Thing 7 - Face-to-face networks and professional organisations

My first involvement with professional organisations has been through CILIP.  I have attended special interest group meetings through my work.  Initially I felt quite nervous as I was new to the profession and didn't know any others in the group.  In spite of this, however, I did feel the event was highly beneficial.  All the ideas along with developments and experiences which were discussed were interesting and in some cases inspiring.  I came away with new ideas which I shared with my colleagues.  It is also enlightening just to hear about other people's situations. 

I have also attended a local sub-branch outing, which I really enjoyed - a day trip to Jane Austen's Chawton.  This was not only an interesting day it was also really useful to network and meet other librarians.  I shall certainly be attending future events.

As I am working towards chartership I have attended several training events this year, all of which have involved networking with librarians in different sectors, which is interesting as through this we learn about different environments and how things work in them. 

In May I attended the ILIG conference on library advocacy held at CILIP in London .  There was plenty of opportunity for networking with librarians in all different sectors as well as finding out about different areas of the profession through the variety of talks which took place.  I found the IFLA talks extremely interesting, and learned so much about the work IFLA is involved in throughout the world. I wrote an article about this conference which was published in the July edition of the ILIG journal. 

In addition to these official organisations I am a member of LISNPN but have not yet seen an event which I would be able to attend.

Just this week, I have been looking into the possibility of restarting up a regional sub-group through CILIP.  It looks like this may be a challenging task, but one which I may well take up.
I know that as a result of networking events I have put new ideas into practice at work.  For librarians who care about their profession and want to develop professionally networking is clearly essential.  I know I have learned  so much from the various events I have attended and am keen to continue to attend events.