CILIP NW Members' Day Lancaster 1 March 2018 - Helen Kiely 

Despite ominous weather conditions which made attending the CILIP NW Members’ Day and AGM on 1^st March more of a polar trek than expected, the day itself was a thoroughly enjoyable one. The theme of the day was The Next Chapter : Growing your Career in Libraries.

Speakers

Michelle Maden, Independent Clinical Information Specialist and PhD Student, spoke about the different and diverse routes she has taken in her career to date. Ayub Khan, CILIP President 2018, spoke about CILIP’s 'Change' programme and Sonia Ramdhian, Development Officer for CILIP, spoke about continually developing skills and gaining direction in LIS careers.

An overarching theme which emerged throughout all the presentations was advice that we can all take to heart: focus on doing the things you love.

Key messages

Michelle offered four key points about her working journey to inspire others:

• Identify the areas you enjoy and will therefore be motivated and enthusiastic to develop.
• Seek out all opportunities to acquire skills.
• Relate your goals and training to what you can bring to your organisation’s objectives.
• Be an active part of professional networks.

 It was also particularly interesting to hear that her very diverse career was driven by a desire to develop and do the things she found most interesting (teaching, learning in an academic way, systematic reviews) whilst not wanting to ‘fall’ into managing library services as that wasn’t the path that appealed to her.

 Transferable Skills 

Another thing that came up in both Ayub’s and Sonia’s presentations were the diverse sectors in which Library and Information Skills posts can exist and also how skills gained in one sector are transferable to others such as Knowledge Management, surveying current trends, horizon scanning etc. All in all it was an enjoyable, thought-provoking day as well as a great opportunity to meet meet up with members across sectors.