Each year CILIP Ireland organises an Open Day/ Members Day to tie in with our AGM. The location this year was Stranmillis University College. Many thanks to Ingrid Mercer, Head of Library and LSS in Stranmillis, for helping us to make this possible. The event was publicised via email, the CILIP Ireland website and Twitter account and I was very pleased with the response and the turn out.
We were welcomed to Stranmillis by the Principal Dr. Anne Heaslett who gave us an interesting insight into the background of this prestigious teaching college. Adrienne Adair, Chair of CILIP, then informed attendees as to the layout of the day.
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| Front Entrance to Stranmillis University College |
Barbara Band, CILIP President, presented an inspiring talk about her own career path, the benefits that CILIP membership has brought to her and how you can continue your Continuous Professional Development in varying circumstances. Barbara led us on an interesting journey from her early career days to her present post of Head of Library and Resources at the Emmbrook School, Berkshire. She also spoke about her involvement with CILIP through the years, from her attendance at meetings of the School Library Service and CILIP SLG London & SE to nomination for Vice President and President of CILIP. Specific benefits of CILIP membership highlighted included information and support, grants and bursaries, weekly e-bulletins, events and discounts on FACET books. The development of transferable skills through participation was also pointed out. My favourite quote had to be 'CILIP membership is much like gym membership, in that you have to use it to benefit from it!
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| Barbara Band 'Ask not what CILIP can do for you...' |
Luke Stevens-Burt's (CILIP Head of Business Development (Member Services)) presentation centred around the future of CILIP membership. The numerous and varied workforce skills we have, and are expected to have as modern library and information workers, were illustrated. Improvements that have already been made in CILIP include the Professional Knowledge and Skills Base, a more accessible scheme for Certification, Chartership and Fellowship and a new and free method of Revalidation. Future changes include: further integration of the PKSB with the career pathway, a blended learning CPD programme, member/ volunteer recognition, raised status of senior members and effective engagement programmes. CILIP Head of Policy, Guy Daines, also inspired with his enthusiastic belief in the importance of developing powerful policy messages. He illustrated some of these, in particular the EBLIDA e-reading campaign:
http://www.eblida.org/e-read/get-involved/
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| Luke Stevens-Burt 'The Future of CILIP Membership' |
The official day ended with the CILIP Ireland AGM. I spoke about the efforts we have made since October 2013 in making ourselves more visible, including the development of our website and Twitter account, more frequent emailing and our new promotional materials. Sponsorship recipient Helen Kielt presented a report on her attendance at the LAI/ CILIP Ireland Annual Conference in Waterford. A new constitution is being developed for CILIP Ireland this year and members were assured that they would be consulted towards the end of the year. Each attendee received a copy of the Annual Report and Committee Roles and the committee members that have volunteered are included in this. The AGM was followed by lunch and the opportunity to network, and finally a tour of Stranmillis University College Library. Ingrid Mercer led this interesting tour and pointed out some of the many changes she has made in the last year and a half.
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| Ingrid Mercer leading a tour of the Library. |
If you would like read the Annual Report or see some of the presentations in more detail do have a look on the CILIP Ireland website:
http://www.cilip.org.uk/cilip-ireland/annual-reports/july-2013-june-2014
