I attended the second day of the CILIP in Scotland (CILIPS)
annual conference (branch and groups day) which was held here in Dundee .
It is impossible to distil the day’s content into a single blog post, but I aim
to provide a flavour of what was on offer. The theme was “Enriching Society” and CILIPS President Peter Reid gave a
motivational opening (and closing) speech on the future of our profession and
our role in the process of enriching society. In essence we have to build on
what we already undertake, and learn, adapt and engage with technology in order
to further enhance our contribution to society.
The keynote speaker in the morning; Steve Wheeler from
The closing keynote speaker was Norma McDermott; Developing libraries and librarians: learning from the past and building for the future, was equally passionate about the future of libraries and librarians roles. She stressed that we have to challenge the negativity around perceptions and preconceptions regarding libraries, change our mindset and become champions and actively engaged with policy processes, otherwise we will be regarded as a fossilised organisation who are passengers rather than drivers. Particularly in these straightened economic times we must avoid complacency and reticence which could render us invisible and be explicit in branding ourselves; her parting message was “silence is not an option”.
Sandwiched in between these keynote speakers was a full menu of sessions catering for all tastes. There was a starter course of Speed Surgeries, where local groups had until the whistle was blown to share their successful projects before their audience circulated. I certainly learnt a lot about how other sectors were engaging with their users. The difficulty then followed as to which of the speakers to select as they were all equally enticing. I plumped for the Library Teach Meets facilitated by Sheila Williams of Queen Margaret University, with speakers Laurie Roberts also from QMU and Sarah Kevill from Stirling University, as I had been unable to attend their ScotLib TM 2011 event, which had been a great success. It was fascinating to hear the diversity of teaching methodologies that had been presented at the event and which has certainly given me ideas to incorporate into my own future sessions. They also threw out a challenge to attendees- to organise the next ScotLib Teach Meet….
After lunch I chose Laurence Paterson and Eithne Barry from
During the lunch break we held the 59th and final UC&R (Scottish Section)
All together a good well organised Conference day; and speaking to other delegates the previous day had also been excellent.
I then nipped up to Dundee Central Library, as I had a ticket to hear Christopher Brookmyre at one of a series of author visits sponsored by Waterstones but facilitated by Shona Donaldson the Adult Library & Information Services Section Leader. These talks are a marvellous way of raising awareness of the diversity of genres and introducing new authors to a wider audience. Personally I have discovered authors who had never crossed my radar before, although in this instance I have heard Christopher several times previously and he was his usual witty self, regaling us with amusing snippets and incidents as well as reading extract from his latest novel: Where the devil drives.
So, apologies for the very long post, hope it was of
interest.