Monday 16 February 2015

CILIP WMMN Members' Day


My entrance ticket
Last week was the Members’ Day for CILIP’s West Midlands Members’ Network (WMMN). I hadn’t been to this for a few years so was quite looking forward to it, especially as it was held in Birmingham and quite local to where I live. I hadn’t been to the Priory Rooms in Birmingham before, and it seemed quite a nice place to hold such an event. A silly thing, but several delegates commented on the size of the mugs – so much better than the small teacups usually available at these types of function! 

* The opening presentation was by David Ball and discussed open access issues. My career thus far has yet to be involved with such issues, so this particular talk was less relevant to me personally than the others. It seems quite a complicated topic. 

* There was also an introduction to the new Journal of radical librarianship. The concept that libraries are not wholly unbiased bodies was new to many people, including myself. Not sure I agree with it to the extent of the presenter, but it was certainly thought-provoking and generated a lot of questions.   

* The most interesting part of the day, for me, was the CILIP presentation on the introduction of obligatory revalidation. I am keen to see this progress, I think it’ll encourage people to revalidate who haven’t before done so, and that can only be positive for the wider profession.

* The afternoon consisted of a CILIP Debates session. I hadn’t attended a CILIP Debates session before, although I have seen the hashtag used on Twitter. This particular debate focussed on open access: This house believes that all publicly-funded research should be available to all. It was interesting to see the debate in progress, although the resulting vote was unsurprisingly and unanimously in favour of the ‘yay’ side.

* The day included the WMMN and ARLG West Midlands AGMs. I must admit I always enjoy attending these; not entirely sure why, it might just be because I’m nosy!

The decent sized mugs!
If I’m honest, there were a few things I missed about the traditional Members’ Day. There was no delegate list available (am I the only person who finds these useful for making contacts after events?), and the professional registration awards were absent too. In the past I have received a certificate to acknowledge my chartership at a Members’ Day. Obviously it doesn’t replace the official CILIP certificate, but it is nice to have something presented to mark the achievement. On the plus side, the Chairperson displayed a map she had constructed which I found very interesting. It pinpointed the postcodes of all WMMN members. This informs the committee of members’ locations – I imagine very useful when arranging events! From a member’s point of view I found it interesting to see how geographically scattered we are – quite surprising so, actually. I also liked the inclusion of a real-time Twitter wall (via Twijector), so we were able to see any tweets posted with the relevant hashtag (#membersday15).Overall, the newly formed WMMN did a sterling job of its first official Members’ Day. I'm already looking forward to next year's!

1 comment:

  1. Excellent post! I'm glad you enjoyed the day - I haven't got around to finishing my own blog post about it yet, but I should be done this week!

    Thanks for your comments about the day - I don't think it occurred to us to include a delegate list while we were organising it, I'll make sure to include one for next year! We intended to have a presentation of awards, but for complex reasons it didn't happen. We might see about including it in a different event later in the year though.

    Lisa Basini x
    (CILIP West Midlands Member Network committee)

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