A short review of the Annual LAI/CILIP Ireland Joint Conference and Exhibition 2014

***Posted on behalf of Marie G. Cullen, MLIS, PGDHE, ALAI Assistant Librarian, JPII Library, NUI Maynooth***

My colleague Marie kindly agreed to share her review of the recent Annual LAI/CILIP Ireland Joint Conference and Exhibition held in the beautiful city of Waterford in the sunny south east of Ireland. Waterford City Council Library Service hosted the conference this year. Marie along with Helen Fallon our Deputy Librarian here in the library in NUI Maynooth presented at this conference. Please enjoy Marie’s interesting account of this event below.

*’How many of you have a screwdriver in your desk?’ (Photo: MorgueFile)

A short review of the Annual LAI/CILIP Ireland Joint Conference and Exhibition 2014:
Seizing opportunities, leading change, facing challenges, taking the initiative, transforming the way we do things.
Thursday 10th and Friday 11th April 2014 Tower Hotel, Waterford
The conference was attended by delegates from a range of organisations including public, academic and health libraries. The programme covered a wide and interesting range of topics, including resilience, blogging, using social media, building a DIY book scanner and dealing with change.
One of the workshops I attended was facilitated by Rebecca Davies and was entitled ‘Library and Information Competencies Further Explored’. Rebecca asked participants to give one example of things they do, that they never thought they would be doing. Examples included undertaking ‘Safe Pass’ training (required to allow access to a construction site), singing ‘Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star’ while holding a cuddly toy and liaising with a move management company.
In addition to the plenary presentations and workshops the conference was an excellent opportunity to network with delegates from a variety of library organisations and a range of library suppliers.
Overall the conference was an enjoyable professional and social occasion and the city of Waterford was a lovely place to visit.
Check out tweets from the conference and read Martin O’Connor‘s review of the conference.

Check out details of the conference programme

*Rebecca Davies Pro Vice-Chancellor for Student and Staff Services at Aberystwyth University asked participants at her workshop ‘How many of you have a screwdriver in your desk?’ Based on a show of hands the majority of the 20 or so participants did.