To say I was looking forward to this event is something of an understatement. As I mention in
the first post of
a new blog, this would be a big step for me. Indeed one might legitimately describe it as life-changing. This is becoming a bit of a habit for
CDG conferences: it was their
New Professionals Conference last year that broke my cynicism and inspired me to get involved with the wider library community. Without CDG there would be no
Succentorship without Sneers.
This year, the New Professionals Conference has been absorbed within the main event. I can see the point in this: I don't think it's healthy to ghettoise ourselves as graduates, and as the conference title puts it: "Together we are stronger". But some of the enthusiasm and energy I experienced last year seems to have been lost in the process of this merger, and I miss the focussed attention on graduate development. Still, it gets us newbies together with those who've racked up some practical library wisdom, and that is not to be sniffed at.
Liz Jolly's keynote address was a perfect example of this: an inspirational biographical account of her "learning journey" through the library profession and its supporting networks. She stressed the importance of professional involvement and warned us not to rely overly on the Twitter echo-chamber. Read journals and seek out
different people; "not all heroes are on social networks". I was particularly taken by her advice to focus ones fire: to be disruptive but not irritating. Liz is proud to call herself a librarian ("if we're not proud, who is going to be?") and I appreciated the reminder that while we may often find ourselves complaining about
CILIP, CILIP is its membership: we are CILIP. It inspired me to consider getting involved on some level or other, although I think I ought to wait until I get a job first.
Liz's address is exactly the sort of thing we graduates need: it was inspiring and informative. If I take nothing else from her talk, it is the value in life of a good haircut. That's advice I shall definitely try to follow!
The next session I attended was
Steph Bradley's
account of resurrecting a library service for the Bristol NHS. When she arrived it had no fixed staff, just a visiting librarian, and consequently the collection had suffered: items were out of date, stuff was missing, and the catalogue was riddled with inconsistencies.
Steph talked to colleagues and users (including getting out to remote users) accosting everyone with blanket emails both to establish need and to advertise improvements to the service. New books were bought, inter-library loans were enabled, and an improved website was created (including a useful "Where's Steph?" link).
Steph stressed the importance of being flexible and positive. We should shout about ourselves and our service whenever we can. Enable face-to-face contact, and remember that word of mouth is often a better advertiser than posters. Find out what our users want and prove our impact through feedback. Fit in within our organisation and seek to adapt others rather than letting them adapt us. Make use of our colleagues: find out what's worked before and what hasn't. Keep on keeping on: effort pays off in time.
I found Steph's experience uplifting and I hope I'm able to put what she's learnt to good use in my own career. By her own admission, she's been lucky enough to have good and helpful managers who've supported her in this project. I hope the same will be true for me.
After a brief break, it was the turn of
Patricia Lacey & Emma Gibbs.
Their presentation described the development of a library network to support knowledge sharing and facilitate job shadowing and mentoring. They organized whole day knowledge sharing events, and day-long job-shadow opportunities, getting para-professional staff involved (something which strikes me as a decidedly Good Thing). A similar arrangement was described
in a later session by
Kristine Chapman & Karen Pierce. They told us about
CLIC: a cross-sector staff development group in Cardiff which organises job-shadowing, library tours and talks. It's a free service aimed at all library staff in Cardiff. It was funded by government grant until 2010, and since then it's had to rely on the good will of participants. Demand exceeds availability and the organization can no longer afford the larger venues it used to use for talks. The lack of funding led to the website stagnating somewhat, but it has recently been redeveloped as an information hub and social media takes a greater role in advertising events. Despite the difficulties with funding, the service is clearly valued, as a recent survey demonstrated, and the ability to network and learn about different sectors is highly regarded. I particularly liked the idea of the Do Something Different job-swap day. Clearly it's a shame that money is no longer available for larger scale projects, but it is great that CLIC has managed to keep going in spite of this set-back.
In the second of the day's parallel sessions, I chose
Stephen Ayre's report on a collaborative research exercise within the NHS. It was a great insight into the health library sector. Stephen took us through the results of a recent survey of users who had received information skills training. Most such users were from nursing & midwifery and allied health areas, and the vast majority had used their skills since their training. The skills were mostly employed in research, advice for colleagues, and service development, with major influences of such application being treatment, advice, and guideline development. It was a useful demonstration of how collaboration between libraries can gather more meaningful results of service impact than might be achieved individually.
Time for lunch: a pleasant buffet, albeit with staff who were a little over-keen to take away our plates. The room was arranged around a number of podium tables that made mingling quite easy, and I enjoyed the opportunity to get to meet new people.
The afternoon began with a talk from
Michael Martin about CILIP's
Future Skills Project which has redrafted the "Body of Professional Knowledge" and is reviewing the processes of certification and chartership. Then it was time for a workshop session: I chose to attend
Virginia Power's
session on change. In addition to offering some useful advice regarding support networks, it was also another good chance to get to know other people at the conference, and it allowed me an opportunity to mention
LISNPN.
For the final session of the day, I went to
Stephen A Bowman's
rousing appeal to outreach and advocacy. We should be getting out to schools and teaching them skills and aspiration; we should be volunteering for university committees to get ourselves and our libraries seen. Like Steph Bradley, Stephen acknowledges that he's had a certain amount of luck in having the backing of a supportive management for his endeavours. Still, if we evidence our projects properly, perhaps even the most unenlightened management can be made to give them some consideration.
Stephen won one of the two prizes for presentations, and the other was won by
Rebecca Dorsett whose '
Shelving together' talk was the parallel session in the same slot. Although I didn't see it, I've since taken a look at the slides and I suggest you do too (and not just for the naked men!).
A conference is about getting to know people as much as it is about learning, and so while the presentations may be over, the day was yet young! There were two-for-one cocktails to be drunk in a bar in the city centre, and new friends to be made (although by the end of the night it was, as tradition dictates, the same familiar collection of University of Sheffield graduates propping up the bar!).
CDG 2012 may have lacked the focussed energy of last year's New Professionals event, and there was a sense that some of the content, while perhaps new to those longer in the career, was already familiar to recent students. I also worry that the mix of those attending was not as varied as it could've been: I welcome the opportunity to meet more experienced staff, but such individuals seemed well in the minority. I like the idea of a combined event, but I'm not sure it worked as well as it could have done. But perhaps this is just a case of first-year teething troubles. Despite these minor quibbles, the event was still a massively motivating experience, and on a personal level I feel tremendously proud to be part of what seems (not least on the basis of this conference) to be a genuinely supportive and inclusive profession.
Thanks to everyone involved in organizing the day, to the speakers for their motivating thoughts, and to everybody else who went for just being downright lovely.
