Rudaí23 thing#13: Professional institutions

When Irish librarians think of professional associations, we often thing of the main one, the Library Association of Ireland (LAI) as well as some of the bigger UK ones, in particular the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP). The Rudaí post for thing 13 was eye-opening with regards to the amount of professional organisations around. My twitter feed definitely needs an update.

Going that one step further

I was a Committee member of the LAICDG for approximately two years and would definitely encourage people to seek out groups that are looking for Committee members. Membership of professional organisations like the LAI are wonderful, and contain many benefits, but becoming a
Committee member takes these advantages and brings them to another level. You learn skills like organising events, working with others as part of a professional group, as well as gaining knowledge of how sub-committees interact and work together with other sub-committees. It also serves as an excellent way of getting to know people in the library world.

The basics

If you’re not quite ready for that step, the first thing to do is join the LAI, which is easier than ever to do and gives you lots of benefits which might be particularly relevant if you’re just starting off as a library professional, or even still in university. Attend as many events as possible (see my previous post about the benefits of attending events) and get to know some of your peers. If there’s a particular area you think you might be interested (and chances are, there’s a LAI group for that!) then get involved. You may not even be working in that particular field, but it could possibly help for you in the future.

The other thing to do is keep in touch with professional bodies further afield. This is most easily done through Twitter. It can keep you in touch with new developments abroad, but also give you ideas as to how professional organisations here in Ireland might develop.

A problem with terms

 

One final point is not to get too hung up on terms like 'professional' when looking at library organisations. A perfect example of this is the wonderful group New Professionals Day Ireland (NPD Ireland) which aims to appeal to both professional and non-professional people alike, whether you're somebody who thinks they may like to work in an information professional role, whether you're studying in the field, or whether you're working in a traditional or non-traditional library or information professional role. It's a great way to 'dip your toe' into the field and see if it's for you, or if you've already made that leap, to attend some wonderfully innovative conferences and talk to your peers as well as people that you wouldn't normally interact with at similar conferences.