Monday 25 February 2019

Closure of CILIP Ireland Blog - Follow us on Twitter and Facebook!


CILIP Ireland have decided to close their blog, but thank you for your support. You can keep up to date with the work of the Committee, events and training by following us on Twitter and Facebook.

Tuesday 8 July 2014

Looking to the Future: CILIP Ireland & Our Membership Officer (18th June 2014)

Each year CILIP Ireland organises an Open Day/ Members Day to tie in with our AGM. The location this year was Stranmillis University College. Many thanks to Ingrid Mercer, Head of Library and LSS in Stranmillis, for helping us to make this possible. The event was publicised via email, the CILIP Ireland website and Twitter account and I was very pleased with the response and the turn out.

We were welcomed to Stranmillis by the Principal Dr. Anne Heaslett who gave us an interesting insight into the background of this prestigious teaching college. Adrienne Adair, Chair of CILIP, then informed attendees as to the layout of the day.

Front Entrance to Stranmillis University College
Barbara Band, CILIP President, presented an inspiring talk about her own career path, the benefits that CILIP membership has brought to her and how you can continue your Continuous Professional Development in varying circumstances. Barbara led us on an interesting journey from her early career days to her present post of Head of Library and Resources at the Emmbrook School, Berkshire. She also spoke about her involvement with CILIP through the years, from her attendance at meetings of the School Library Service and CILIP SLG London & SE to nomination for Vice President and President of CILIP. Specific benefits of CILIP membership highlighted included information and support, grants and bursaries, weekly e-bulletins, events and discounts on FACET books. The development of transferable skills through participation was also pointed out. My favourite quote had to be 'CILIP membership is much like gym membership, in that you have to use it to benefit from it!

Barbara Band 'Ask not what CILIP can do for you...'
Luke Stevens-Burt's (CILIP Head of Business Development (Member Services)) presentation centred around the future of CILIP membership. The numerous and varied workforce skills we have, and are expected to have as modern library and information workers, were illustrated. Improvements that have already been made in CILIP include the Professional Knowledge and Skills Base, a more accessible scheme for Certification, Chartership and Fellowship and a new and free method of Revalidation. Future changes include: further integration of the PKSB with the career pathway, a blended learning CPD programme, member/ volunteer recognition, raised status of senior members and effective engagement programmes. CILIP Head of Policy, Guy Daines, also inspired with his enthusiastic belief in the importance of developing powerful policy messages. He illustrated some of these, in particular the EBLIDA e-reading campaign: http://www.eblida.org/e-read/get-involved/

Luke Stevens-Burt 'The Future of CILIP Membership'
The official day ended with the CILIP Ireland AGM. I spoke about the efforts we have made since October 2013 in making ourselves more visible, including the development of our website and Twitter account, more frequent emailing and our new promotional materials. Sponsorship recipient Helen Kielt presented a report on her attendance at the LAI/ CILIP Ireland Annual Conference in Waterford. A new constitution is being developed for CILIP Ireland this year and members were assured that they would be consulted towards the end of the year. Each attendee received a copy of the Annual Report and Committee Roles and the committee members that have volunteered are included in this. The AGM was followed by lunch and the opportunity to network, and finally a tour of Stranmillis University College Library. Ingrid Mercer led this interesting tour and pointed out some of the many changes she has made in the last year and a half.

Ingrid Mercer leading a tour of the Library.
If you would like read the Annual Report or see some of the presentations in more detail do have a look on the CILIP Ireland website:
http://www.cilip.org.uk/cilip-ireland/annual-reports/july-2013-june-2014


Tuesday 29 April 2014

Making CILIP Ireland Visible


A bit of a lengthy gap since my last post but I've squeezed a lot of work into the last couple of months. Rather than detailing every aspect I'll stick to the main events or achievements.

First up was the development of our marketing materials which include banners, a pop up stand, postcards and bookmarks. I was determined to have them ready for our Launching Professional Registration Events and it happened...only just. The process was a bit of a juggling act and a learning curve for me, involving concept discussions with our Graphic Designer Stephen Jones (www.kobaltdesign.co.uk ), researching the best printing companies for each product and running things by CILIP head office and the Chair of CILIP Ireland. We did get there eventually and I was very pleased with the results, hope you'll agree. Below are some our postcards and bookmarks.


On the 31st of March we held a Professional Registration Event in the Magee Campus in Derry/ Londonderry followed by another on the 1st April in the McClay Library in Belfast. Simon Edwards, Director of Professional Services in CILIP kindly travelled over from London and delivered these sessions. Banners, postcards and bookmarks in tow we started both evenings at half 6. The presentation was a review of the positive changes that are coming about in Professional Registration, including the development of the Virtual Learning Environment. A half hour networking session followed with plenty (possibly too many!) refreshments and during the second session attendees were given a hands on session on Revalidating on the VLE. Both events were well attended and we received very positive feedback from both evenings. I noticed a slight difference in groups on both nights. In Derry a number of attendees were Chartered and were more interested in the new Revalidation process. The Belfast event attracted a number of people who were thinking about joining CILIP and were interested in the benefits of Chartering.

