The genetics of the librarian

This afternoon I am off to Glasgow as I am speaking at the Health Libraries Group's annual conference tomorrow morning. This has been a long standing invitation; in fact, ironically, the invitation was the last email I replied to before the Christmas holidays and the event itself tomorrow is the last engagement before my summer holidays. I am looking forward to it. My presentation is called "the genetics of the librarians" and it will look at the changing role of the information professional. I am, of course, going to view this from the perspective of a library school academic and ask some questions about the nature of people drawn to the profession, the nature and content of what we actually teach and its relevance to the ever-changing work environment and I'm going to ask some questions of ourselves and what we as a profession look like. Some of these are themes that I touched on in Belfast and they are things that I am very interested in. However, I think that I can also tease out some of these issues from a practitioner perspective too given all that I see and hear when I'm out and about and, particularly, what I've seen during this presidential year.

The programme for the conference looks extremely impressive with tremendous diversity in the range of topics being covered and many prominent speakers. One of the most impressive aspects is that there is a clear focus on value and impact (as you'd expect) in many of the sessions. I think other parts of our professional sector can learn a lot from health libraries in this respect.

On a completely different note, it has been our graduation ceremonies this week; always a very pleasant time as it is so rewarding to see students mark their success formally. For me, this year's highlight was the graduation of one of my PhD students, Kate Friday or should I say Dr Kate Friday. Kate has been looking at how family historians use the web for their research, how it has revolutionized genealogy and what the implications are for local studies collection in all of this. So, obviously, all themes very close to my own heart. I think it would be good in due course for Kate to share some of her findings with members of LocScot and I'm sure she'd be delighted to do that. And, while I'm on my familiar hobby-horse of local studies, can I just draw your attention to the new JISC Mail list that Thomas and Roana have established. If you are into local studies, please sign-up.