Tuesday 1 September 2015

Thing 13: Professional Organisations

Before I begin talking about this topic, it's important to point out I'm one step closer to my screencast because I have a screencast-o-matic account set up and the latest version of Java on my netbook. I tried to get further than that yesterday evening but my computer is deadly slow and there was IKEA furniture to be made. A slight setback to my study plan, but the set-up is done and I can do the screencast this evening. I will stick to my new post study plan!

The only group I'm officially a member of is the Library Association of Ireland (got use of my countdown card last week at the Wax museum) but I will definitely investigate some of those blogged about. I am in a few groups in LinkedIn , as discussed in Thing 3/5 as well.

As IFLA is 63euro to join, even as an unwaged which I technically am not, I think I will keep an eye out for streaming and or more local locations, but this years was in Cape Town and the next two years seem to be Ohio and Warsaw. The have an e-forum coming up on Sustainable Development Goals: The Impact of Access to Information on our Societies between 7-18 September 2015 that I'll be joining if you don't have to pay  . Looking at their last conference all I can think is Oooh some rare books photos!

Eblida sound interesting, particularly since the term 'lobbying' is used in the description. Libraries need advocacy all the time so the fact that this group actively lobbies is a good thing. Yeesh, it costs €624,55 to join? That's for people under 25,000 a year as well! Again with the watching out for streaming stuff! Interestingly Ireland participated in their Knowledge and Information Centre survey and it seems they do good work.

CILIP is something I get updates from on LinkedIn and Twitter. Membership is a bit steep unless you are a student, which I am not anymore. My average pay grade means I'd be paying A CRAY CRAY £112 a year or 10 instalments of £11.20. I don't even earn that much money. That's a lot considering the LIA is so much less. They have a conference this month in London but it's a bit steep. They also have a free New Professionals Day like us, I'm assuming that's where the idea came from. If you happen to be in Edinburgh for the LMS showcase, which is free, tell us all about it! They post very interesting stories, particularly UK stories which are somewhat more relevant to us here in Ireland.

The ALA is another group I follow but I don't see the point in joining since all their events are in the US.

I'm technically in the Academic and Special Libraries section of the LAI but haven't gone to anything yet. I have thought about joining a committee but haven't got around to it yet. I will look into the Repository Network Ireland seminar on open access :) 




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