for me to return to university yet again, I think it will be a worthwhile invest- ment for my future career progression. On an academic level I can say that I found my teacher training enriched my experience of that work. I really value thinking deeply about the whys and hows of the things we do.
The other priority for me is looking for a long-term or permanent position. This might have to take precedence over looking for the perfect role or being tempted to take a gamble on the kind of interesting short-term projects some librarians get involved in during the early stages of their career. I am a 32-year-old Graduate Trainee and it is probably time to starting thinking seriously about a pension and putting a roof over my head. However, I am greatly encouraged to find that many librarians seem to have had quite varied careers and that it is not unusual to move between public, academic and heritage library roles over the course of your career.
Time to think
Oddly enough, the pandemic has created some good space for me to mull over all these decisions and to think about next steps. When all the various library committees and interest groups moved their conferences and AGMs online, the NLI were great about letting me attend- ing them. If I had been working onsite full time I probably would not have considered attending so many because I would have been too interested in my work in the Library. It has made it much easier to dip my toe into different kinds of library and information work and to understand the different sectors better. The evolving role of Teaching Librarians in the university, for exam- ple, is something I knew nothing about before. Whenever I get round to the MLIS I expect the module choices I will make will look very different after a year of Zooming into all these meetings than they would have done if I had gone straight into an MLIS last September. If you had told me a year ago that I would become so passionate about cataloguing, I probably wouldn’t have believed you!
The CILIP network
Even though I have only very recently joined the library world, I have already benefited from CILIP membership. I presented at the New Voices session at the CILIP Ireland and Library Association of Ireland joint conference. The lovely feedback from other members gave me the sense that it is a really warm, friendly and positive organisation, which has encouraged me that I am not completely mad for having left teaching. I have also been using Twitter quite a bit to make connections and learn about what all
July-August 2021 INFORMATION PROFESSIONAL DIGITAL 29
the different groups and committees are doing. CILIP Ireland have been running occasional live chats on Twitter too, which helped me establish some personal connections in the first days of this new journey, which was especially useful in the context of the pandemic when lockdown isolation made a career-change feel even lonelier.
The CILIP network is really valuable because we all have a tendency to be
absorbed by the pressing concerns in our roles and to forget about the world beyond our desk. The cross-pollination that happens from making professional connections outside your organisation is really important. In my experience that was true of teaching and I can already see that it is true of librarianship. I am only at the beginning of this journey, but my colleagues in the NLI are involved in lots of collaborative work with other libraries and everyone benefits from those relationships. I can see that CILIP membership is invaluable for setting up those connections and helping to commu- nicate them too.
Professional journey
The opportunities for CPD provided by CILIP are also really important to me. I think my journey so far is a testament to the fact that I love a new challenge. I will always want structured opportunities for learning and reflecting on my work in a meaningful way. Anybody can grow discontented and tired in their role when they have been stagnating too long and it is really difficult to shake yourself out of that without a little support. The Charter- ship process is something that I will defi- nitely pursue once I have qualified because it can provide that important combination of support and challenge that we all need in our professional lives. Similarly, a new mentorship programme being introduced by CILIP Ireland is something I will definitely want to avail of in the next few years. IP
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