CILIP North West Member Network Blog

After an initial introduction from everyone present covering their current roles and what drew them to libraries, Sue began her presentation by looking at her first experiences with libraries. In her childhood Sue associated libraries with her father, a working Royal Marine, as they would often attend her local public library when he was on shore leave. She also associated libraries with social justice, seen in her decision to attend the bus route planning discussions at Medway town public library as she was aware how many people would be impacted by these routes.  At her first library job in Rochester public library, her manager saw a kindred library spirit in her and advised her on potential career options, sectors and qualifications. This information proved useful with Sue's first graduate job as a library assistant in an academic librarian, where she learnt how to adapt her workshop skills to any academic library and role. Her first health role appeared, where she covered for a...

 Blog by Daisy Hogarth CPD is something we all want to do, but conference places are expensive, right? I’d highly recommend reaching out to CILIP NW for support through their bursary scheme. I found myself wanting to attend this year’s CILIP Conference but with no way of funding it. I work for a public library, so support via work financially was out of the question, and I didn’t have the money to fund the entire conference myself. I decided to reach out to CILIP NW and see what support I could be offered, and found the bursary application really simple and not too onerous to complete. I found out pretty quickly that I had been successful in my application to receive some money towards my ticket and the process of then obtaining my ticket with this money was really simple. Now on to the good stuff, the day! The conference was in Birmingham so I got the train from Liverpool. I used the train journey to have some uninterrupted reading time, something I don’t normally get to do on ...

 Written by Bethany O'Donoghue, Systems Assistant at University of Manchester Library I was lucky to be successful in obtaining a bursary to attend UKSG's 'Introduction to Resource Discovery' online seminar split over Wednesday 8th and Thursday 9th November. I found out about the event from a LIS-Link email and thought it would be useful to attend as it would expand upon my current (admittedly rudimentary) knowledge of Discovery within libraries. In my application I listed my interests for going were to improve my technical skills, learn more about metadata and learn how libraries use Discovery and I can confirm that this seminar met all of these aims and more. Each day the seminar began with a welcome from Anja Van Hoek (of Amsterdam University Press) and Magaly Bascones (of Gale). Each welcome was very friendly, established the structure of the webinar, provided insight into how to ask the presenters questions, and fostered an environment of enthusiasm towards what we...

by Siobhan Linsey, Head of Knowledge and Library Services, Lancashire Teaching Hospitals Are you curious with an appetite for knowledge and celebrating what our profession can accomplish? You are? Then let me tell you a story. It’s one of challenge, a network of like-minded people uniting in a common goal, and the rewards which were discovered along the way. In March 2024 I found myself challenged. As a health library service manager with procurement constraints, I was able to support one member of my team to virtually attend CILIP Health Library Group (HLG)’s 2024 conference. As CPD and engagement with our profession is crucial for all our roles, I strove to find a way to also attend myself. CILIP NW came to the rescue with a bursary contribution, enabling me to gain invaluable learning, networking in person at London’s Royal College of Physicians, with peers and others whose work I found inspiring. I am grateful for the support and would encourage others to reach out for future o...

by Nicola Glynn I was over the moon to receive funding from CILIP NW to attend the ALN conference 2023 (the process of applying was quick and easy, thank you so much!). Attending the conference was on a list of activities I was aiming to complete whilst working towards professional registration and it was a fantastic opportunity to gain an insight into the sector within which I work. The conference was held on 21st and 22nd June, the first day online and the second day in person in Leeds. This year's theme was ‘Revolutionary thoughts: constructively disrupting the status quo in libraries for the new normal.’ A reflection of the pressures which have encouraged new ways of working. As the conference approached, I eagerly awaited the release of the program, I was amazed at the variety. It was bursting with guest speakers, sponsor presentations, a panel discussion, short papers, lightening talks and workshops. With topics ranging from wellbeing (staff and students), AI, outreach and e...

  CILIP North West “A Grand Day Out” What Happened? Just before Covid hit in 2020, I began the process of working towards my Chartership. Lockdown gave me lots of opportunity to do all sort of online training and reading. But I struggled with reflective writing; I just couldn’t get my head around how to do it. So, I kept going with development activities and sort of hoped that if I ignored it, reflective writing would just go away. Needless to say, it didn’t. Finally, I felt I had done enough to submit my MCLIP but the pesky reflective writing was hanging over me. So when I saw there was a session on reflective writing at a forthcoming CILIP CPD day, I knew I had to attend and slay the demon! So What? To be honest, I hadn’t paid much attention to the programme for the day beyond the reflective writing session. So it all came as a bit of a surprise, and a very inspiring one. We started with a session about ChatGPT and Artificial Intelligence, led by Tim Leonard, of B...

I was lucky enough to be awarded the bursary from CILIP NW to be able to attend the CILIP Conference this year in Liverpool. I am incredibly grateful to have had this opportunity especially as prior to attending I had just started my new job in what is (for me) the brand-new area of academic libraries. I went in feeling as bright-eyed and new as I did the first time I attended a conference some years ago, a little overwhelmed at the choice of so many different talks but looking forward to learning a lot! Spotted my new workplace at the drinks reception! Museum of Liverpool Life. The theme for the CILIP conference was Sustainability in all its forms. Day one opened with an incredibly powerful and moving keynote from Sayf Al Ashquar, Secretary-General of the Libraries, University of Mosul; Director of Central Library, Iraq on the destruction of the Central Library in Iraq by ISIS soldiers. Destruction of Central Library, Iraq. “To control the people, [ISIS] destroyed the knowledge.” ...