Making CILIP Ireland Visible

A bit of a lengthy gap since my last post but I've squeezed a lot of work into the last couple of months. Rather than detailing every aspect I'll stick to the main events or achievements.

First up was the development of our marketing materials which include banners, a pop up stand, postcards and bookmarks. I was determined to have them ready for our Launching Professional Registration Events and it happened...only just. The process was a bit of a juggling act and a learning curve for me, involving concept discussions with our Graphic Designer Stephen Jones (www.kobaltdesign.co.uk ), researching the best printing companies for each product and running things by CILIP head office and the Chair of CILIP Ireland. We did get there eventually and I was very pleased with the results, hope you'll agree. Below are some our postcards and bookmarks.

On the 31st of March we held a Professional Registration Event in the Magee Campus in Derry/ Londonderry followed by another on the 1st April in the McClay Library in Belfast. Simon Edwards, Director of Professional Services in CILIP kindly travelled over from London and delivered these sessions. Banners, postcards and bookmarks in tow we started both evenings at half 6. The presentation was a review of the positive changes that are coming about in Professional Registration, including the development of the Virtual Learning Environment. A half hour networking session followed with plenty (possibly too many!) refreshments and during the second session attendees were given a hands on session on Revalidating on the VLE. Both events were well attended and we received very positive feedback from both evenings. I noticed a slight difference in groups on both nights. In Derry a number of attendees were Chartered and were more interested in the new Revalidation process. The Belfast event attracted a number of people who were thinking about joining CILIP and were interested in the benefits of Chartering.

Simon Edwards speaking in the McClay Library in Belfast

Standing proudly next to one of our new banners!

I was delighted to be asked by Dr. Jessica Bates to be a guest speaker to the University of Ulster students in the Leadership in Libraries module, on the role of CILIP Ireland as a professional body. Other speakers on the evening included Claire Killen, Seana McAuley and Mary Blair from the Association of Information Managers and Julie Ferris from the British and Irish Association of Law Librarians. The committee's own Helen Kielt was presented with a prize from Allen & Overy for the best results in the Postgraduate Diploma in Library and Information. It was a very enjoyable and interesting evening, from the point of view of sharing with students the benefits of joining CILIP, answering questions, and listening and networking with other information professionals in the North.

The final all-consuming piece of work lately has been the Library Association of Ireland/ CILIP Ireland Annual Joint Conference and Exhibition held in Waterford on the 10th and 11th of April. I was responsible for dealing with all enquiries from the online booking form and had to make sure all speakers were booked for the right amount of time and in the right sessions. I also had some involvement with researching speakers for the Conference. It was busy but very interesting to see a conference grow from the early planning stages to later in the process and finally lift off! I met lots of interesting people and attended sessions presented by Liz McGettigan, Neil McInnes and Billy Dixon to name but a few! The conference was well attended and we have received positive responses from evaluation forms. I should say that after an application process CILIP Ireland sponsored Helen Kielt and Anthony McKeown to attend the conference in Waterford. Both successful recipients really enjoyed the conference and I should say a big thank you to Helen for her helpful tweeting throughout, transporting our banners and leaflets, not to mention my lift back up north!

Waterford Central Library

Our next big task in the Committee is to organise our Annual Members' Day. The planning has already begun with Stranmillis University College agreeing to host us on the 18th of June and CILIP President Barbara Band agreeing to be our opening speaker. Watch this space...!