NEW professionals and those who had never presented at a Confer- ence before were invited to give lightning talks at this year’s CILIP Conference and Expo in a session chaired by Binni Brynolf, digital resources librarian at Chatham House and CILIP Trustee. The speakers were also asked to write a diary of their experience of presenting and networking at the conference, and their thoughts on life in the profession.
Nicola Semple, Library Officer, The Manchester College and UCEN In 2019 I changed careers and started the Library and Information Manage- ment MA at Manchester Metropolitan University. Since then I’ve been trying to say “yes” to as many opportunities as I can, both to challenge myself and to grow as a library professional, but also because the past two years have been unpredictable. Saying yes is one thing we have control over, and though it may lead to more unpredictability, it’s almost always in the most positive ways. A lightning talk at CILIP confer- ence seemed like a great opportunity to challenge myself on all fronts. The topic of sustainability was ideal for what I’d been working on over the past year – improving the usability, accessibility and sustainability of a library website. Having a topic that felt
June-July 2022
right made it so much easier to put it all together. Sadly, due to covid, I couldn’t attend, but a recorded presentation and by following the CILIP conference hashtag on Twitter, I was able to connect with library and information professionals that I probably would never cross paths with otherwise. Knowing that you have something important to share, and that people are ready to listen (regardless of how long you’ve been in the profession) is incred- ibly encouraging as a new professional. It also says a lot about our willingness as library and information professionals to
stay open and to acknowledge that there is always something else we can learn. That is what I love about being part of this community.
Changing careers can raise a lot of questions in your mind, which ultimate- ly come down to “have I done the right thing?” and “is this right for me?”. For me, attending library conferences have been the perfect antidote to this line of self-questioning and presenting a talk even more so. This may have been my first, but it certainly won’t be my last.
Patrick Malone, Library Manager, Roehampton Library
Even before the lockdown, public libraries were developing their digital arsenal, but not everyone had embraced e-books, audiobooks, online newspapers and the rest. So I came up with a scheme called “Your Library Made Easy” – for this I taught groups how to use our E-products and tried to prevent people being mar- ginalised by the digitisation of the public library.
After being accepted to talk at the conference it was time to prepare for speaking publicly about my ideas. This involved reading my speech to my partner over and over again. I borrowed a few books on public speaking from my library but was frustrated to repeatedly read that there was no one single approach to public speaking that was guaranteed to Nicola Semple. work. Finally on the day of the presenta-
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