CPD23 Thing 15

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Attending, Presenting and Organising
Thing 15 asks us to ponder our position on attending, presenting and organising events. In the past I have attended various events, but not as many as I would have liked. An old favourite of mine was the annual Library and Information Show held at Birmingham NEC. It hasn’t been on for a few years (wonder why???). It increased my awareness of the library world and I’d come back with as many free pens as I could carry! The NEC is huge and I’d never know where to go, so I’d just follow people who looked like typical librarians and sure enough I’d arrive in the correct hall. I know it’s wrong to stereotype but I did find it amusing! In the past 18 months I’ve started to look at sessions held by local Cilip branches and have attended two so far. I find possible attendance at these is far more realistic than sessions held by Cilip (mega pricey and nearly always in London); in contrast these are local and very reasonably priced. I’ve also attended a few online conferences (which I am a big fan of – they seem such fun!) run by JISC Regional Support. I hope to continue attending such events whenever possible as I feel I’ve taken something away from nearly all of them.

I’ve never presented at a conference but I admire people who do. I don’t have the desire to do so, and also, I don’t think my expertise is deep enough on any particular topic. I still feel I’m learning, rather than being in a position to present to learners. That said, I do teach lessons at work and quite enjoy it. Doing the PTLLS teaching course really boosted my confidence when talking to groups of people. I’m finding that teaching lessons in FE is very different to the type of lessons I taught the teenagers in school. When I worked there I even used to do primary liaison which would mean teaching the year 6 pupils (I used to dread it!). Every March, to celebrate World Book Day, I would give assemblies where I’d speak to about 350 teenagers at once. I must admit, I felt a little shaky doing that and could hear it in my voice.

I’ve never organised a library event, but I spent 18 months on a history society committee and used to help organise events then. We ran social trips to other cities and evening lectures (our most popular one was witchcraft, held at Halloween – it was standing room only). I enjoyed being part of it and felt proud to have contributed to something people may have enjoyed or benefited from.