Sunday 24 July 2011

Thing 7 - Face-to-face networks & professional organisations

I've applied the same technique to this task as the previous one - I had a read-through of the introduction to the various organisations, & took a look at a few of the links, but will be talking about my experience (albeit limited) of particular ones.

Membership Organisations - I  recently joined CILIP as an Affiliate Member. I had been following the website for some time since deciding to pursue an information career, studying particularly the career, training  & jobs sections. I decided to join for several reasons:
  • As a demonstration of my commitment to the profession which I can refer to in future job applications.
  • The opportunity for careers advice sessions.
  • Job alerts.
  • Events, training schemes including the potential for sponsored places.
As part of my membership application, I also joined the Career Development Group (CDG). My next intention is to email their West Country Division to introduce myself & try to get involved. As a default member of the South Western Regional Branch of CILIP, I should do the same to get networking.

Another default membership, I guess, is IFLA which, I gather, you gain membership of when joining CILIP? I didn't really have an awareness of IFLA until I went to NPID2011 & heard Maria Cotera talking about it. Since then I have looked fairly regularly at the IFLA website.

Informal organisations - the only organisation on the list that I have tried out is LISNPN as I mentioned in my blog for Thing 6.

Apart from attending NPID2011, I haven't advanced very far in face-to-face networking. It's something which I find quite difficult so, therefore, a definite area for improvement. Contacting the regional branch & CDG division may be my way in.

3 comments:

  1. I'm trying to follow up the CILIP/IFLA thing - I've heard about it a few times over the last year, but haven't been able to pin down exactly what's what. I'll post about it if and when all becomes clear!

    With regard to getting involved with your local CILIP group, did you know that you have to register on the CILIP websitee to be able to get your groups' email messages? Groups can send out monthly messages to their members, but only via the CILIP interface, so you do have to be registered to hear from them. (It's not a great system.) Just letting you know in case you wonder why it's all been quiet...

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  2. @Katie Birkwood
    At the time of joining CILIP I didn't actually realise that you had to register with your chosen groups - hence the 'radio silence'! Since writing this blog I have emailed them through the interface.

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  3. Hi Sarah

    Having just seen your blog post about getting more involved with the West Country CDG. I am on the committee and we are always interested in members finding out more about what we do and getting involved. If you would like more information about the group email: cdgwestcountry@gmail.com and we can tell you all about it.

    Take care
    Nicki

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