1.
What makes special libraries
special?
Photo credit. Flickr user: Dr. Keats
What makes special li

2.
What is a special library?
• Longleat House Library &
Archives
• BBC Information & Archives
• Met Office Library & Archive
• Bristol Law Society Library
• Environment Agency
Evidence Services
• Burges Salmon Knowledge &
Information Services
• GCHQ Information &
Knowledge Services
At it’s most simplest, a special library is
defined as a library that is not academic,
public, school or national library.
It is a library that is usually found in the
workplace, serving a specialist
organisation that might include business,
industry or government, law libraries or
health-related information centres.
It’s often described as a peculiar breed of
libraries, where the most important
customer is the management of the
organisation.
The special library facilitates the work of
the parent organisation, manages its
information and knowledge resources
and seeks to increase the competencies
of the staff.
This presentation focuses on the work of
government libraries.

3.
What do special librarians
do?
• Evidence Support Officer
• Rapid Evidence Reviews
• Knowledge Manager / Officer
• Records Manager
• Data & Information Process
Officer
• Technical Specialists
• Freedom of Information
Officer
• Metadata lead
• Research Support
If you want to work in government
library and information roles, prepare
to be flexible!
The sector has gone through huge
changes over the past few years with
spending reviews and changes in the
delivery of information having huge
impacts on the roles of library and
information professionals and the
shape of the service they work in.
Many government librarians started
off in traditional style libraries, but are
increasingly working in other
professional areas, including records
management, managing Government
Digital Services (GOV.UK), knowledge
management, FOI, legislation
information managers, information
security or evidence based roles in
research including rapid evidence
reviews.

4.
“I don’t recruit a records manager, or
legislation experts, or web content
managers, I recruit information
professionals. Understand that I am looking
for people who are flexible, and agile, and
prepared to use the skills common to all
these roles.”
Karen McFarlane, Head of Profession,
GCHQ, Cilip Update, October 2011.

5.
The Drivers
• Efficiency Save staff time searching for information
by making sure it is organised and relevant
• Cost savings Save money by reducing un-necessary
storage and management costs, reducing spend on
external sources of information and contractors
• Integrity & reliability Understanding what
information we have. Preserving the corporate
memory
• Legal compliance Help us avoid organisational
fines or reputational damage by ensuring that we
comply with legislation, including FOI

6.
Challenges
• Geographical spread
• Diverse user base
• Levels of information need
• Broad range of information literacy
• Communication channels
• Budget
• Space
• Fast paced information environment
6

7.
Collaborative contracts
7

8.
8
Case Study
25 staff
8 regional libraries
1 Head Office
National Library
and Information
Service (1994)
16 staff
1 centralised service.
Moving towards
online delivery of
eresources. Physical
research library +
Info Spec.
Information
Services (2005)
Budget £1.5m
19 FTE
Combined service of
library, records
management and
knowledge
management. Loss of
Info Spec,
Knowledge
Management
(2008)
Budget £0.8m
1.6 FTE staff
Part of much wider
team of data and
information
professionals. No
physical library.
Digitised collection.
Information
Resources (2010-
2014)
Budget £0.5m
Case study adapted from the time line of a government library between 1994-
2014

9.
Week in the life...
“What’s the normal levels of polonium 2-
10 in the environment?”
“How successful has the implementation
of plastic bag tax been elsewhere,
particularly in EU?”
Writing guidance on
formatting citations for a
published report
Demonstrate how to edit an
entry on internal wiki
Presenting training on
finding grey literature
“I want a free copy of a construction
contract template”.
“Looking for the original data that was
used to collate the research findings in x
report. Can we release it?”
“I need to find research on female snail
penises.”
Uploading documents to
digital library
Propose a change to the Metadata
Scheme. Seek authorisation from
Metadata Working Group

10.
Further reading
• Cilip Government Information Group. Working in
government.
http://www.cilip.org.uk/government-
information-group/working-government
• Network of Government Library and Information
Specialists. http://www.nglis.org.uk/
• Government Knowledge and Information
Management Profession
http://www.civilservice.gov.uk/networks/knowle
dge-information
• Special Libraries Association. http://www.sla.org/