Philip Cohen is Past President of the Library Association of Ireland and former MLI Steering Group member.
Libraries cover all areas of Ireland, all sectors of society and all ages – from babies to older people and everything in between. They are trusted places, free to access, with a long tradition of delivering quality assured information and education resources. In particular, libraries are considered the ‘go-to’ places for literacies of all kinds: reading, numeracy, digital, information, health and now media literacy.
Libraries and library staff are key to the delivery of media literacy, both public awareness campaigns and skills training for all. Indeed, libraries have been involved in media literacy activity from the outset.
Philip has worked in libraries for almost 40 years and he is a Past President of the Library Association of Ireland (LAI). As such, he feels passionately about the role of all libraries in educating their users in media literacy skills and in promoting the importance of media literacy for all members of our society. Philip works hard to ensure a greater awareness and understanding of MLI amongst library staff, other professional groups and amongst the public at large.
“The LAI and individual librarians were early members of MLI and have been heavily involved in the Be Media Smart campaign, the Glass Room project and other more locally-based initiatives. I look forward to collaborating in the future with other members of MLI, from libraries and from other sections of the membership.”
Philip Cohen
Philip was instrumental in bringing the high profile IFLA conference to Dublin in July 2022 where media literacy was firmly on the agenda of over 2000 librarians in attendance.
