Point of reference
Internet Librarian International will take place at London's Olympia Conference Centre in October
Internet Librarian International, which is promoted as 'Europe's friendliest forum for exchanging ideas, learning new skills, hearing about new tools and tech, making unexpected connections, discovering practical solutions, and exploring new and interesting approaches', takes place in London on 17 and 18 October.
Organisers of the event, which is held at Olympia Conference Centre, describe librarians as 'leaders in tech, organisational influencers, expert marketers (often working with a zero budget), change managers, skilled data crunchers and expert internet searchers – and so much more'.
Over two days, ILI’s six conference tracks highlight the breadth of the internet librarian’s activities:
- The new library, the new librarian – exploring some of the strategies, structures, teams, skills, services and collaborations librarians are using to ensure they stay at the cutting edge;
- Users, user experience and usage – understanding how libraries are working with users to redesign services, spaces and to understand usage;
- Content creativity – investigating how creative libraries are creating, curating and marketing digital collections, how librarians are publishers in their own right and how they are driving collaborative content creation;
- Fight the fake, find the facts – celebrating two of the librarian’s super powers – advanced search techniques and nurturing information integrity – in a post-truth/multi-truth era;
- Marketing the library – sharing stories of librarians who are influencing use and expanding audiences for their services and collections from the DJ librarian to the digital storyteller; and
- New scholarly communications – exploring why the scholarly communications landscape is changing, and what this means for libraries and information professionals.
ILI’s six main conference tracks are supplemented by a series of one-hour workshops – ILI Extra – covering a wide range of specialised skills and topics, from tech topics to personal development.
And, for those needing a quick-fix or whose time is limited, ILI’s pre-conference one-day workshops take place on Monday 16 October:
- Websearch Academy 2017 – super-searchers Phil Bradley, Marydee Ojala and Arthur Weiss explore the intricacies of research on the web, looking at advanced search, evaluation of search engines, apps relevant to serious research, social media search, and analysis of search results.
- Marketing your library service: principles and actions – in libraries we spend so much time curating our content and services that sometimes we don’t put enough focus on telling people about what we do. We do so much, but how do we ensure people hear about what we offer, and understand what we do? Ned Potter helps you develop a marketing campaign for your library. Applicable right away, develop a marketing template during the workshop and take it back to your organisation to develop.
Running in parallel to Internet Librarian International is Taxonomy Boot Camp London, which is aimed at exploring and debating the growing use of taxonomies to drive data, content, information processes and more. Whether you’re a first-timer, an established information professional, or a seasoned taxonomist, Taxonomy Boot Camp could be of interest. See more in our interview with conference chair Helen Lippell on page 38.
