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.

The colour LILAC

Yesterday evening I had the great pleasure of attending the LILAC dinner at the Old Fruitmarket in the Merchant City in Glasgow. It was a fantastic evening and was a chance to catch up with a number of old friends such as Anne Kail from Credo Reference, Sheila Corrall from the iSchool at Sheffield University as well as a number of our former students. The dinner, like the conference itself, had a really positive, up-beat buzz and, having been following the Twitter feeds ahead of the dinner, it was clear that lots of creative and innovative idea-sharing was going on. Well done to Debbi and all the organizing committee and thank you for the invitation to represent CILIP.


My part in proceedings was to say a few words of welcome, ahead of the dinner, wearing the Presidential chain which provoked much comment, most of it more flattering than the comment of a friend earlier this week who, having seen a photograph of me wearing it, remarked that I looked like the Provost of a now-defunct county and added, rather pointedly, "like Banffshire". Alan Reid Esquire would have been as mortified as I was ;o)

Information Literacy is, of course, one of the areas where libraries and librarians make an enormous contribution to wider society and I could not agree more strongly with LILAC’s own definition of information literacy which highlights it as the cornerstone to learning and an essential skill in the digital age and in the era of lifelong learning. As we all know information literacy is not, just about “finding stuff”; it is increasingly being seen as a key skill for the modern workforce and a skill which consequently has economic, social, cultural and political impact. LILAC's themes emphasise this wider impact of information literacy on society, particularly those looking at IL and the digital future and, of course, IL and employability and both of these topics close to my heart as an academic.

I opened my little speech with anecdote that I've alway rather liked and not being a person overly worried about repeating myself, I'll end with it again now. As I was driving down for the dinner, I was reflecting that is seemed odd to be leaving Aberdeen at lunch-time for a dinner engagement and I was reminded of the story about the late Norman St John Stevas, the flamboyant minister in Mrs Thatcher’s first government. He got up to leave a cabinet meeting early and Mrs Thatcher turned on him, enquiring “Norman, where do you think you are going?” He replied that he had to leave early as he was going to a particular dinner that evening. The Iron Lady said “Yes, I’m going to that dinner too but I have two further meetings after this”. St John Stevas replied “yes Margaret dear but I take much longer to dress than you do”.

I must say, though, everyone had spent a long time dressing for last night's dinner. Thank you LILAC. It was great.