Transforming Libraries - RLUK 2021 conference

 I         I was really keen to attend RLUK’s 2021 conference on Transforming Libraries, and so was delighted to win a bursary which covered my conference fee. I have been working in the area of special collections and archives for well over 15 years now, and had the opportunity to attend various conferences and events, but invariably closely connected to my specialist area. Having completed a teaching qualification in Higher Education (AFHEA) and the Aurora women’s leadershipdevelopment programme, I was keen to attend a more broadly focussed conference, broaden my knowledge of the research environment and put my recent learning in context.

I wasn’t disappointed. The key points I took away from the conference were that:

• Most (all?) university libraries already do a huge amount to contribute to the research environment of their institutions. What they’re often less good at is communicating this, both to their users and to those higher up the university hierarchy. There was much to take forward about alignment with strategic objectives, finding out user needs and communicating how we meet those needs.
• The pandemic had created opportunities for research libraries to demonstrate how central they are to the university – often staying open throughout lockdown to provide study space and resources for students, as well as providing digital content. For many, this had helped to communicate the library’s worth higher up the university, and there was a sense of urgency around making the most of this opportunity to influence and advocate.

I also found much more content than I had expected about teaching, with its links to research, and especially teaching with special collections material. From this I have noted down ideas to explore further, including around inquiry-based learning, aligning our services with what users want/improving communication with users and using visualisers to improve the service we can offer both now and when in-person teaching in the reading room is possible once again.

I also thought the practical aspects of the conference worked very well. I had anticipated missing the opportunities for informal networking at an in-person conference, but there were several ways around this. I enjoyed exploring the virtual terrace, including the swimming pool(!) and having the chance to chat with whoever I came across. This went some way to replicating the conference experience of chance meetings over coffee. Similarly with the ability to explore the virtual marketplace of vendors/sponsors and see what they have to offer. I also found the searchable list of delegates useful, and used the chat feature to contact a few delegates directly and to follow up with questions after one of the talks. In some ways, this worked even better in this environment than at a large in-person conference where you have to physically track down the person you want to talk to. Although it was a rather intense three days, it wasn’t overwhelming, as the talks were spread out, with plenty of time inbetween to have a break from my computer screen or to contact other delegates. There was a very friendly atmosphere, and everybody I approached to speak to was happy to talk to me, or to refer me onto a more appropriate person.

 
So, what next? I switched off my computer feeling like I’d got a better grasp of the ‘bigger picture’ in HE and research libraries, as well as picking up some useful tips for teaching using my collections. I’m hoping I’ll be able to put some of those into practice in my job over the next few months.

A big thank you to RLUK for sponsoring my place at the conference.

2020 and onwards

One of my aims a year ago was to blog more often - as you can see, that didn't happen. I had a plan, but ended up with so little time available thanks to lockdown and WFH with a small child around, that I had to prioritise other things. Whilst 2020 had many negatives, we were very fortunate - able to keep our jobs and WFH in relative comfort (especially once the small child returned to preschool!). We already had a regular Ocado delivery slot, and were able to share it with our elderly neighbours and also get supplies requested for the local food bank. In fact, Ocado gave us a very regular delivery slot because of all this spending!

Although I found the initial lockdown uncertainty rather frightening, I got a sense of perspective from my work. An early enquiry about 19th century cholera epidemics, and looking into those sources for a researcher (who had no way of accessing the finding aid for themselves with all libraries shut), really brought home how much better off we are in a 21st century pandemic. I also recalled even earlier pandemics, the Pharmacopolium, dating from 1630, at Kedermister Library, where I am the Hon. Librarian, includes remedies against plague. I am very glad not to be in a 17th century plague outbreak!

Plague remedy from Pharmacopolium [Kedermister Library]

Thankfully, my well-established work social media really came into its own. I'd been teaching a group of MA students not long before lockdown, and they produced creative writing assignments, which I published weekly on the blog - it ran for the final eight weeks of the first lockdown. And I was able to use existing blog content to take part in Twitter campaigns running at the time - a great way to make the collections known to a wider audience. Whilst it was strange to be separated from the collections for a while, I enjoyed making connections online, and also found much more accessible CPD opportunities became available. Whereas I'd been struggling to attend some things previously - it's hard to go to a full day or longer event involving travel if you don't have childcare available on that day - it became a lot easier to drop into short webinars/mini conferences/AGMs on a range of topics and I even ended up co-organising one for the Cathedral Archives, Libraries and Collections Association. 

Professionally, this was the year I'd been planning to complete a teaching qualification (Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy) and to revalidate my CILIP Chartership. I had also been fortunate enough to win a place on Aurora, a leadership development initiative for women in HE, the previous year and was due to join this between February and July 2020. I successfully revalidated early in 2020. I had been working on the AFHEA since the summer of 2019, had a plan for the reading I needed to do, which teaching observations to do and knew which evidence I was going to write up when. Which meant I was in a good position when lockdown happened, as I'd already completed a lot of the work. I still managed to submit on time and was delighted to discover later on in the year that I had passed!

Aurora ran for one session in a central London hotel in February. It was amazing, and I came away with some tools and tips to use, plus some new connections. It then restarted in October, all online. It is still amazing, and I am learning a lot from it, but I am still rather sad not to have the full experience all the way through - particularly those incidental conversations at breaks and lunchtime. It also includes some mentoring, which I am finding really helpful.

So, what does 2021 hold? I will finish Aurora early in the year. I am planning to revalidate my Chartership again, this time making the most of the online learning skills I acquired in 2020. Last year I also started working towards Registration with the Archives and Records Association, the equivalent of Chartership for the archives world. I am really pleased with how my planning and organisation paid off last year, despite having such seismic changes to deal with - my blog post back in 2017 on getting organised seemed really apposite and I will definitely be carrying on with this, although I need to update that post with tweaks I've made since.

What are your professional plans for 2021?