The last conference that
I attended was the Academic and Special Libraries Conference held last February
in Dublin. The theme of the conference was inspiration, collaboration and
transformation.
I was only able to
attend the conference on the second day but nevertheless found the experience
both enjoyable and valuable in terms of learning about some of the thinking
currently going on in the library world and some of the different
collaborations that have taken place between libraries and other departments in
their universities or institutions.
In terms of the
practicalities of being able to go to the conference, we were alerted about the
upcoming AS&L conference and expressions of interest in attending were
sought. Then, it just came down to the
practicalities of how many wanted to go, on what days and the need to keep our
own library staffed as well. The fact
that my library is only an hour from Dublin makes it straightforward to go for
the day. We have a budget for Staff
Training and Development and all conferences and away days are funded out of
that.
At the conference, I met
a mixture of new people and old. As
everyone has said, most people working in libraries are enthusiastic and
friendly and make it easy to drop into conversations.
I like to get meet
people that I have worked with before just to have a quick catch up but it is
also nice to get to meet people for the first time. At the conference, I was amazed at all the
different special libraries that are staffed.
Because, I have worked for a long time in academic libraries, I forget
that there are libraries in so many companies and government departments and
other organisations.
I didn’t really approach
the conference as a networking opportunity and maybe this is what I should
change in hindsight. While I spoke to lots
of different people, I didn’t take down their names or formalise contact with
them by swapping information. Do people do that?
I totally agree about
the need to make notes on conferences. I
always find most of the talks so interesting but never make detailed notes at
the time and then you forgot the substance of what they were about.
The next conference I
attend, I will definitely keep try to keep better notes and be more mindful of
the people that I talk to.
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