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Tayside Branch

Our branch includes the areas of Angus, Dundee and Perth & Kinross. New members are very welcome.

Next Committee Meeting: by e-mail in April

CPD Funding Opportunities: Legacy TAFLIN FUNDS

Tayside and Fife Library and Information Network (TAFLIN) folded a number of years ago, leaving us a legacy. CILIPS Tayside has been tasked with managing the remaining CPD funds the organisation left behind. CILIPS members who work in the former TAFLIN area (Angus, Dundee, Fife and Perth & Kinross local authority areas) are invited to submit funding bids for personal CPD opportunities they have identified.

If you wish to bid for up to a maximum of £500 support then please contact our CILIPS Tayside Branch Secretary, Laura Stewart: Laura.J.Stewart@angusalive.scot. Bids of no more than 500 words should outline what you hope to achieve from the training as well as a break down of the costs involved. All library and information related events such as seminars, workshops and conferences will be considered.

We would also stipulate that successful candidates submit a small reflective report afterward for the CILIPS Tayside webpage. Reports from other members who have benefitted from CPD funded opportunities can be read below.

Committee members from CILIPS Tayside will consider any bids received and respond within 3 weeks of receipt of an application.

For clarification: the legacy TAFLIN funds are only available to those who work in the former TAFLIN area. If you live in Fife but work in Edinburgh we would encourage you to consider the CILIPS Professional Development Fund as an alternative funding source to support your CPD.

CILIPS Conference & Autumn Gathering Feedback 2019

This year we sponsored places at the national conference for four people – each received one free day at the event. The lucky Cilips Tayside candidates selected were Hazel Cook, Laura Cagnazzo, Linda Hazle and Charlotte Kelman. The opportunity to attend was much appreciated and you can read their detailed feedback by following this link: Conference Feedback Reports 2019

We also sponsored two places at the Autumn Gathering – Arlene Henderson and Michael Charlton thanked us for the chance to attend and you can read their reflections about the day here: Autumn Gathering Reports 2019

Montrose Library Visit & Meet the President Event

A big THANK YOU to the Angus Libraries staff who provided us with a tour of the refurbished library in April 2019.

We were very interested to hear some history about this lovely Carnegie building, with its preserved period features contrasting with the motion sensor activated heating and lighting.

The seaside themed Children’s area was much admired as a great space for story-times and a highlight of the event was exploring the librarian’s live in flat. It was fascinating to think the building was once a home to the first librarian here and gave him brilliant views across the sand dunes from his parlour.

Yvonne Manning, CILIPS President for 2019, rounded off the tour with an informal talk about her time in the library world and being president. She incorporated a fun storytelling session and mentioned the themes of this June’s conference are to be laughter and courage.

Better Social Media for Libraries, Glasgow, March 2019 by Mark McKay

Thanks to Cilips Tayside I recently attended this course led by Ned Potter, an academic liaison librarian from the University of York. He did an excellent job of presenting the training in a highly engaging and accessible way.

Various platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and Instagram were spoken about in turn. We looked at their changing popularity and tips on their use; before exploring helpful tools online to enhance our marketing. I found this section the most interesting – harnessing your historic audience engagement data to reveal the best time to post and what sort of content gets most likes.

We looked at sourcing and optimising images and creating content that goes beyond simply being informative – using informal and humorous posts may help draw attention to services. It was emphasised different media can work better for different libraries and that any increase in customer engagement is a success.

Throughout the day attendees were enthusiastic to swap experiences and tips to improve Social Media use and everyone went away with some new ideas and a buzz from the training. I found the course very useful and appreciated the opportunity to attend. I thoroughly enjoyed learning more about this subject.

Thanks to Sean McNamara for organising the hosting of this awesome event.

Visit to St Andrews University Library Special Collections

We arranged a visit to see the treasures in the St Andrews University Library Special Collections Unit in September 2018. It was a very interesting event. Thank you to our hosts for looking out a selection of amazing books, providing a fascinating introduction to the work they do and for their friendliness.