Current student Maria shares her experience of this year's CILIP Conference in Birmingham
I was one of the five fortunate students of Information School to receive a student bursary for attending the CILIP Conference in Birmingham. Participating in such an event was a unique experience for me because it was an opportunity for librarians to come together and discuss the future of librarianship. Specifically, the main topics of the conference concentrated on how the world of libraries changes underlying the important role of leadership, management, wellbeing, and AI.
This was my first time attending an academic conference, so I experienced it as something challenging with enthusiasm. Initially, I felt a bit out of place, but soon after I met the other participants and my team from the University of Sheffield, I started to feel more comfortable. Also, this feeling got away when I started to participate in parallel sessions and help at the Information School exhibition stand. This allowed me to meet people from different backgrounds and discuss with prospective students in my MA program at Sheffield University.
During these two days, there were 30 parallel sessions, and I was excited to participate in most of them. It was difficult for me to decide which speech I wanted to attend but it was easy to catch up on the sessions because, during breaks, I had the opportunity to discuss the different topics with other students and delegates. I could see that everyone was so enthusiastic about the topics of the conference, such as AI & digital transformation; apprenticeships, children and young people services; digital content and licensing; evidencing impact, new opportunities & business models; building a Knowledge Management community of practice; managing knowledge at scale; libraries at the sanctuary; mentoring, leadership skills and personal development; safe & inclusive services; sustainability, wellbeing, and workforce development.
My favorite speech was the main keynote discussing AI in libraries (Driving Business Value Through AI–Powered Knowledge Management – Rebecka Isaksson). I could never have imagined that the world of libraries has changed so much and how librarianship fits into the world of AI. This keynote introduced me to new technologies. In her speech, Rebecka Isaksson took away my concerns about using AI in libraries when she underlined the necessity of the coexistence of human intelligence and Artificial Intelligence. Other interesting speeches were those concerning leadership, which allowed me to combine my knowledge from my university modules with new interesting information about how to surpass the syndrome of imposer and build a new personal brand (“Wellbeing for Personal Resilience and Impactful Leadership” and “Developing Yourself as a leader: Overcoming Imposter Syndrome and Building a Personal Brand”).
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