Umbrella 2009 remembered

I was lucky to have been to July's Umbrella on a sponsored place from the London chapter of the U, C and R group. The enthusiasm I came back with was phenomenal, I thought I'd reflect over the impact it has had on me.

#1 Networking
Library folk are often thought of as wallflowers, geeks, the shy (and possibly weird) bookish kid at school. No smoke without fire and all that.
Ian Snowley’s asked those who had been before to look out for the 100 first timers (it was marked on our badges) and to ask us questions and make us feel welcome, which people really did. I met some really great people that I'm enjoying keeping in touch with on the Facebook and the Twitter. My only conference regret is that I wasn't more into the Twitter at the time.
For the final session of the conference I attended a Career Development Group session ‘Top Ten New Librarians two years on’ presented by Helen Dahlke and Cheney Gardner. Their talks were very positive particularly for a nearly qualified librarian: discussing the importance of asking people for opportunities, making your own luck, getting involved with CILIP and applying for conferences and bursaries. These are messages that I have really taken away with me, and led to me going along to the CDG group summer social and getting more into the Twitter.

#2 Enthusiasm
Enthusiasm has become a dirty word for me lately. The key positive feedback I've had from my two failed job interviews this summer has been how great my enthusiasm is which makes me feel like a labrador. And paraprofessional soon-to-be ex-colleagues have told me how strange they find me due to my interest in wider library issues.
Charles Brown’s (Library Director, Charlotte and Mecklenburg county public libraries) keynote speech was all about enthusiasm and being willing to ruffle a few feathers in order to create about not just award winning services but the absolute best services. Brown described himself as someone who doesn’t just sit around and complain but rather gets off his “duff” and does something. I'm going to remember Brown's talk every time I find myself moaning not manifesting.

#3 Information Literacy
I've been really interested in the Google Generation research for some time having written an essay on it during my MSc. UCL’s Maggie Fieldhouse’s catchily titled presentation: Digital Natives: can information literacy save them from information anarchy?’ was really interesting. Particularly the debate about whether Information Literacy in universities is too late, and the barriers to getting to school age children. I'm not sure what the answer is, or if librarians alone can tackle this. But having spent the last year witnessing the frightening lack of information literacy at university level it is something I'd really love to engage with.
Another session on Information Literacy gave great practical ideas and tips for various groups. Carol Webb from Forest Hill School began the session by discussing team teaching with a subject teacher at secondary and sixth form level, the importance of ensuring that students are emotionally comfortable in order to be able to learn and considering remarketing ourselves as educators. Andy Priestner from the Judge Business School in Oxford continued on these themes describing how he gained access to classrooms, formed relationships with academic staff and built a reputation as a librarian who teaches. Priestner engaged the group with the Inspector Morse stereotype of redbrick academics, which he then dispelled. Chris Powis from the University of Northampton concluded the session. He put us in groups and asked us to make lists of how students see us, how we see students, how academics see us and how we see academics. This showed us how the biggest barrier to integration of Information skills into the curriculum is not the bureaucracy of the organisation we work in but rather it is us, and specifically the prejudices carried by us and our service users. This was one of the most stimulating sessions of the conference.

#4 Conference attire
Finally, I've learnt what to wear to a conference. The lesson learnt is that wearing anything with an embellished/statement neckline/necklace is a waste as the lanyard will overshadow it. And everyone's looking at your lanyard to establish if they know/want to know you/your institute
On the whole I was pleased that I had packed the right balance of smart/casual/professional for the days, and a cute but flesh covering dress for the evening, but I regret playing it quite so safe.

My report for the U, C and R group is available here under Past Events (scroll approx half way down): http://www.cilip.org.uk/specialinterestgroups/bysubject/ucr/divisions/london

My first post

I've decided to start blogging as I am at a particular point in my career (nearly qualified librarian - handing in my MSc dissertation tomorrow, god willing) at a peculiar time (global recession, cuts in public spending). I'm hoping to keep up the momentum from my MSc, particularly the professional community aspect, by blogging.
At the moment I'm working my notice at a university library before moving to a sixth form college library. I'm excited because New Job is a fully inclusive learning environment with a sizeable proportion of disabled students: disability provision was my dissertation topic. I'm hoping it'll be a good opportunity to put some theory into practice and do some further research.