Dolly Parton, Nick Poole and Pamela Tulloch awarded CILIP Honorary Fellowships

American country singer Dolly Parton, former CILIP chief executive Nick Poole and Scottish libraries champion Pamela Tullock have been awarded Honorary Fellowships by CILIP.

Dolly Parton was nominated for a CILIP Honorary Fellowship in recognition of her impact on children’s reading in the UK, the US, Canada, Australia and Ireland with her Imagination Library, which has gifted over 251 million books, for free, to over three million pre-school children since the singer started the scheme in East Tennessee in 1995.

Nick Poole was nominated for his work within CILIP and across the sector. He was instrumental in establishing CILIP’s strategic commitment to changing lives through inclusive, participatory, socially-engaged libraries and led CILIP to embrace initiatives to widen access to the profession, including new levels of apprenticeship and launching CILIP’s Diversity Networks.

He was also integral to introducing a knowledge management (KM) route to qualification and achieving industry recognition of KM skills.

Pamela Tulloch was nominated for her “outstanding contribution” to the profession both in her role as SLIC (Scottish Library and Information Council) c.e.o., and formerly in Glasgow public libraries. She has been an instrumental partner for much of CILIP’s work including being part of the Youth Libraries and Public Libraries Groups, where she was also chair.

Also announced at CILIP’s AGM were the recipients of the 2024 Presidential Citation. This is a tradition in the gift of the CILIP president who honours two people who have excelled in their work in the sector, and to celebrate their achievements. This year’s citations went to Liz White and Sarah Mears.

White was cited in recognition of her services to partnership working across the library sector, both nationally and internationally. She is the director of library partnerships at the British Library and has overseen groundbreaking work in support of developing the sector such as the Living Knowledge Network and also for leading the initial pioneering work on LibraryOn, the digital platform funded by Arts Council England.

Sarah Mears, a Chartered Fellow of CILIP and programme manager for Libraries Connected was awarded the Presidential Citation in recognition of her services to library services for children and the development of Empathy Lab.

Louis Coffait-Gunn, CILIP chief executive, commented: “I am delighted that today we are recognising these five very different individuals who have all contributed, in their different areas, so much dedication, expertise and energy to the library and information profession, to literacy and to the wider sector. The positive impact that our Honorary Fellows and those awarded the Presidential Citation have made on the lives of people they may never meet, cannot be underestimated.”