Rudai 23. Thing 12: Attending Conferences

I am a member of CILIP, so I have attended a few events and training days organised by them, but never a large conference.  In July this year I attended 'Moving From Year 11 to University: Building Bridges' organised by The School Libraries Group.  This event was particularly useful to me as I currently work in a school but wish to work in Higher Education in the future.  It was an all day event so it meant taking a day off work.  My line manager signed this off without a problem, but as I work alone in the 6th form library taking days off frequently wouldn't work as it can be a challenge to arrange full cover.  Recently I have been looking out for events which fall during school holidays or London based ones in the evening.

Like at other events I found it useful talking to people and finding out what other libraries are doing.  Often when I attend these events I go back to work full of new ideas.  When attending training I tend to hand write quick notes with the intention of typing up more detailed versions that evening.  On a few occasions I've left it longer than I would have liked to type up the notes, this means it's more likely I forget the 'in between bits'.  For 'Moving From Year 11 to University: Building Bridges'  I typed up my notes the next day, I also took photos of important slides.  In future I will take my laptop to events and type up notes on the journey home if traveling by train.