CILIPS25 – ARLGS bursary recipient reflections

Category: Blog

Written by Sarah McGovern

I was very fortunate and grateful to be the recipient of a bursary, awarded by ARLG Scotland branch, to attend day two of the CILIPS Conference in Dundee on 3rd June. As a new professional, graduating in 2023 from the University of Strathclyde with a MSc in Library and Information Studies, this was my first time attending the conference and it had been an ambition since I graduated. I attended with my two colleagues from the Whittaker Library, at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, where I have worked as a Library Assistant since March 2024. The main motivation for applying for the bursary to attend the conference was to learn from a diverse group of experienced information professionals in various roles within the sector, and I certainly achieved this. I listened to and learned from people working in information and library academic research, academic and further education libraries, public libraries, school libraries, and those advocating for the continued funding and presence of libraries in communities. I hope that by reading about my experience of the conference below it will encourage anyone, particularly new graduates or those starting out their library career, to attend a future CILIPS conference.

As a conference ‘newbie’ I was feeling slightly nervous about the day ahead, but this quickly dissipated when I was greeted warmly by friendly registration staff. I was handed a ‘Conference Newbie’ badge and was introduced to CILIPS members, who were on hand to support and guide first time attendees. The effort that was put into encouraging attendees to meet and chat with one another and make new connections, whilst easing any apprehensions or nerves, should be commended. Each delegate was given a Scottish Book Trust Story Deck Card in their welcome bags and was encouraged to find another attendee with a matching card, to potentially win a free place at next year’s conference. Attendees were also encouraged to make up a story together using the cards; this was a nice and fun ice breaker to relax into the conference and start conversations. Additionally, there was a scavenger hunt and the opportunity to take part in the CILIPS Podcast. The first of many events of the day was two keynote speeches from Dr Elizabeth Williams and Professor Steven Buchanan; I found Dr Williams’ talk about her career and personal experience of childhood friendships forged in her local library uplifting and reinforced the local library’s centrality to a community. Next, Professor Buchanan’s presentation on recent findings from research on the emergence of information poverty in Scotland’s children was stark and emotive. Professor Buchanan’s passion and commitment to his field of research came across clearly as he spoke about his childhood, the impact visiting his local library had on him, and what should be done to acknowledge and address the growing information poverty amongst children as young as six years old. Information behaviour was my chosen area of focus for my master’s dissertation and has remained a topic I’m interested in, so I found Professor Buchanan’s research very impactful on how I think about and approach the services I currently help to provide and the services I will develop and provide in future.

From the list of Parallel Session electives for the day, I chose to attend:

• The Alternative Formats Service at the University of Glasgow: Making Library Resources More Accessible
• Libraries as Launchpads: Empowering Students and Strengthening Communities Glasgow City College
• Making Zines in Libraries: Creativity, Community and Mental Health
• What will your Library do to Celebrate Gypsy, Roma, Traveller History Month?

I chose the first session, delivered by Rebecca Oliva on the Alternative Formats Service at University of Glasgow Library, because I am a member of the accessibility committee for the library and I wanted to find out and learn from the methods used in other institutions. Rebecca’s expertise and dedication to continuously improving the service, alt format products, and delivery times was skilled and she gave good advice and insight into points to consider when delivering alternative formats to students. I took away simple yet practical and effective tips that I can apply and consider in my role in the library; for example, it is more accessible for users when high contrast and simple design options are used for making physical signage and graphics for social media and converting documents into Word is the most accessible for creating alternative formats.

Next, I attended the Libraries as Launchpads talk by Glasgow City College library staff, who told us about their experiences trialling UX methods to get feedback from students about their library services and about the assistance they offer to students to prepare them for coming to college. It was insightful and helpful to hear about the different services another HE institute offers and methods they use to improve their services and I left the session with notes of ideas for things we can do and incorporate into our library service to support new students arriving at the RCS. For example, we conduct our library survey annually, but Glasgow City College explained how they use guerilla questioning tactics to get ad hoc information and opinions about one issue by going round the library and asking one or two questions. We are exploring using this tactic in future as it is less labour intensive, free to use, easy to achieve in our small library, and would allow us to make more informed day to day decisions without waiting on a yearly survey. Additionally, the session made me think about how we welcome our students each year and the services and tours we offer; our attendance numbers on tours can be large and this could be overwhelming and placing a barrier for students who struggle in busy environments and situations so, we are now planning to offer smaller group tours at quieter times in the library.

The last sessions of the day were a Zine making workshop by Fi Johnstone and Gypsy, Roma, and Traveller History Month awareness session by Marie Bowers. We have a Zine library in our collection, and I have attended zine workshops in the past, but Fi’s charisma and energy was infectious, and I had a lot of fun at this one. The zine designing activity was interactive and encouraged us to work together in our groups to contribute to each other’s zines with prompts provided by Fi, this is something I would encourage anyone who works in libraries and has an interest in zines to attend. I took away some great ideas for our library and a finished zine. As part of the marketing committee in the library, I help plan and design displays of items in our collection which relate to annual celebrations and awareness initiatives.

Consequently, when I saw Marie Bowers’ session, ‘What will your Library do to Celebrate Gypsy, Roma, Traveller History Month’, I knew it would be of great benefit to attend. Marie is a member of the Roma community, Biochemist, and PHD Candidate, researching how Gypsy, Traveller, Roma, Showman and Boater (GTRSB) communities engage with STEMM. Marie and spoke to us about her background and how her experiences in the workplace, wider society, and getting to know other advocates for the GTRSB community had inspired her to raise awareness of the issues around racism, persecution, and exclusion and to undertake her research. These topics were spoken about through the vein of the theme of this year’s Gypsy, Roma, Traveller History Month, Who Inspires You? Marie introduced us to prominent members, of the different groups, who had inspired her through their work and activism. We listened to voice clips of the members speaking about who in their communities inspires them and how they choose to celebrate Gypsy, Roma, Traveller History Month and this was insightful to hear different perspectives of what the celebration means to their identity. This session was also helpful to our collection development plans as Marie had included recommended reading from playwright Rosaleen McDonagh and author Juano Diaz, whose works would augment our drama script collection and collection of Scottish artists. Ultimately, the knowledge of and passion Marie has for her heritage and the wider traveller community inspired me and this manifested into designing and collating our first library display dedicated to Gypsy, Roma, Traveller History Month; this display has been very popular with students and visitors as it has been replenished twice due to display items being borrowed.

To sum up my first CILIPS Conference the words I would choose are: inspiring, enriching, and motivating. I was inspired by Professor Steven Buchanan and Marie Bowers commitment to challenging systemic inequality in their communities and research areas. My knowledge and learning were enriched by City of Glasgow College Library’s colleagues through hearing about their adoption of UX to make decisions and improvements and about the services they provide to support new students. Additionally, Rebecca Oliva’s expertise on alternative formats was enriching, and I hope to continue to build and improve on my knowledge in this area going forward. Lastly, I was motivated by the whole experience, it was energising to spend a day with other library and information professionals who were dedicated to improving their service users’ experience by constantly adapting and evolving through tumultuous and uncertain times. The National Library of Scotland’s centenary message is Love Libraries and this conference has reaffirmed to me all of the reasons why I love libraries.