Thing #7

Thing #7

The task is to write about my experiences with professional
organisations, what involvement have I had, how it has affected my career, what
I learned, why I am not a member or why I am, and which group am I now
interested in.

I am and have been a member of the Cilip since 1988, and have used various
parts of the organisation and its groups over the years. No matter what else I
have done over the years I have kept my membership and kept up with the information
they are sending out. I also have kept
informal track of what is going on and even done some evening classes and open
learning courses, to help me as well as following my own interests for work and
have been lucky enough to have the right skills at the right time.

The main issue with face to face networks is where I am. I
live in the far north of Scotland
and Inverness is nearly 3 hours south of us. When the council deleted the Principle
Librarian's job several years ago, us school librarians decide we would
organise a meeting every term and chose the third week back, we also set an Inverness
and outside Inverness groups so one term it was one and the next term it was
the other. Nobody got to all meetings and every meeting was in a new library or
location, which made for an interesting visit too. This helped us support each
other, share good practice and help develop a sense of community. We did this
as there is no other thing organised just for us.

I have explored the links in the blog post for Thing
#7 and while some are USA based and a few UK there are none this far north.
I am part of other professional groups for my craft work and the CANSCDG of
which I am chair. I am also part of a Nesta supported group called Northern Loops. I am also
very interested in the Library MASHUPS
which I learnt more about at the Umbrella Conference, and hope to bring to the
Highlands. I must confess I didn't feel any need to add to any of my groups I
am part of and I didn't find anything new to go to or enjoy up here, but I am planning
to change that and will be passing the info about when I have it sorted out.