Filed Under (Events, Research) by ronan on 13-07-2010
Newton grabs yet another tourist
Held at the British Library this conference was very good – three main reasons the opening keynote speaker Professor Andrew Dillon, University of Texas, was totally engrossed in his subject “An international perspective on the evidence, value and impact of UK LIS research” and came across brilliantly, his slightly off-beat approach was balanced by his indepth understanding of his subject and indeed the audience. The second reason was the one minute madness session this was well planned and extremely well executed by I’m guessing 25 or so speakers all of whom were interesting brief and focused which of course is the benefit of the Pecha Kucha format. The third reason Charles Oppenheim summed up well and delivered a well pitched presentation. The afternoon workshops on reflection left some room for improvement – they didn’t quite come off or at least their intention was not explicit. The food was bitesized’n’tasty. I met Biddy whom I had not seen for ages and Brian Kelly was interesting talking about JISC projects etc. I also bumped into Mark Hepworth from Loughborough whom I’ve not seen for ages and who offered to review my forthcoming book.
Full review of this conference can be found here
Filed Under (General) by ronan on 13-07-2010
Having booked onto the Library and Information Science Research Coalition’s inaugural conference at the British Library and then realising that I had already booked a weekend in Dublin I needed careful planning to get from Dublin to London on the morning of Monday June 28th in time for the 10:30 conference start. This involved exquisite timing all enhanced by realtime information on my iphone! The Aircoach trip across a waking Dublin to the newly built Airport; the chaos of a full security check – belt, shoes – “switch on your laptop please sir”. “Switch off your phone – please sir” All surrounded by sleepy holiday makers. Then to the debacle of the RyanAir non-queue then onto the aircraft and the relentless up-selling of products ranging from a full breakfast through to smokeless cigarettes. Our landing in Luton Airport amid some minor turbulence was greeted by spontaneous applause from some less weary passengers. Monitoring our speed using my iPhone’s GPS I noted we hit the tarmac at about 120mph! The shuttle bus from the airport to Luton Parkway rail station is a bendy bus – nothing against such vehicles except there are 4 mini-roundabouts which we negotiated at snails pace (sort that out please people of Luton) thus upon leaving the bus required me to dash to catch the Brighton bound train – packed and overheated – to St Pancras reaching an impressive yet shaky top speed of 111mph near St Albans. A purposeful walk through crowds clinging to their coffee-cups took me to the British Library where, on entering the auditorium the facilitator was asking the audience to switch-off their mobile phones. Now that’s timing. Phew.
(1) Greene, Graham (1969) Travels with my Aunt and Isherwood, Christopher (1935) Mr Norris Changes Trains
Filed Under (Events, Research) by ronan on 13-07-2010
On Thursday 27th May I travelled to York St. Johns for a conference organised by the CILIP Y&H University College and Research (UC&R) Group entitled “The Librarian as Researcher: getting your voice heard.” Essentially a library/practitioner guide to research it was well attended and well organised.
I met Hazel Hall of the LIS Research Coalition who invited me to the coalition’s inaugral conference. I also met Miggie Picton who is on the LIRG committee with me and who presented in the afternoon. I heard Professor Jean McNiff present for the first time and I was very impressed with her style which was very engaging using a flip-chart and her drawing skills to clearly outline the theory of action research. I caught up with Sheila Corrall from University of Sheffield who gave a presentation on the research activity being undertaken by students. Sheila also mentioned an award to encourage library and information practitioners in the university, college and research sector who are at the start of their professional careers or who have not previously published a substantial contribution to the professional literature to write an article for publication. see here
A ‘key takeaway’ for me from this event was the level of involvement the York St John’s library staff have in supporting research and in undetaking their own research – something I shall be pursuing at Bradford College.
Hazel Hall has posted a review of the day to the LIS Research Coalition web site. This can be seen at http://lisresearch.org/2010/06/01/the-librarian-as-researcher/
