LILAC 2016: Leabharlannan, Learning & Leprechauns

Although I’m partly of Irish descent and am partial to elves and quite wanted to see a leprechaun, I had never previously visited Ireland until the recent LILAC 2016  (LILAC is The Librarians’ Information Literacy Annual Conference) at University College Dublin (UCD).  I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to attend the conference and to present a short paper on my current research interest: the digital literacy skills of research students.

I arrived on the Saturday and stayed in the centre of Dublin for the weekend. I stayed opposite the Christchurch Cathedral and next to the lovely Dublin Castle.  The view of the cathedral from my window was awesome, especially in the sunshine.

 Christchurch Cathedral

I was able to do some sightseeing and in terms of library related activities,  visited the Book of Kells exhibition at Trinity College Dublin and briefly the National Library of Ireland.

Trinity College Dublin old Library;   National Library of Ireland

I then moved on to the LILAC conference. My presentation was on the first day which I think is great as there are often a lot of delegates around and you can then focus on learning from others.  I thought the conference was great in terms of the venue, the organisation, amount of delegates,  including international colleagues including  from the US, Scandanavia and Germany, the keynotes and the parallel sessions. It was great to hear a keynote from Jisc on digital literacy as this is something I am interested in.  It is good to plan in advance which sessions you may wish to attend although this year the new pocket size programme made it  easier to navigate around.

I still need to reflect on my learning and decipher my Evernote note taking but  the following were examples of things of interest to me:

Jisc digital capabilities project

University of Leeds Flying Start  to help students make the transition to University. Also promotes the Skills@Library webpages

My Learning Essentials programme workshops and online learning and drop-in sessions from University of Manchester.

Vine videos from University of Sussex Library To promote workshops and services.

Char Booth’s blog post on imposter syndrome.

Graduate Employability Lens for the SCONUL seven pillars  

We had a couple of  really good social events, one was  a networking event at The Chester Beatty Library in the castle grounds with great bowls of snacks, some of my favourites being the mini fish and chips and chicken tagine.  We also had a great feast and evening  at the Royal Hospital Kilmainham

Chester Beatty Library; Dublin Castle

While I didn’t see any leprechauns as such, I did see a promising sign for a Leprechaun Museum but didn’t have time to visit on this occasion. I’m grateful to the LILAC 2016 organising committee and volunteers, my Library Leadership Team at City for the opportunity to attend, UCD library staff for showing us round the James Joyce Library, and the speakers and delegates for sharing their knowledge. My thoughts are that although we are all different and have our own approaches, contexts, interests, challenges and workplace priorities, there are always some communalities and we can always learn from others.