Annual Winter Networking Morning #winterwest18

 

The Western Region Section of the Library Association of Ireland is pleased to announce that is is holding its annual winter networking morning in the lovely campus of the University of Limerick on Friday the 30th November.

There will be a chance to network over tea coffee and pastries from 10am.

To celebrate Library Ireland Week, the Glucksman Library is inviting the staff of local libraries to visit and tour their new library on the same morning.

The event will begin with a chance to catch up with library colleagues and will be followed by a library tour and a presentation about the ARC, UL’s new automated storage and retrieval system.

The event is free to attend but registration is required

Please follow this link to register: https://ul.libcal.com/event/3356859

 

 

Rudaí23: A Free Online course starting September 2017

We are thrilled to announce that we are running another free online 23 Things course, starting in September 2017 . This is our second time running this course, and we are very excited to tell you about all the new things that we are including in this one.

Rudaí (translates from the Irish as ‘thing’) 23  is based on the 23 Things learning programme designed in 2010 by librarian Helene Blowers for the staff of the Charlotte Mecklenburg library, North Carolina. Our programme is designed to introduce professionals working in an information/library environment to new web tools and apps currently being used to promote libraries and enhance library service-provision worldwide. We will also introduce tools and apps used for  collaborating, networking and sharing your work.

This course is for anyone working in the information profession that might be looking for opportunities in continuing professional development, exploring the world of apps and web tools, networking online with like-minded professional and developing your online professional profile.

The program consists of 23 modules which will be delivered free and online via our website.  Participants can choose which modules to complete and earn up to 5 digital open badges:

Visual Communicator, Online Networker, Critical Thinker, Engaged Professional and CPD Champion.

The course will cover current issues and trends in the information profession as well as the use of web technology to promote your library and network with your peers.

Participants must complete a series of simple tasks such as learning how to use different presentation software like PowToon, or maybe you would like to know more about collaboration tools such as Basecamp. Learning includes reflecting so we ask you to write an online blog post about your experiences which in turn lets you earn the relevant badges.

This course, including the open digital badges that you earn,  is certified by the Library Association of Ireland and can be used in  your CPD portfolio.

We would encourage anyone interested in doing this course to speak to your employer about allowing time to complete it. Online learning is a valuable part of continuing professional development and can be a viable alternative to attending conferences or training if distance or financial constraints are impeding factors for you.

Please download the brochure attached to this blogpost which contains information on the time required to do the course as well as information on the module content.

Click here to download the brochure: Rudai 23 2017

Registration for Rudaí 23 will open on the 28th of August and the first module will begin on the 9th of September.

For more information email westernlibraries@gmail.com and follow us on twitter @rudaí23 @wrslai to receive updates and don’t forget the hashtags #rudaí23 #23things.

Diversity in Libraries Programme

How to get to Sixmilebridge Library

 

The 2017 WRSLAI seminar will take place in Sixmilebridge Library in County Clare.

The library is housed in a converted church and is centrally located on Church Street in the middle of the village. There is pedestrian access from Church Street with free on-street parking outside.

If you are arriving by car from Limerick/Shannon turn left at McGregor’s pub (bright yellow colour) and continue past the Roman Catholic church then take a right to the library.  This is the main entrance to the library and there is free parking here also.

Sixmilebridge train station is less than 1Km from the village and is a short walk to the library.

For bus information please contact Bus Eireann on 061 313333, Monday to Friday.  Buses are not as popular as the train but if you do use a bus it will drop you off at the Centra in the centre of the village.

Please contact Tara Considine on 087 6443143 if you are having difficulty finding your way.

Storify from our recent networking morning.

A short selection of the tweets from our recent winter networking morning which was held in the Aidan Heave Library, Athlone, December 5th.

If you weren’t following the hashtag on the day this is a useful summary that will help anyone thinking of putting together a poster submission for upcoming conferences.

Best of luck if you do decide to take the plunge.

//storify.com/WRSLAI/wrslai-winter-networking-morning-2016/embed?header=false//storify.com/WRSLAI/wrslai-winter-networking-morning-2016.js?header=false[View the story “WRSLAI Winter Networking Morning 2016” on Storify]

libwest 16 seminar round up part two

Digital skills straddled the lunch break, with Connell Cunningham from NUI Galway’s James hardiman Library at the microphone to start the afternoon, talking about the Hardiman’s new MakerSpace. The MakerSpace is a new addition to NUI Galway’s James Hardiman Library, and includes facilities including design software, Arduinos and Raspberry Pi’s, and three very busy 3D printers. Cunningham noted the importance of partnerships as the way forward, with collaboration with European organizations and the creation of a Maker Society to help run the space in the pipeline

The afternoon then moved on to three talks touching on archives.

Noting that a substantial amount of his work ultimately revolves around outreach, NUI Galway’s Barry Houlihan presented on a suite of exhibitions that have been brought to the James Hardiman complex after the construction of a new building brought about new possibilities – and challenges. Innovative displays have included costumes from the Abbey Theatre as part of an exhibition celebrating the digitization of the Abbey Theatre archives; and a digital exhibition that was part of a Yeats and the West programme for the poet’s recent 150th birthday. Creating an experience out of an exhibition was one of Houlihan’s key points, as was the importance of reaching out to both local and national media.

Evelyn McAuley, promotion and outreach archivist at the University of Limerick, followed, talking about strategies she has undertaken in promoting archival literacy in the context of displays. McAuley noted that she pays attention to information literacy standards, of abilities to find, access, interpret and utilise information, in part due to a lack of archival literacy standards to the present time. A key strategy has been in varying levels of interaction of the displays, with multimedia reflections, for instance, incorporated along with traditional display cases in displays for the recent celebrations of the 1916 Rising.

Anne O’Byrne, Head Librarian at the Rotunda Hospital in Dublin, took the podium next, with a talk about the “Rotunda Birth of a Nation” 1916 exhibit. Rotunda Birth of a Nation focused on five key medical women with direct connections to Rotunda. The process of creating the exhibition was highly complex, involving key personnel including a historian as curatorial advisor, PR consultants, designers and an actress. Caution is a virtue, O’Byrne noted, as paperwork can tend to balloon, as can costs including security and transport costs.

An afternoon coffee break was followed by two speakers touching on CPD. Siobhan McGuiness presented an engaging treatise on how and why we don’t retain information that we read. McGuiness warned against letting social media become a total waste of time; a complicated version of staring at cat memes! McGuiness shared ways of changing social media monitoring behaviours, including ways of integrating learning by social media into daily routines.

GMIT’s Mary Murray rounded out the event with an update on the Rudai 23 online CPD project, an online course designed for information professionals that focused on Web 2.0 tools. This year’s WRSLAI event marks roughly a year after the launch of Rudai 23, and its success has been remarkable. Mary noted the usefulness of the reflective posts that were integrated into the programme, as well as some of the specific Web 2.0 tools that she found of particular value in completing the programme.

In the words of a Tweet from the Library Association of Ireland, the programme was “a lovely journey from pre-school to professional development.” Congratulations to all on a day full of high-quality, enlightening talks and conversations.

This round up was brought to you by Kris Meen.

 

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!