Simon Edwards speaking in the McClay Library in Belfast
Standing proudly next to one of our new banners!
I was delighted to be asked by Dr. Jessica Bates to be a guest speaker to the University of Ulster students in the Leadership in Libraries module, on the role of CILIP Ireland as a professional body. Other speakers on the evening included Claire Killen, Seana McAuley and Mary Blair from the Association of Information Managers and Julie Ferris from the British and Irish Association of Law Librarians. The committee's own Helen Kielt was presented with a prize from Allen & Overy for the best results in the Postgraduate Diploma in Library and Information. It was a very enjoyable and interesting evening, from the point of view of sharing with students the benefits of joining CILIP, answering questions, and listening and networking with other information professionals in the North.

The final all-consuming piece of work lately has been the Library Association of Ireland/ CILIP Ireland Annual Joint Conference and Exhibition held in Waterford on the 10th and 11th of April. I was responsible for dealing with all enquiries from the online booking form and had to make sure all speakers were booked for the right amount of time and in the right sessions. I also had some involvement with researching speakers for the Conference. It was busy but very interesting to see a conference grow from the early planning stages to later in the process and finally lift off! I met lots of interesting people and attended sessions presented by Liz McGettigan, Neil McInnes and Billy Dixon to name but a few! The conference was well attended and we have received positive responses from evaluation forms. I should say that after an application process CILIP Ireland sponsored Helen Kielt and Anthony McKeown to attend the conference in Waterford. Both successful recipients really enjoyed the conference and I should say a big thank you to Helen for her helpful tweeting throughout, transporting our banners and leaflets, not to mention my lift back up north!
Waterford Central Library
Our next big task in the Committee is to organise our Annual Members' Day. The planning has already begun with Stranmillis University College agreeing to host us on the 18th of June and CILIP President Barbara Band agreeing to be our opening speaker. Watch this space...!



Wednesday 12 February 2014

Plans for 2014

Apologies for the delay in this post...Jan/Feb has been a busy time in my new life as Development Officer in Belfast. I could go on and on but I think it's best to give some insight into the successful CILIP Ireland Committee Meeting that was held on the 30th of January.

Marion Khorshidian (Representative for CDG Northern Ireland) kindly hosted our meeting in the University of Ulster and we had a special guest in the form of Guy Daines (Head of Policy, CILIP).

Guy gave us interesting updates on a number of CILIP plans. Strategic projects in 2014 include mapping the library and information workforce and working with CILIP in Scotland to look at the implications of the Scottish Independence Referendum. Other projects highlighted were communications, membership and staff development. One policy item I found of particular interest was the EBLIDA Right to E-read campaign. In a nutshell public and other libraries do not have an automatic right to lend e-books as they do with hardcopy books, who knew! Libraries are reliant on publishers granting them access and unless EU copyright law is changed this will continue in the future. More information about the campaign can be found through the following link: http://www.eblida.org/e-read/home-campaign/

Our campaign to make CILIP Ireland more visible and offer more to our members is well on it's way. As agreed at the committee meeting I emailed all CILIP Ireland members on National Libraries Day, supporting the celebrations, introducing myself and distributing a short survey. The survey will give us a better insight into members' needs and preferences for training and networking. If you received the email please do take part, it would be much appreciated!

In conjunction with a graphic designer I am developing some new marketing materials for CILIP Ireland...something to roll out at events, conferences and talks so you'll know who we are! I'm doing my best to keep you connected via Twitter @CILIPIreland , our section of the CILIP website CILIP Ireland and this very blog!

April will be a busy month for the Committee with a few events almost colliding. We will be launching the new Professional Registration for CILIP in both Derry/ Londonderry, the Magee Campus (31st Mar) and Belfast, the McClay Library (1st April). Very excited about this as a) Simon Edwards (Director of Professional Services) will be travelling from London to deliver the sessions, b) they are completely free and c), tasty refreshments will be on offer. More details will be on the website soon and emailed to members, non members are of course very welcome also. I was delighted to be asked by Dr. Jessica Bates to be one of the guest speakers for the Library and Information Management Course at the University of Ulster on the 3rd of April. I intend to promote the virtues of CILIP as a professional body and encourage students to join. Not long afterwards, on the 10th and 11th of April, the Library Association of Ireland/ CILIP Ireland Annual Joint Conference will be held in the Tower Hotel in the beautiful city of Waterford. The title for 2014 is 'Seizing Opportunities, Leading Change'. More details will also be going online very soon.

We finished our committee meeting by scheduling bi-monthly meetings for the rest of the year and picking tentative dates for another Open Forum on Library Cooperation (May) and Open Day/ AGM (June).

Lots to do and lots to plan!


Monday 9 December 2013

CILIP Ireland Committee Meeting...my first!

