Thing 15: Day Tripping (Seminars, Conferences and Other Events)

Thing 15 of cpd23 is all about attending, presenting at and organising seminars, conferences and other such like events.

My blog title, Disconnected Librarian, says it all really. Since qualifying as a Librarian I've been with the same company and it wasn't until recently that I realised how disconnected from the profession I had become. Back in 2008 the commercial property sector was one of the first to see redundancies. We lost half of our team and since then I guess it's rather been heads down, get on with the job. Working in a corporate library in Bristol I also felt rather isolated, the only "contact" I had with the profession was the CILIP Update magazine, the articles of which bore little relevance to the work I was doing. No real training budget coupled with a feeling that I didn't really belong to the profession has meant I've never attended a single training event, seminar or conference, let alone presented at or organised one. Shameful!

Confession over.

In taking the decision to register for Chartership and embarking on cpd23 I've realised how much is out there.  I'm looking forward to a Chartership portfolio building workshop later in the month and have my eye on a number of library visits I'd like to attend. Attending things isn't that straight forward though:

• If it's in work time, I feel I need to be able to prove that it's relevant to my work or take annual leave to attend. Whilst my manger is great, I'd feel guilty asking if it wasn't.
• Events seem to be like buses. Following the summer break there are now a few things I'd like to do over the coming months, but as they are all during working hours I'll need to decide which ones I (and my company) will benefit from most.
• I'm very lucky, my company are paying for my Chartership and will pay for training, but this is of course limited. Without prioritising the events I'd like to attend I could find myself really wanting to go to something but not being able to afford to - there's even less funding available from the bank of Moore! Lauren offers some handy hints about bursaries, getting free places and helping out in order to attend events, which I'm sure will come in handy in the future.
• Finally, many of the commercial library type events are in London. Whilst London is easy enough to get to I'd still need to take an afternoon off work to make it to some of the evening get togethers. I am very, very, lucky to have found a job I enjoy in my home town, but sometimes I do feel like the only corporate librarian outside of London.  

Of course there are plenty of free events and networking opportunities. I attended the Bristol LISNPN meet up a few weeks back, met some lovely librarians and got to find out about things that are happening in other sectors. 

As for presenting, I not sure. As part of my Masters we had to present a lot and whilst I'm not that comfortable with the idea I wouldn't rule it out, although at the moment I don't feel I have anything to present. 

Organising I can see myself doing. I'd like to become involved with either my local CILIP branch or one of the special interest groups I belong to - maybe there would be an opportunity there?