You may have seen Gillian Siddall's post from HLG conference last week, well she also went to CILIP conference 2024, 10th-11th July in Birmingham, to present on the LIRG research project and share her reflections with us. 

Gillian is an Academic Librarian at University of Northampton

Presenting at a conference and getting a speaker’s place for a day is a great way to attend a conference you wouldn’t ordinarily be able to. I’m grateful that by presenting on the LIRG research project I was able to attend the CILIP’s conference: uniting the sector’s leaders. I attended the second day of the conference and listened to inspiring speakers. Starting with the CILIP’s new CEO Louis Coiffait-Gunn, who encouraged us to fight for intellectual freedom and use evidence and civil discourse to lean into tricky debates. The conference was filled with interesting presentations that shared ideas to help promote and build our profession and role.

Janet Peden from Ulster University presented her experience as University Librarian, building and developing the staff and library sites. Her fundamental message was that in the current climate of significant digital acceleration and fluid change you must:

Turn the library inside out and become highly visible – you have to be seen, to be valued!

A lesson for us all: we can’t assume everyone understands the purpose or value of a library, we need to make sure it’s clear for all. Janet explained how the library service had moved from collecting resources to connecting the university community. A key change for her department was the move from service and support to partnership and expertise.

Speaking about becoming ‘match-fit for a senior leadership role’ Regina Everitt, from the University of East London, highlighted the importance of building trust in and with your team. As a leader, you set the culture for the department, so you have to be authentic and specifically engage with the digital landscape. Working with IT, rather than against or in isolation from it. Partnerships move everyone forward. From NHS England, Louise Goswami highlighted the importance of skills development to improve your knowledge and experience. In the current tempestuous times, it’s reassuring to hear from someone with experience that redundancy can be a positive step to help you buy time to think about what you want to do next. The knowledge and skills you develop come with you and those transferable skills are highly valuable: influencing, negotiating, and communicating skills. Louise encouraged us to remember that everyone’s a little bit frightened and you are not alone, work with your network, and your team.

Leading and managing a team is helped by understanding the ‘why’ – if you understand why something happens and you understand the language that resonates with the people you’re trying to influence, you can find your advocates. A key tip from both Regina and Louise was to always over-prepare your information and do your homework so you understand your audience and use the language and evidence that is most appropriate. Don’t blind them with library speak! In response to questions in the room, self-care came up as a key part of leadership. Leading by example (allowing people to say no, to have down-time and be honest) helps your team. If you look after yourself, your team will see it’s ok for them to look after themselves too and know that you’ll do your best to look after them as well.

Considering the entrepreneurial leader Tom Penford and Zak Mensah presented different ways of understanding and building your core ‘business’. From his role in Birmingham Museum’s Trust Zak encouraged the audience to look at the lifetime value of our customers, what can we do to support those true fans who will support us in return. Suggesting we consider how far we can push things without getting fired! Framing changes and developments in terms of the needs of your true fans (or community):

As a …

I need …

So that …

To understand and then justify the changes that need to be made.

Tom Penford explored the Lego story to help us understand why we need to think ‘around’ the box. To look at what our core values are and build on those (rather than trying to create something completely different or simply maintain the status quo). Linking back to Janet’s presentation – we need to be part of the conversation, visible to our community to help them understand the value we bring. Discover and demonstrate why you are key to the community you are in.

The inspirational talks continued after lunch when I went to a talk discussing inclusive collections. A really interesting point was the fact that the majority of libraries are outsourcing key library skills, such as acquisitions and we’re also not training people in them. If we’re to make a difference and make a coherent and relevant collection for our communities, we need to be clear about how and why we are purchasing (or subscribing) to resources. We should avoid being passive consumers and re-invigorate our skills with acquisitions and cataloguing – understanding the data (and the power it holds).

Presenting at a conference can be a nerve-wracking experience. However, Louise and Regina’s point about over-preparing really helps. The more confident you are in what you’re saying, the easier it will be to stand up and feel confident in what you have to share. Most library conferences I have been to have been incredibly friendly and supportive, attendees want to learn, and they want you to succeed. Hopefully if you keep that in mind, it will help you conquer your nerves. In my case, the value I took from the conference presentation was the breadth of ideas and expertise of the audience we were presenting to. It’s reassuring that even though we work in different sectors, we are all keen to see the profession grow and succeed. Sometimes we may only be making incremental steps, but we are moving forward and that is something to celebrate.