Western Regional Annual Seminar – Call for Submissions

The Western Regional Section of the Library Association of Ireland is pleased to announce that it’s Annual Seminar will be on Monday 19th of June in Sixmilebridge Library, Co. Clare. Our theme this year is Diversity in Libraries.

We would like to invite submissions from anyone working in the information profession to speak on this topic. If you are currently working with groups, conducting research or have an idea you would like to share that fits our theme then tell us about it. Diversity can include any of the following:  providing services to the unemployed – people with special needs  – adults with literacy difficulties – the elderly –  immigrants and refugees – adults, men and women – parents – toddlers – children – teenagers – crèches and preschool children – schools, primary and secondary. Any topics regarding social inclusion and libraries and serving our diverse communities are very welcome.

Please send your submissions in the form of a statement, detailing who you are, and a brief outline of what your presentation will be about to westernlibraries@gmail.com.

Closing date for submissions is Monday 22nd May.

For updates on registration and our speakers please follow our blog http://www.wrslai.wordpress.com  or follow us on twitter @wrslai #libwest17

WRSLAI Annual Seminar – #libwest16

The Western Regional Section of the LAI is hosting their annual seminar in the University of Limerick on the 27th June. It will be held in The Pavillion which is located on the north campus of the University. The theme for this year is “Literacy for Life” and includes talks on both traditional literacy and digital literacy.

Our fee for the day is 60 Euro or 40 for students or unwaged. Book early as places are limited.

To register please click here

Programme:

09.15 – 09.45 Registration, tea & coffee

09.45 – 10.00 Introduction and welcome

10.00 – 10.45 Keynote: Fighting words, the write to right– Seán Love, Fighting Words Co-Founder & Executive Director

10.45 – 11.10 Public libraries championing family learning– Fionnuala Hanrahan, Literacy Initiatives Facilitator, Libraries Development, LGMA

11.10 – 11.20 Q&A

11.20 – 11.50 Tea/Coffee & Networking

11.50 – 12.00 Sensory storytime– Grace Hillis, health sciences librarian, Daughters of Charity

12.00 – 12.20 Getting teenagers reading and writing for pleasure!– Jane Bingham-Shee, JCSP librarian, Limerick

12.20 – 12.35 A blended, generic academic skills tutorial at the James Hardiman Library, NUI Galway – Kris Meen, James Hardiman library, NUI Galway

12.35 – 12.50 All aboard! enabling and empowering staff and students to flourish in the digital age: a snapshot– Liz Dore, Glucksman library, University of Limerick

12.50 – 13.00 Q&A

13.00 – 14.00 Lunch at The Pavilion

14.00 – 14.15 Meet your maker @nuigmakerspace– Connell Cunningham, James Hardiman library, NUI Galway

14.15 – 14.30 Seeing is believing: exhibition curation and engagement at the Hardiman Library, NUIG- Barry Houlihan, James Hardiman library, NUI Galway

14.30 – 14.50 Limerick and the 1916 Rising: building archival literacy through museum exhibitions– Evelyn McAuley, Glucksman library, University of Limerick

14.50 – 15.10 Development of ‘Rotunda Birth of a Nation’: 1916 centenary exhibition at the Rotunda Hospital– Anne M O Byrne, Head Librarian, Rotunda Hospital & Chair of the Rotunda 1916 Commemoration Committee

15.10 – 15.25 Q&A

15.25 – 15.40 Comfort break

15.40 – 15.50 Media & professional reading: building your professional literacy skills – Siobhan McGuinness

15.50 – 16.05 Rudaí 23, one year on – Mary Murray, GMIT library, Galway

16.05 – 16.20 Q&A , Feedback questionnaire & Seminar Close

 

 

 

WRLSAI Spring Networking Afternoon Round Up

Last Saturday (27th Feb) the WRLSAI had our annual Spring networking Afternoon in the James Hardiman Library in NUIG. The theme of the day was centered around Continuing Professional Development (CPD) and it also allowed an opportunity for networking with other library and information professionals.

