CILIP New Professionals Information Day 2011

On Friday 3rd June, I attended the CILIP New Professionals Information Day 2011 (#npid2011, for all you twitter followers) held at CILIP's London Office. It was an excellent opportunity to meet and greet people new to the profession, and to actually network with fellow students who are heading to UCL this year to do the MA in Library and Information Studies.

I have to say, as soon as I arrived, I knew it would be a good day (I swear the warm pastries, biscuits and coffee had no influence over me, whatsoever!). The morning started with an inspiring motivational talk by Steve Clarke (the proud member of an elite team of business mentors chosen by The Entrepreneurs’ Business Academy – spearheaded by James Caan from Dragon’s Den), whose mantra for the day was "it's your attitude that determines your altitude." Whilst not a library professional himself, Steve talked about how anyone, in any career, can apply the same techniques to achieve their goals and aspirations - and must fight against the prejudice that accompanies the stereotype of the librarian (NB. see my earlier blog for brilliant gifts from cafepress which do just this!)

Following this, our next talk was by Bethan Ruddock, who emphasised the importance of getting involved (in particular, by using social media) in the library profession. I liked the fact that Bethan drew on her own personal experiences, as she was a fairly "new professional" herself. A talk on "getting experience" proceeded after Bethan's, complementing it well by further emphasising the importance of volunteering and networking with other professionals at events such as the NPID, as you never know who you might meet!

Lunch came next, and we were all very grateful for the sandwiches and crisps provided by CILIP!! (Oh, and more pastries...!) Although we breaked for an hour, time flew by, as I found I filled the time chatting with other people about their experiences in libraries, which made for a very interesting lunch-time discussion!

In the afternoon, Alex Wilson-Campbell gave a talk on "getting a job." We later discovered in our Q&A session that it was his birthday, and to be honest, I can't think of many people who would actually choose to talk to a bunch of new professionals on their birthday, so it was really lovely to see how committed he was to a day which he perceived to be extremely worthwhile. His advice on writing CVs, interview techniques, and tips on understanding what your future employer is looking for, were all very useful, and he recommended www.suehill.com and www.jobsforinfopros.com as a good place to start looking for work outside of the CILIP lisjobnet lists.

Maria Cotera wrapped up the day by discussing how one can become internationally involved. Speaking from her own experiences, Maria's stories were vivid, colourful and inspiring to people like me who had only ever really considered librarianship in the UK. With plenty of mentions of IFLA, and the fact that new professionals shouldn't shy away from applying for funding for training events and conferences across the world, I left her talk feeling like there was so much out there waiting to be explored - and I really did come away admiring her enthusiasm for the profession.

The only thing I would suggest, is that perhaps it might have been helpful to hear about the experiences of different librarians from different sectors, to get an idea as to what area of librarianship (or indeed, information management), I might eventually like to specialise. Aside from this, I found the day a really interesting one, and would definitely recommend to anyone who has the chance to go again next year! At least now I'll know a few friendly faces when I start UCL in September!