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.
