IN DEPTH
Making connections at HLG Conference
CILIP’s Health Libraries Group held its annual conference over summer, giving delegates the chance to come together and make new connections. Lesley Allen looks back on the event and the value that conferences can bring to everyone working in the information professions.
BY the time you read this the main con- ference season will be over. Perhaps, like me, you will have been fortunate enough to have attended one or more of these? I’ve been privileged to attend both the CILIP conference in Birmingham in July, and also the Health Libraries Group conference in London in June. The latter was in my role as co-chair of Health Libraries Group.
Each conference was a very different experi- ence mostly because of the roles I had at each; firstly as co-chair of the committee organising the conference, HLG was non-stop chairing sessions, getting ready for chairing sessions, finding people, troubleshooting and gener- ally making things run smoothly, there was making it more difficult to take the opportunity to actually hear from our many speakers. As a delegate at CILIP Conference, I had more time to listen and to reflect, connect or reconnect with fellow professionals. It was busy, but in a different way.
Impact
As professionals we should reflect and celebrate the skills and development opportunities that we achieve and how they impact on the real world that we work in. Being actively involved with CILIP’s networks and Special Interest Groups is a way of doing this, it enables us to share our knowledge and learn from others and it enables us to connect with like-minded people at all stages of our career. This idea
28 INFORMATION PROFESSIONAL
Lesley Allen is Library Services Manager, Birmingham Community Healthcare NHS Trust.
of making connections was the theme of this year’s HLG conference.
We wanted people to connect with their col- leagues, yes, but also to explore and celebrate the many connections we make across our organisations and beyond as part of our roles. HLG’s opening keynote from Sue Lacey- Bryant set the scene for a packed agenda for the next two days, asking us to consider our ‘why’ about our career. What led us to where we are now and reconnect with this as we move our services forward. Sue’s personal journey was full of insight and inspiration, leaving us with final remarks that included “(librarians) support learning, literacy and social mobility for every member of society.” Libraries really do change lives.
September 2024
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56
