information.

Conclusions and Action Points

Building an effective communication strategy

CILIP needs to reach out to students. Connect earlier, and relate sessions to relevant

events. Promote their advocacy work better to those who are not CILIP members.

Politically activity needs to be fed back into the class.

Summary

Thanks for listening

Ka Ming Pang (@AgentK23)

Jo Norwood (@DreamingEntity)