Our current WRSLAI secretary Stephanie Ronan chaired the event which started off with a welcome address from NUIG’s University Librarian John Cox. John congratulated all involved in the very successful Rudai23 course and highlighted the importance of CPD for your career.

Dr. Frances Boylan of DIT followed and outlined her role behind the “12apps of Christmas”. The 12 apps introduced a different educational app each day and this “short bite size free CPD tool” (Boylan, 2016) was indeed very successful. Frances described the hard work and commitment that running a course like this requires but all the work paid off when 12 apps won two  international eLearning awards. The course was originally aimed at academic staff but further branched out to students, librarians and other educators. Academic staff recommended the course to their students and they used the VARK system to try and understand each of their personal learning styles. One of the main goals of this project was to raise awareness of personalized learning apps and the feedback was very positive. There is so much work involved in a project like this that Frances  has started planning for this years course already!!

Up next was HSE Librarian Aoife Lawton  speaking about the importance of visibility and impact for libraries. Her recently published book “The Invisible Librarian” advises librarians and other information professionals how to promote visibility and impact within the wider organisations. Aoife believes that we should all be putting the science back into information science. On a flip chart she drew a diagram of “Evidence Based Practice” (see below) and then how the idea of this relates to librarians.

Photo courtesy of Stephanie Ronan

Aoife uses the letters from the word Visibilty to breakdown the approach we should be using when measuring visibility and impact:

Vision- Where are you going to be in 5 years?

Improvise – Use staff in other areas

Strategic Plan – Involve the wider community

Implement Plan – Keep staff motivated

Be Proactive – Look for opportunities – don’t say that’s not my job

Inform – Use Info graphics to display information

Lift Speech – Meet your CEO in the elevator – What are you going to say?

Improvement – Can you improve any existing services?

Tailor – Tailor your library to suit the needs of users

You- You can do it!

You can find more information about “The Invisible Librarian” and the Librarian Visibility Test which Aoife used in her research here.

Following Aoife, was Jane Burns – a well known face in the Irish Library community. Jane’s talk was on the professional value of Life Long Learning. Having undertaken a creative writing course in her spare time, Jane felt that this personal learning helped her writing skills and therefore helped her in her professional career. Jane recommended bringing your non traditional library skills into the library along with making staff in other areas of your organisation aware that nothing can survive without the library. Getting involved in professional organisations such as the Library Association of Ireland (LAI)  has had a massive impact on Jane’s career and can now add Associateship and Fellowship to her long list of achievements.

The final speaker of the day was Dr. Philip Cohen President of the LAI. Philip congratulated all Rudai23 moderators and participants on the fantastic work that was done to bring this course to life. Rudai23 is the first online accredited course from the LAI. Leaflets on Associateship and Fellowship of the LAI (which Jane had mentioned previously earlier) were passed around and Philip encouraged those eligible to apply. Finally all those Rudai 23 participants that were present were presented with their certificate for the course.

It was a very proud day for both Rudai 23 and WRSLAI teams and they would especially like to thank John Cox of the NUIG library for hosting the afternoon (and for the lovely sandwiches) all who came and indeed for our speakers for travelling down to the west.

WRSLAI AGM 14th December

Name: WRSLAI AGM
Date: 14 December 2015
Location: Marine Institute
Remote locations: University of Limerick, Maynooth University and St. Michael’s Hospital Library, Dun Laoghaire.

Our AGM for the WRSLAI took place on the 14th December 2015 at the Marine Institute. The meeting began with some festive treats and refreshments, while all participants introduced themselves. We had eight people physically attending, and five people linked in through video conferencing technology. The Chair, Anne Callanan, opened the AGM welcoming all and offering her congratulations on the year’s achievements. Our Secretary, Stephanie Ronan summarised the annual report she prepared, which was extensive due to great work conducted in 2015. Treasurer, Niamh O’ Donovan, gave her analysis of her treasurer’s report and we are happy to inform that financially we are doing ok! Following the reports, our new committee was elected. We are delighted to announce that our committee now boasts eleven members. We have also created a new Communications Officer role. Due to the success of Rudai 23 and our commitment to social media, two members will share this new position.

