This is the second of two posts about the Lilac Conference, which is taking place in Dublin next week. Here, current #citylis student, Amy Rippon talks about winning a place at the conference. Earlier, (almost) Alumni, James Atkinson, wrote about his involvement in one of the workshops that will take place there.
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#citylis Student Amy Rippon
Hello. My name is Amy Rippon and I’m a part-time #citylis student, currently nearing the end of the teaching in my second year (boo!) Alongside this I work full time at the University of Surrey as an Information Resources Advisor. This year I have been awarded a student sponsored place at LILAC (Librarian’s Information Literacy Annual Conference). The conference will take place next week, 21-23 March, at University College Dublin.
LILAC focuses on information literacy and digital literacy and how skills in these areas can be developed and supported by librarians. I’m really looking forward to attending the conference and think the programme is excellent, particularly the sessions relating to social media – ‘140 characters in search of a purpose: integrating Twitter into IL and IL into Twitter’ and ‘Library Vines: developing information literacy six seconds at a time’. I’m hoping to focus my dissertation on how academic libraries are using social media to support student learning and think these sessions will provide some valuable insights to how other practitioners are utilising these tools. I also think the conference will be a great place to meet new people within the profession and there are plenty of opportunities for networking – including a conference dinner at the impressive Royal Hospital Kilmainham.
My place at the conference is sponsored by Taylor and Francis and this sponsorship covers the cost of attending the conference, travel and accommodation. As part of the sponsorship I will be writing a report on my time at the conference for the Journal of Information Literacy. I will also be interviewed during the conference by Taylor and Francis for their Librarian Newsletter. This interview will focus on my experiences during the conference and also my thoughts on wider issues in the LIS profession.
The process of applying for a place at the conference involved submitting a short statement of no more than 500 words covering why I wanted to go to LILAC, what I hoped to get out of it and how I would feed back the knowledge I gained during the conference. I was able to reflect on modules covered as part of the Library Science course to support my application – particularly Digital Libraries and Information Domains.
I think that student sponsored places at conferences are a great opportunity to engage with the LIS profession at an early stage in your career and would strongly encourage you to apply for any professional development opportunities available! I’ll be writing another blog post after the conference to let you know how I got on…
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Find out more about postgraduate study in Library and Information Science at #citylis, meet alumni, current students and staff on our next open evening on Wednesday 8 June 2016. Register here.
If you are a current #citylis student or alumni and would like to contribute a post, please contact our Editor, James Atkinson.
