The CILIP in London AGM kicked off the evening, followed by the CDG London & South East AGM. I found it really interesting to hear about the past year's activities as I hope to get involved in some during the coming year. Both committees seem to be having difficulties recruiting members: the CILIP in London group more so than the CDG. It was suggested that the two groups could unite and organise joint events in the future. From my limited observation of the evening I feel as though this would be a good idea, and it might allow a chance for younger enthusiastic professionals and older experienced librarians to share experiences and learn from each other (and I'm aware these are massive generalisations!).
Once the main business of the evening was concluded, it was time for the guest speaker, CILIP Chief Executive Annie Mauger, who spoke on 'Partners & Partnerships: Building the Future CILIP', or, as her talk was renamed, 'CILIP, The Universe and Everything'.
I didn't make notes at the event, as I would have found it too distracting while trying to listen, so I'll just mention some of the things that stuck out for me. One of the first things Annie talked about was that networking helps to give you confidence as you move up in your career - something which made me feel happy about coming along to the AGM. I'm not the most confident person in the world but I hoped that getting more involved in CILIP would be beneficial in this respect and it's nice to know it's worked for others.
CILIP is to undergo a lot of changes over the coming year. There is a move to unite the organisation under a set of values rather than skills, because of the widely different nature of the skills that different librarians and information professionals possess. Having said this, there is to be a new LIS skills map and a review of CILIP qualifications and the various branches and groups. In these difficult economic times there is a need to justify members' money and recruit new members to CILIP.
I felt that attending the AGM was really worthwhile as it helped me feel part of the profession and remain engaged with the wider issues. I've found that since completing my MA and entering full-time work that it's easy to get stuck in that one post and lose sight of the bigger picture, which really isn't something I want to do. I hope to go to more events like this in the future and I'm looking forward to getting involved with the CDG London & South East committee.
I felt that attending the AGM was really worthwhile as it helped me feel part of the profession and remain engaged with the wider issues. I've found that since completing my MA and entering full-time work that it's easy to get stuck in that one post and lose sight of the bigger picture, which really isn't something I want to do. I hope to go to more events like this in the future and I'm looking forward to getting involved with the CDG London & South East committee.
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