The 2016 committee:

Chair: Anne Callanan                                                                                
Secretary: Stephanie Ronan
Treasurer: Niamh O’ Donovan
Communications Officers: Emmet Keoghan / Mary Murray
Committee Members: Kris Meen, Elizabeth Keane, Tara Considine, Saoirse Reynolds, Michelle Breen, Carolyn Tunney.

Congratulations to all and especially to our new committee members, we welcome you and hope to achieve great things together in 2016!

Although WRSLAI have used video conferencing in the past, this is the first time we have linked in with three separate locations. Michelle Breen hosted a remote meeting in the University of Limerick; Caroline Rowan hosted a meeting in St. Michaels Hospital Library; and Saoirse Reynolds hosted from the third site in Maynooth University. Thankfully the technology worked well and we were delighted to provide the opportunity for participants to attend in four locations! This is a first for an LAI AGM. Thank you to our remote hosts for their patience during the test runs and opening their doors to participants from across Ireland.

Our biggest WRSLAI project, ever, was “Rudai23” and project manager Niamh gave an overview and feedback on the course. Overall the project was a huge success, surpassing expectation and it was decided that our spring meeting would coincide with a certification ceremony for Rudai23 participants. Watch this space for further information. Niamh, Stephanie and Caroline Rowan will present at the A&SL conference next month.

Some excellent ideas and recommendations for our annual summer seminar were discussed and without giving anything away, we can assure you, it will be a good one! We will issue a call for papers later in the year, details to follow.

Finally, WRSLAI will take to the road in 2016. We are intent on a field trip as Rudai 23 kept us so busy we missed out on one this year. We are open to suggestions and willing to travel anywhere within the country, just email us on westernlibraries@gmail.com with your ideas.

WRSLAI would like to wise everyone a very happy Christmas and an eventful New Year.

The WRSLAI team

The Information Professional – Embracing New Roles and Technologies With Confidence

It’s here! We have a finalised list of speakers for our upcoming seminar on the 22nd of June. The venue is confirmed as Gort Public Library, Queen Street, Gort. Lunch will be provided in the Lady Gregory Hotel.

Gort Library is busy celebrating Yeat’s 150th Anniversary and we will have the pleasure of enjoying a beautiful exhibition of hand-painted silk scarves by artist Renata Hochmanova. The scarves are inspired by the imagery of Yeat’s poetry.

The title of our seminar this year is

The Information Professional – Embracing New Roles and Technologies With Confidence.

We will be exploring the ever-changing information profession with speakers giving us insight into their experience of tendering for a library job, setting up as a freelance librarian, working as a special librarian in the pharmaceutical industry and what that entails.

We will be tackling new roles that are now expected of information professionals such as public speaking, leadership and management, and new technologies such as cloud computing.

For those of you who are involved in the Decade of Commemorations celebrations, we will be hearing about a very interesting digital exhibition from the University of Limerick. Take a look here for more information.

We will also hear about what’s involved in attaining a Charter-ship from CILIP  and there will be an opportunity to assess our own Continuing Professional Development progress to date through CILIP’s new self assessment program.

And lastly – some very exciting news! Due to the positive response and large number of requests made by attendees at our Seminar in 2014 we will be launching our very own online 23 Things Course called Rudaí 23.  Head over to the Rudaí 23 blog for more details. We will be giving you all the details about how to sign up on the day.

Here is the schedule for the day. The link to our registration form is at the bottom. 

