CILIP Wales 2017

The first day of the CILIP Wales conference 2017 had so many interesting and useful talks to be able to cover them all, so I’m going to stick with two of them;

The first presentation was given by Linda Tomos, on the importance of networking in our profession. The key points I took away from this talk was not only to create and maintain relationships with colleagues, but also ensure that they have a purpose and the knowledge shared is used. I’ve been to a few conferences which I’ve found really useful, written pages of notes, and never looked at or implemented afterwards.

Linda then reminded the delegates of the impact the ‘People’s Network’ had in enabling libraries to connect communities to the internet. The idea of a ‘People’s Network Part Two’ is an interesting concept, especially when considering what the focus point should be, technology is no longer so divisive, but the way it’s used is. Finally, the use of collaborative, focused strategies for blogging and social media, promoting our own knowledge, skills and professional development.

The key note speech from Professor Neil Frude was a huge high point for me, which really highlighted how much impact libraries can have on public health. We were shown the positive statistics produced by bibliotherapy using the Book by Prescription program, and the fact this program has essentially become defunct in Wales met with a lively discussion, and comments, to revive and improve it.

This bought on a demonstration of the positives of networking at conferences, as a member of a lottery funding body began discussing some of the practicalities of funding. One question I had – which may be due to my most recent collection development module – was how libraries can continue developing these collections to be up to date with limited funding?

To sum up, outside my deluge of tweets on the day, being able to attend these evens as a newcomer to the profession is really useful and inspiring, and exposes me to current issues which libraries are dealing with within the profession and wider society.

Diolch yn Fawr for having me, and my slightly over enthusiastic tweeting!

Ellie Downes, Student Aberystwyth University