Breakfast and coffee break before LILAC15
A while back I wrote a blog post on my Norwegian blog about library conferences. Some conferences have been there for years, steadily gathering librarians every year, while others come and go. I love to go to conferences, although I am always exhausted afterwords. I love hearing the lectures, but most of all I love chatting to interesting people during lunch breaks and in discussion groups. There are really so many hardworking, innovative librarians out there, and I always leave with new contacts and much inspiration.
My favourite conference is probably LILAC. I have been attending three years. It was good every time. Very high quality speakers and excellent social gatherings. Unfortunately, they like to set the dates to the Easter week, which is not very good for Norwegians, who enjoy not only Maundy Thursday off, but many also have a half day off the Wednesday before. So, I will probably not be going until they choose another week. 😦
For health and social science librarians, EAHIL is well-known. For information literacy, LILAC or ECIL are good options. And every other year there is Creating Knowledge. I have never been to this conference (going on in Reykjavik, Iceland this week), but I hear very good things about it. Emtacl in Trondheim is for the tech-savvy. I used to go to ILI in London every November, but then I grew a little tired of it, because it was growing a little too big for me. It was all about the visions and grand ideas, and I found it harder every year to find the practical take-aways that could be implemented at my workplace. LILAC is very good when you need the practical level.
My boss went to the Bielefeld conference a couple of years ago, and this year he went to a conference on library architecture in Freiburg. Both were interesting, he said.
This year, I will probably go to Bergen, to a conference on academic writing and how to tutor our students. This conference will be held at Bergen University College, November 10th-11th.
Next year, I hope to go to ECIL, seeing as LILAC will be held during Easter week. And someday, I hope to get a chance to attend the ACRL conference. I feel really lucky to be able to attend one conference a year, and I hope that I will be able to continue this tradition. It is so important to get some input and expand networks. And fun, too! 🙂
Karen Marie 