Joining the Club.
I have been a member of the Library Association of Ireland for at least five years. I am a member of several sections or groups. This tends to change depending on what my job is at the time. When I had a short internship at the Midlands Regional hospital in Tullamore I joined the the HSLG for the LAI. In my last position I worked in the Department of the Taoiseach so I joined the government libraries section.
I have currently signed up to several groups the Cataloging and Metadata group, the Career Development group and the Western Region section are the ones that stand out.
I have currently signed up to several groups the Cataloging and Metadata group, the Career Development group and the Western Region section are the ones that stand out.
The reason I am member of the association is:
- It puts me in touch with a wide field of professionals who I can all on for advice.
- The mailing list tells me about upcoming seminars and conferences.
- The LAI publishes an online magazine which has advice, book reviews, interviews etc. It can offer an opportunity to increase my profile by giving me a chance to get published. I am currently working on an article which I will hopefully submit sometime.
- It increase my working circle. Often requests will sent out via mailing lists so it gives me a chance to help others and be helped in return.
- Being a member of a group gives me discounts into the seminars.
- And not forgetting holding a countdown card (LAI membership) gives you discounts for a certain shoe brand
I do find that the groups do tend to be Dublin based and are slow to leave the capital which I think is a weakness and doesn't help with advocating the library cause. The WRSLAI are countering this by offering seminars and networking opportunities away from the east coast. As I live in rural Ireland that's why I joined the group. I'm a committee member with them now so hopefully I can work well with them and help out in running events and meetings as best I can.
The groups may also conduct meetings several times a year the government library section meet about 4 or 5 times annually. These meeting were an opportunity to network and share information about current library work related issues that I felt was arising.
The Library Association of Ireland does a good job considering its a volunteer run. The people behind the groups do so on their spare time so responses to emails and sending out membership cards may take time. Most groups however will reply promptly. The only exception in my experience was CONUL who seemed to ignore any queries I had about their last conference.
I feel advocating may be a not as strong as it could be. During the recession library restructuring and closures were not condemned by the LAI as loudly as they maybe should have been. However as said above their is no professional clerical staff which hampers and increases the workload on people. Also as most libraries are in some way relying on the State for funding it might be seen as biting the hand that feeds.
The LAI is very strong in CPD. Offering a Fellowships and Associateships. As well as offering bursaries to attend conferences overseas.
The other associations mentioned by the blog are more expensive to join. I find following them on social media discussed in Thing 3 and 5 can be a good way on keeping in contact with them. CILIP are regular tweeters posting advice, article links, library news, etc. The other way I follow and connect with members of other associations like the ALA, IFLA and CILIP is through Linkedin. I have got involved in several debates and discussions on the forums on that site. I have "met" some of same people on twitter chats so its a good cheaper way of building relationships without joining the actual body.
So my goal for my time being a member is to hopefully get published in an leabharlann, and work towards becoming an associate member
...Well actually my goal is to get employed again then everything else.
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