Last week my mentor and I attended to the CILIP membership day event. As we missed it last year, and thereby also missed free workshops, we had put the date in the diary well ahead.
The workshop I chose was called 'Launch of the "Network of Expertise and Interests" and was presented by Gwenda Sippings and Lyndsay Rees-Jones. It was good fun actually, nothing formal - we had a laugh every 5 minutes. We started with introductions, not the usual type, but we had to tell what was different about us. I said that although I look Indian I am in fact Danish and am educated in Denmark, which I bet no one would have guessed. I would have said more, but the way everyone turned their heads to look at me when I said it, I figured that must be shock enough for one day.
The new network that CILIP is launching is for their members to network: www.cilip.org.uk/network
For example: Person A needs some help on e.g. e-books and finds member B on the list who is "an expert" on e-books and can get some advice from someone experienced in the field.
I have signed up for it, added a description of me and what I am not, rather than what I am. I wanted to add a picture, but I don't have one here, I'm sure I'll survive!
At present it is more at beta level, which is okay because a lot of feedback was given and discussions on how to improve the service were happening. I had signed up for it, although I am far from being an expert in anything yet, but as it was said at the workshop (when someone mentioned that newly graduates wouldn't benefit from this tool) if I ever need help with anything, I would know where to go, hanna? (isnt it)? :)
It's all good and all. But why isn't this part of CILIP Communities where the CILIP forum is?
Why have a list of people, then a different place for Q&A and, why not have this in the same place? profiles with fields of expertise and forum in one I mean.
Anyway, I met up with a friend at CILIP, and talked to a lady from a CILIP something something, to tell you the truth, she thought it was very interesting that I had come from Denmark, but I seriously can't remember who she was or what she did. All I remember is her bright red lipstick, her voice and her pearl necklace. I guess that conversation didn't get much of my attention. Anyway, while working on a small task at the workshop, a guy comes up to me and says "Maninder (pronounced perfectly!) are you from the Royal School of Library and Information Science, in Copenhagen?............ Would you happen to know Nuil Olpers?"
I thought "Who on Earth is that, it doesn't even sound like a human being"????????
I gave my brain a few seconds, and AHA! He meant Professor Niels Ole Pors!!! Ah yes, I knew him alright! (http://tinyurl.com/6dkujl) He was my mentor (vejleder is the word in Danish) for my final project when I was in uniy :) I hadn't thought of him for a very long time, but then all the things came back to me. He was the one who guided me and my, now best friend, though our project, we used SPSS and Ms Access for our project and we loved showing off our funky statistical figures and graphs in our reports, it was almost, fun! And he was also the mentor for Stuart Hamilton, who did his Ph.D at our uniy and who I worked with when I did research for IFLA for a 6 months time or so, same sort of time I had started my first semester on my masters and was going crazy doing shopping for my wedding.
Anyway, this guy I spoke to was actually Steve Thornton who is the editor of the Performance Measurement and Metrics Journal, and Prof. Niels Ole Pors is part of the editorial committee. This is how they knew each other. It was a nice chat and I am thinking of dropping my old mentor a email once of the days.
Oh also, I spoke to Lyndsay, about the CILIP Blogger thing, lets see if she gets back to me.....
To summarise the day; I had the chance to participate in CILIP's member's day, and as a member of CILIP, that is a bit like a family reunion, expect it's one of them where you only know the host and maybe two more out of the hundreds of people there. Well, it's a nice feeling that everyone in that building are almost just like you, makes you feel a bit at home. And I will definitely give this new networking tool a chance and see what happens.
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