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At the CILIPS conference in Dundee in June it was fantastic to see such a truly cross-sectoral and collaborative community of practice.
President’s View
Conferences, collegiality, careers and collages
FTER living in what feels like a very small space for the last couple of years, with travel and social contact limited, it’s
been great to see our conferences up and running again, with many of them starting to be in person. Technology has kept us together in ways we might not have expected and this has brought contact with new colleagues far and wide for many of us. The opportunity to now meet them in person has been a real treat. One of the groups I am involved with is IATUL, the International Association of University Libraries, and it was exciting to meet face to face with people I now consider to be friends and allies at their 42nd Annual Conference. These networks are so important. The sessions inspired us, the opportunity to talk about what we’d heard, what we do and what we are thinking about was one we all made the most of, but I was especially struck by the enthusiasm of the volunteers who ensured this hybrid event ran smoothly, both in person and online, and those who had taken the plunge and were speaking at their first conference.
Getting involved with these events as an early years new professional can seem daunting but doing it with peers and having a role in a conference can be hugely empowering. It opens up conversations with others, it avoids the awkward ‘hanging around’ moments where we’re not quite sure how to join in and hearing the voices and thoughts of those new to the profession is refreshing and interesting, adding a new perspective and stimulating discussions.
Certification, Chartership and Fellowship with CILIP respectively
September 2022
also ask us to demonstrate our understanding, knowledge and contribution to the wider profession and to reflect on areas of current interest.
At the CILIPS conference in Dundee in June it was fantastic to see such a truly cross-sectoral and collaborative community of practice. I heard about virtual Library Lounges in Strathclyde University, initiatives such as Read Woke in schools in South Ayrshire, Fun Palaces from the Science Ceilidh and SLIC organisations and Curating Discomfort at the Hunterian Museum in Glasgow. All very exciting to hear about, to understand the value they bring to their communities and to reflect on their potential applications for users of my own service. Meeting with colleagues from other organisations and from other sectors is also excellent evidence when we are engaged with Professional Registration (PR), adding a breadth to our experiences as Library, Information and Knowledge professionals and really offering the opportunity for us to see just how transferable our skills and expertise are. This is something it’s so important to recognise when we’re looking at our own career futures. I’ve been asked to think about and share my own career path and leadership journey in a couple of settings recently, including with some fantastic NHS colleagues on a senior leadership programme within their Library and Knowledge Services. I found myself creating a collage of my experiences to illustrate my talks, a real trip down memory lane. I found pictures of places I had worked, volunteered and studied, images of projects I was proud of and illustrations of things that have been so influential for me. It really was enjoyable but also very interesting
Kate Robinson (
president@cilip.org.uk) is President of CILIP.
www.cilip.org.uk
INSIGHT
to look back and to reflect on the choices I made that have shaped my career so far, those pivotal moments when I took risks and that became opportunities, and to revisit the things I decided not to include! In many ways it’s something I would have liked to have done earlier and I really would recommend it as an approach to support self-reflection and future development.
Reflection is, of course, the cornerstone of our PR schemes and this adds value both to our own professional practice and to how we support and develop our services. Speaking at the CILIP Employer Partners and Knowledge Exchange event back in May, it was clear that the demonstrable skills with reflective practice that our PR evidences is also highly valued by employers. While I don’t believe that our careers in our chosen profession are all about us, as I honestly believe that what we do is with others and for others, taking time to think about and share what we do and why and how we do it really is valuable. It enhances our practice both for ourselves and for the services we design and deliver and with PR we really do have an excellent starting point for this. IP
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