Some of our recent events
The joint CLSIG-NetIKX event on Making the most of SharePoint, was held on 18th May, at the British Dental Association. A report on the evening can be read here.
The CLSIG Annual General Meeting + seminar on Professionalism (speaker Susie Kay) was held on Wed 23rd Mar 2011, at the City Business Library, Aldermanbury, London EC2V 7HH.
The AGM report and associated documents can be found 
here. The evening featured a seminar by Susie Kay on Professionalism (PowerPoint presentation 
here). See report on the AGM and seminar in the March 2011 issue of CLSIG News
House of Commons Library Open Day, Wed 23rd Feb 2011. The House of Commons annual Open Day for librarians and information professionals was held on Wednesday 23rd February, and included talks from different service areas, a tour of the Members' Library in the Palace of Westminster and an exhibition about the Library's history.
A Tour of the Supreme Court was held on 27 January 2011 - report to follow
Managing your career and widening your horizons
The most recent in CLSIG’s series of Profession Development Club seminars was held on Tuesday, 16th November 2010, and was on the topic Managing your Career and widening your horizons. As with many of our professional development club seminars, it looked at the issue from two perspectives, those of an employee and an employer.
Sue Edgar discussed the importance of functional and soft skills desired by employers and looked at the trends that organisations want from candidates when they come to market, and how well equipped candidates are to deal with these trends. To see Sue Edgar's presentation, click here.
Sue Westcott looked at the skills and experience we have developed as information professionals and how these can be used to give you the widest possible opportunities both in the information management world and beyond. To see Sue Westcott's presentation, click here.
To read a review of the seminar, click here.
Graduate Open Day
The Commercial Legal and Scientific Group (CLSIG) and the British and Irish Association of Law Librarians (BIALL) held the annual Graduate Open Day on Thursday 28th October 2010, at Friends House, 173 Euston Road, London NW1 2BJ, from 9.00 to 4.30
CLSIG AGM Wednesday 23 March 2010
2009 was a year that has given us a background of recession. Against this background CLSIG has exercised financial prudence and finished the year with stronger bank funds. We have adopted a sensible business approach and akin to Charles Darwin‟s "survival of those who adapt" we have evolved, listened and responded accordingly. That is why we ask members to complete questionnaires which tell the committee what you would like to CLSIG to do over the forthcoming year. One thing that came out of last year‟s AGM questionnaires was more regional events.
A full report on the AGM appeared in the March 2010 issue of CLSIG News. We're very grateful to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders for hosting this event.
Following an earlier well-attended tour of the Royal Court of Justice at the beginning of August, CLSIG recently arranged another visit, on the afternoon of Tuesday, 15 December 2009. Once again, this event was fully booked
Our most recent seminar was was held on Thursday 17 September. It was the latest in the Professional Development Club series, and was on Web 2.0 - the truth behind the hype: What is web 2.0 and what isn’t it? Karen Blakeman, Independent Information Trainer and Consultant at RBA Information Services, and Phil Duffy, Information Services Manager at Hammonds LLP debated the pros and cons of using web 2.0 tools and technologies. Following the seminar itself, there were interesting informal discussions over wine and snacks, kindly provided by Hammonds LLP, at their Devonshire Square offices near to Liverpool Street.
Before that, the most recent event was a tour of the Royal Court of Justice, on Tuesday 4 August 2009. The venue was the Strand, London, WC2A 2LL. The group met at the Reception in Main Hall, Royal Courts of Justice at 13.30, for a tour which lasted approximately 2 hours.
A previous event in CLSIG's Professional Development Club series of seminars was on Managing stress in the workplace and took place on Thursday 25 June, at BMA House, Tavistock Square, London WC1H 9JP
Following on from previous successful seminars held in February (Redundancy) and April (Preparing a business case) this seminar addressed the issue of managing stress in the workplace. Using the change management project recently carried out at the BMA Library, Jacky Berry (BMA Librarian) outlined the stress issues she encountered not only with the team she was working with but the personal stress experienced herself. The interactive session allowed attendees to have the opportunity to check their own stress levels and take away some techniques to alleviate stress at work. A full review of the event appeared in the 
July 2009 issue of CLSIG News.
The previous installment in CLSIG's series of evening seminars for Information Professionals in the commercial, legal and scientific sectors, held on Tuesday, 21st April 2009, was on Your information service under review: building a persuasive business case.
Sandra Ward, Senior Associate Consultant, TFPL, stressed the need to be prepared to present a good business case to justify the LIS. You can see Sandra's presentation here.
Following this, Sarah Fahy, Head of Global Library services at Allen & Overy, talked about making a business case, giving a practical run-through of the many management issues behind decision making common to a lot of organisations. You can see Sarah's presentation here.
A full review of the event appeared in the May 2009 issue of CLSIG News.
Earlier events
The first of the Professional Development Club events took place on Monday 22 September, at Macfarlanes, 20 Cursitor Street, London EC4A 1LT, and focused on IT for Information Professionals. For those of you who couldn't attend, you can see the presentation here and the notes here.
The second seminar in the series was on PR and Media Relations, and took place on 12th November 2008 at CILIP HQ. Matthew Mezey, CILIP Update's News Editor, gave a unique insight into how to raise your, and your information service's profile, through publicity and media relations.
Earlier this year, another seminar in the series was held on Developing a sustainable information service during an economic downturn. It focused on reducing the impact of your info service on the planet. Duncan Gordon, Senior Sustainability Consultant, explained the role each of us can play in reducing the impact of our departments and organisations on the planet.
Another recent event was on Thursday 19 February and dealt with Coping with redundancy: the employee's and the manager's perspective.
Jacky Berry, Librarian at the BMA and Bruce Madge, ex-President CILIP, Director of Marketing at London Upright MRI Centre, gave their views from a manager's and employee's perspective, in an interactive session based on storytelling. Attendees had the opportunity to share and learn from other's experiences. They also learned strategies for coping with redundancy and how to make contacts with information professionals who are experiencing the same issues.
CLSIG recently organised a trip to the National Archives Library. This took place on Friday 24th October 2008 at 2pm. A report appeared in CLSIG News.
CLSIG and EUSIDIC recently held a joint conference, with the theme Beyond Discovery, covering many aspects of the important issues currently facing information professionals: career development, the future of information units, the revolution in academic libraries, and an interactive workshop on visions of success in commercial fields. To read the presentations, go to http://www.eusidic.net/index.php?content="presentations
The Lawyer's Knowledge Management in Law Firms conference identified how you can manage your firm's knowledge efficiently to gain an advantage over your competitors. This event drilled down to the practical real-life situation, tackling the KM challenges you face today so you can realise the full potential of your firm.
See http://www.thelawyerconferences.com for more details.