I admit I was a little nervous coming to my first Committee Meeting but was delighted with the turn out and the welcome. Attending were Adrienne Adair, Claire Milliken, Alex McIlroy, Marion Khorshidian, Helen Kielt and Lorna Reid...and myself of course!

Our Chair Adrienne started with the introductions and the apologies as there were some new faces and some unable to attend. I did a little spiel about myself and also gave a mini-presentation about the facts and figures of our CILIP Ireland Membership (see below for a sample) which generated some discussion about what areas of membership we should target with our events and how we can attract new members. In order to get more specific ideas about the interests of our membership we agreed on sending out a short questionnaire to CILIP Ireland Members.

CILIP Ireland Member Sectors
















I then went through some of the items that were discussed at the Branch and Group Forum, points of interest were the advent of the Virtual Learning Environment on the CILIP website and how we can participate in the  CILIP Professional Registration Launch which will run from the 24th of March to the 4th of April. (Any suggestions welcome!) The next practical steps in creating our Regional Member Network and how it will work in Ireland was another area of discussion but it was decided that this could be looked at in more detail at our next meeting.

Something that I have been working on is the CILIP Ireland online presence....e.g. this blog and out Twitter account, making more use of the CILIP website is another definite aim also. The Committee were keen to give a little more information about themselves on the website.

The LAI/ CILIP Ireland Conferences 2014 and 2015 were also highlighted. The 2014 Conference will be held in the sunny south-east of Waterford on the 10th and 11th of April and then it's back up North in 2015 to an as yet undecided location. Other items of interest were the CILIP Ireland University of Ulster Bursary and a guest speaker spot for CILIP Ireland in the University of Ulster Library course (April 2014).

I felt it was a very positive meeting and we are all enthusiastic about generating more interest in CILIP Ireland and giving more back to our members. We will be coming up with a specific 2014 work-plan for the Committee shortly so watch this space....




Tuesday 19 November 2013

Annual Conference 2013, Library Association of Ireland, Public Libraries Section (6th – 8th Nov...a little bit back-dated)

Having been away from my native Ireland for a good seven years I thought attending this conference would be a good way to find out about the public library world and meet some of the people running it in the Republic of Ireland. The theme of ‘Smarten Up! Tech Trends and Library Services in the Digital Age’ also appealed to me.

I arrived late on the 6th of November to a pretty desolate Monaghan bus station but found an extremely helpful taxi driver who assured me about the quality of the Hillgrove Hotel. In this I wasn’t disappointed as my room could have housed a small family.

As a day delegate the conference began for me the following morning. First up was Jim Thompson of Edinburgh City Libraries – ‘Digital and your library – serendipity or strategy? As Information and Digital Services Manager his role is to develop and deliver online and electronic services. He spoke in detail about the importance of having a digital strategy. Don’t just jump in, instead look at what technologies and social medias work best, decide on your target audience, see statistics as your friend and always examine the digital impact.

Anne Marie O’Dwyer of the Libraries Development team in the Local Government Management Agency (LGMA) followed with an interesting talk on the many aspects of the national platform Ask about Ireland: http://www.askaboutireland.ie/ . As well as education, history and the environment, this one stop shop has a dedicated section on libraries. Library staff from any library in Ireland can upload content to the website. There is a huge family history following for the website in part due to the ability to freely search Griffiths Valuation Roll.

Next up was Maya Hanley who gave an interesting and practical talk on the uses of Social Media for libraries. She recommended blogging and Twitter for librarians, particularly as Ireland is one of the biggest users of Twitter in the world. She did emphasis that your website is at the core of your information and your social media circles around this. Other recommendations included the use of social media links such as Mashable and HootSuite to manage your use of Social Media.

Following a tour of the new Carrickmacross Library I reluctantly made my way back to Belfast. I think I’ll stay longer at the next Public Libraries Conference; I met lots of friendly and interesting people and learned a lot from my brief stay.

Monday 18 November 2013

CILIP Ireland..an introduction

Hello

My name is Louisa Costelloe and I am the new Development Officer for CILIP Ireland. As it says on the cover my role is to develop...I will be working closely with the CILIP Ireland Committee to raise awareness of CILIP Ireland and to organise networking and learning events for those of you working in the library and information profession in Northern Ireland. I will also be involved in the organisation of the LAI/ CILIP Ireland Annual Joint Conference. I hope to be an easy point of contact for anyone with an interest in, or working in the library and information world throughout Ireland.

If you would like to read a wordier intro. to me and my library past have a look on the CILIP website: http://www.cilip.org.uk/cilip/about/cilip-people/staff

The point of this blog is to keep you updated on my work and the work of CILIP in Ireland. As well as the CILIP website I hope also it will give you an extra means of contacting me with ideas, questions or concerns.

I'm based in Holywood Library but am very keen to get out and about and meet library and information staff in their workplaces so feel free to extend an invite : ).