Conference Planning and Mini Umbrella 23/11/11

Last week I was in Newcastle for a CoFHE / UC&R Conference planning meeting. I was nervous about this as I know nothing about conference planning, so what could I offer?
Initially I had to offer:

• a presence from a College
• a presence from somewhere local
• support to other College and CoFHE members

At first I was very quiet as I didn't think I had anything to contribute, I eventually made some contributions and gained in confidence. I hope to be able to go to more of the planning meetings and feel that with a more knowledgeable background and more confidence, I will have even more to contribute.

One of the most positive aspects of the meeting for me was meeting new people, who were very supportive. I hope to be able to keep in contact with them both regarding the Conference and for other aspects of library work.

On the same day, I was due to attend Mini Umbrella. I was presenting with my colleagues Claire and James at the event. I was hoping to get there much earlier to see the other presentations. I managed to get there in time to see the presentation immediately before ours about services to visually impaired library users.

Our presentation was called The New Curiosity Shop: What's on offer today? and looked at what is expected and how we deliver our 21st century library services, by balancing modern and traditional services in innovative and engaging ways whilst working with an ever decreasing budget. The presentation went really well, it got people's attention and made them laugh - so definitely a success and with very positive feedback.

I think that more College libraries / LRCs should go out to cross sector or non-College events and tell their stories. There is a lot of good work out there and it needs to be promoted. It won't happen by itself though. It is something that I have only really started to do this year. I have started small and haven't presented on my own (lack of confidence). Claire and I did the Newcastle TeachMeet earlier this year, this last week, at the beginning of next year, we are doing a workshop for a local UC&R event and today I submitted our paper for consideration at the CoFHE / UC&R Conference next year. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.