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. 

CILIP WM AGM day

On Thursday 7^th February I attended a day event held by CILIP West Midlands branch. It was entitled ‘Promoting your service and the profession’ and was held at the Mary Seacole Library, Birmingham City University.

 

The event filled up within two days of the booking opening and there were approximately 50 delegates present. The agenda included the various activities:

• Staff from Mary Seacole gave an introduction to the university library service
• Gill Colbourne from Warwickshire library services spoke about how to promote a service which is part of a larger entity.
• Barbara Band gave her first official presentation as CILIP Vice President. It focussed on how she uses her role as a school librarian to promote the profession to a wider audience.  
• There was an overview of the changes being discussed relating to CILIP professional qualifications, given by Simon Edwards (Director of Professional Services at CILIP).
• CILIP West Midlands Chair Roger Fairman gave a brief overview of what’s next for the branch.
• There were also AGMs from CILIP West Midlands branch and two SIGs – CDG West Midlands and ARLG West Midlands.
• A tour of the Mary Seacole library.

There was a lively Twitter conversation surrounding the day’s hashtag #cwmagm13. In the absence of a marketing officer, I tweeted on behalf of the branch and an archive of related tweets can be found here. I found this to be quite fun and hope to soon post about the experience of live tweeting from events.

I found the day really interesting, and - as always – it was nice to hear people speak who are passionate about the profession. In my current role, I find it frustrating that we are bound by ‘one-size-fits-all’ guidelines established by the college’s marketing department. In my previous role in a school I had much more freedom to whatever was best for the library, without having to get it ‘okay-ed’ by a separate department. However, despite this I understand the college must protect it's brand. It was interesting to realise that although we all work in different library sectors, we still face many similar issues regarding promotion of the service.

CPD23 Thing 7

Thing 7: Professional Networks. Here are my thoughts…

I’ve been a member of Cilip since 2004, but it has been only recently that I’ve actually gone to any of their events. This year I went to the West Midlands branch Members’ Day (which I blogged about here and really enjoyed), and last year I went to the Librarians as Teachers day. I get very nervous going to such things, especially on my own when I don’t know anyone, which was the case on both of these occasions.

Image taken by Flattop

I’m a member of the Editorial Panel for Cilip’s Update with Gazette magazine, about half way through a three year term. It involves providing feedback via forums each time an issue is published. It also involves bi-annual meetings at Cilip HQ in London, but with the current restructuring going on, the future of these meetings is uncertain. I enjoy this and it has really increased my current awareness of issues reported in the magazine. It was also a massive boost to my CV when I was job hunting a few months ago.

In my previous life as a school librarian, I was part of several networks; the School Library Association, the Federation of Children’s Book Groups, the Library Campaign and the local School Library Service Network. I found the last one of these to be most useful in terms of networking, ideas and resources. It’s such a shame that a trend seems to be developing which sees councils closing down branches to save funds.

Shall I tell you a secret? Sometimes, in my wildest dreams, I fantasise about being on the committee for my local branch of Cilip. I don’t know what role I could do – I’m not very good at highlighting my individual skills – but quite fancy something to do with the newsletter or secretary or treasury posts. Back in the day during my undergrad degree I was secretary for the University History Society. Ahhh, memories…

In the cpd23 blog post for Thing 7 there were several networks mentioned that I’d never heard of. Will try to have a nose around and see what they’re like. There’s so many it’s hard to keep up with them all.

Members' Day (WM branch)

This week I attended the Members’ Day and AGM of Cilip’s West Midlands branch, held at the Stoke campus of Staffordshire University. It’s the first time I’ve attended such an event and the way it was structured brought back memories of when I was part of a History Society committee.

The theme of the day was based around libraries of the future, and there were several informative presentations on new builds in the West Midlands, covering Staffordshire University, the Library of Birmingham, Newman University College and Worcester’s The Hive. Each talk had its own merits and I enjoyed them all, particularly the discussion regarding The Hive – it seems such a unique project. However, for me, one comment stood out from the rest of the day. During the post-talk Q&A session, the panel were asked how the names were selected for these new projects. Chris Porter, from Newman University College, said they had fought long and hard to maintain the term ‘library’ as part of the rebuild’s new name. She explained that in an attempt to move with the times, libraries constantly try to rebadge themselves and, over the years, have favoured names such as Resource Centre or Learning Hub etc., yet the term library has always been the predominant name for such a facility. The word has been in use for thousands of years and it is always the term people use to describe the place. So why change it? Why rebrand it purely for the sake of rebranding it? At this stage I almost wanted to stand up, applaud and shout ‘hear, hear’! Her comments resoluted with me totally – I am proud to be a ‘Librarian’ and have no desire to be a ‘Learning Hub Facilitator’.

During the day, people who gained Cilip awards during the previous 12 months were invited to have an additional certificate presented form the local branch. Having completed chartership last year, I took up this offer and felt quite proud when Cilip Vice-President Phil Bradley shook my hand and people started to clap. The chartership process is quite tough and it was nice to have a way of marking it, other than a certificate simply falling through the letter-box. There are photos of the day (including one of me!) in the branch's Flickr photostream.

My first impression of the local branch’s Members’ Day was quite favourable and I would definitely recommend attendance to others. The committee members were friendly and approachable; the event was reasonably priced and provided excellent value for money. I shall definitely be there for Members’ Day 2012!