09.30 – 09.45 Registration
09.45 – 10.00 Introduction and welcome by our Chair Anne Callanan

10.00 – 10.20 The Launch of Rudaí 23: A 23 Things Collaboration
Niamh O’Donovan, Galway County Libraries

10.20 – 10.45 Digitisation & Creation: Developing a World War 1 Digital Exhibition
Sinéad Keogh, Librarian, University of Limerick

10.45 – 11.00 Quality Blogging From Maynooth Library
Bernadette Gardiner & Emma Boyce, Maynooth University Library, Maynooth University

11.00 – 11.15 Q&A
11.15 – 11.45 Tea/Coffee, networking & opportunity to view an exhibition of hand-painted silk scarves by Renata Hochmanova, inspired by the imagery of Yeats’ poetry

11.45 – 12.15 The Cilip Chartership Programme
Elizabeth Keane, Senior Library Assistant, Westside library

12.10 – 12.30 Going Solo: Irish Tendering Process & Becoming a Freelance Librarian
Stephanie Ronan, Librarian, Marine Institute

12.30 – 12.45 Celebrating Yeats 2015, the South Galway Connection
Sr. de Lourdes Fahy, Mercy Order, Gort

12.45 – 13.00 Q&A
13.00 – 14.15 Lunch at The Lady Gregory Hotel

14.15 – 14.45 Google Chromebooks for Professional Development
Paul McEvory, Baker Security & Networks

14.45 – 15.05 Toastmasters, on Becoming a Confident Public Speaker
Cora Gunter, Executive Librarian, Westside Library

15.05 – 15.20 The Professional Progression of a Subject Librarian- Suzanne Rushe, Limerick Institute of Technology.

15.20 – 15.40 The Role of a Pharmaceutical Librarian
Sarah Lyons, Parmaceutical Librarian.

15.30 – 15.45 Q&A
15.45 – 16.00 Feedback questionnaire & seminar close

Click here to fill in the registration form.

Looking forward to a great day!

Networking Morning: the round-up

We held our winter networking morning in Oranmore Library, Galway on Monday the 17th of November.

Caroline Rowan gave us a very informative introduction to the Creative Commons license and how it affects us in our work as information professionals. If you create work which you share publicly, whether it’s a simple tweet, a poster or even videos or podcasts, then have a look at Caroine’s slides here.

Creative commons-licencing-2014-11-17-inc-cc-licence from Western Regional Section of the Library Association of Ireland

 

We also discussed potential topics for our next training seminar in 2015. Eileen O’Connor very kindly offered to host it in Gort Library to coincide with the celebration of the 150th anniversary W.B Yeats’ birth. Watch this space for more details to follow.

Some of the topics up for discussion were :

• Public Speaking and communication skills
• Linking with the Galway Education and Training Board
• Looking at the Midlands PAL system and investigating the possibility of a Western PAL
• Children’s services and developing a database of children’s programmes
• Creating boundaries when dealing with patron issues
• Setting yourself up as a freelance librarian

If you have any topics you would feel are relevant please comment below or contact us on twitter.

Associate and Fellowship Progression in the Library Association of Ireland

Deirdre Ellis-King is a former President of the Library Association of Ireland and is currently a member of its Professional Standards and its CPD Committees. A graduate of UCD and The University of Wales, Deirdre holds an Associateship (ALAI) and Fellowship (FLAI) of the Library Association of Ireland.

Deirdre is currently Adjunct Professor at the School of Information and Library Studies UCD and is Chair of the Board of the James Joyce Cultural Centre, Dublin.

She held the post of Dublin City Librarian from 1985 to 2010 having also held the combined office of Dublin City and County Librarian from 1985 until 1993 prior to local government re-organisation taking place within the Dublin region. While Dublin City Librarian, she directed through the Dublin City library system, many European Union funded technologically assisted research projects. These included investigation of topics such as libraries and e-Government, distance learning, heritage and culture. She also led the City Libraries into a partnership role in the PubliCa and CALIMERA Consortia which focused on harnessing the capacity of public libraries in collaborative processes and the stimulation of technology-based library co-operation in European libraries.

Deirdre has served several terms of office on the Board of An Chomhairle Leabharlanna/The Library Council and of The Heritage Council and has been involved in government initiatives to advance development on-line of genealogical resources.

At our seminar on Monday Deirdre will outline the early history of Fellowship of the Library Association of Ireland (FLAI) offered directly by the LAI as a primary professional qualification and link it to the pivotal change which led to the introduction of the LAI Award of Associateship (ALAI) which acts to recognise achievement, additional to the holding of an approved academic qualification, which has been extended by post-qualification practical experience and reflective learning in line with current regulations of LAI. She will also address the changing status and progressive nature of the award of Fellowship (FLAI) which is now the highest award of LAI and may be achieved via a pathway of research and submission of a Major thesis, or, via submission of a Professional Portfolio which meets the criteria for assessment in line with current regulations of the Association.

 

#libwest14

Only a few days left to our Annual Seminar. You can still register over the weekend so it’s not too late.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1XYq-510RZL72Y_BN1H5E8oqkmQLsLM9HFCEQMSIjhzM/viewform

23 Things for Libraries: Getting to Grips With Web 2.0

Niamh O’Donovan is an Assistant Librarian at Galway County Libraries since 2005, and worked as an Assistant Librarian at Kildare County Libraries from 2002-2005.  She has a postgraduate Diploma in Information and Library Studies. Her work includes group facilitation in areas such as literacy and youth libraries and outreach, promoting literacy and library services.

Niamh will speak at our seminar on the 23rd of June about her experiences with an online course 23 Things for Professional Development which she completed in 2011.  This is one of over 700 freely available ’23 Things’ courses that have become an internet phenomena in the last eight years.

These courses are designed for librarians to help them learn about social media, how to promote their library online and connect with other librarians and networks across the globe.

If you have ever thought about starting a blog, joining the twitter-sphere, or finding ways to connect with other librarians and share ideas then a 23 Things course is an excellent starting point.

The Western Region Annual Seminar 2014

It’s finally here! Our schedule for our annual seminar has been finalised.

It’s on Monday the 23rd of June at the Centre for Creative Arts and Media, Cluan Mhuire, Monivea Road, Galway.

Here is the schedule:

09.30 – 09.45 Registration
09.45 – 10.00 Introduction and welcome from our Chair
10.00 – 10.20 The Shared Service Work-force Planning Group for Public Libraries
Emer Donoghue, Tuam Library, Galway
10.20 – 10.40 How to Use Surveys to Identify and Respond to User Needs
Caroline Rowan, University of Limerick & Aislinn Conway, University Hospital Limerick
10.40 – 10.45 An Introduction to the WRSLAI Blog
10.45 – 11.00 Q&A
11.00 – 11.30 Tea/Coffee and refreshements
11.30 – 11.50 CUAL- An Introduction to the New GMIT, IT Sligo & LYIT Institutional Repository
Bernie Lally, Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology
11.50 – 12.10 Having an Impact From Day One: Student Advisors in the Library Helping First Year Students Adapt
Michelle Breen, University of Limerick
12.10 – 12.30
New Professionals Day Ireland: Pathways to the Profession
Sarah Connolly & Marie-Therese Carmody, NPD Ireland
12.30 – 12.45 Q&A
12.45 – 13.00 GMIT Centre for Creative Arts and Media- Walk & Talk
13.00 – 14.00 Lunch
14.00 – 14.20 Library & Art studio, Cappamore, Co. Limerick
Brenda Frawley, Limerick City & County Library Service
14.20 – 14.40
Associate and Fellowship Progression in the Library Association of Ireland
Deirdre Ellis-King, School of Information and Library Studies, University College Dublin
14.40 – 15.00 23 Things for Libraries, Getting to Grips with Web 2.0
Niamh O’Donovan, Galway City Library
15.00 – 15.30 LinkedIn for Librarians
Wayne Gibbons, Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology
15.30 – 15.45 Q&A
15.45 – 16.00. Feedback Questionnaire and Seminar Close

Car parking: An open access parking system applies in the Centre for Creative Arts & Media.  No charges apply. The Sat Nav Co-ords are: (53.283, -9.026)

Contact: Stephanie Ronan, WRSLAI Secretary. Tel: 061 233296

To register now click here: Registration

Price €50 or €30 for unwaged or students. This includes lunch at the G Hotel.

We will be posting more details about the speakers, here over the coming week.