NLS4 conference wrap-up

So I spent the last couple of days in Melbourne at NLS4. The New Librarians Symposium is a great biennial for new graduates to get together, present a first paper, hear from experts and have some seriously good times do some serious networking.

It was a chock-full program: 30 papers, 5 keynotes, a debate and a handful of other talks in two days. It was exhausting, and for the first time ever, I actually left the conference early and took an earlier flight home. The tiredness might have been made worse by the social program – which included a pre-conference drinks meet up (which a few of us followed up by a late, late, late dinner that kept us all awake half the night), a cocktail party and the conference dinner (which I skipped this time round) – and the fact that I managed to have a hotel room situated right on top of one of Melbourne’s most popular (and loudest) nightclubs. The music was great; it’s just that I didn’t particularly want to feel it vibrating through the floor and all the furniture at 2am after a long day of papers! Next time I book accommodation at the conference venue, I’ll be looking for reviews first.

Highlights of the conference for me:

• Donna Leung’s paper on transferable skills and using them to help you switch sectors, Any old library job versus the job your really want. I actually put my laptop down and just listened for this paper – something fairly rare! People talked about this paper for the rest of the conference.
• Alyson Dalby’s paper on being professionally active. I like that Alyson subtly highlighted the difference between being an active association / group / committee member and an inactive member. I think this was a timely lead in to the call for expressions of interest for the ALIA New Generation Advisory Committee (go! express your interest!), of which Alyson and I are both members. People always come away from conferences re energised; I hope some come away energised to get active.
• Naomi Doessel’s paper on professional development for librarians working in non-traditional library roles. Lots of notes were taken in this session. For me, the most interesting part was Naomi’s run-down of the different mentoring relationships that she makes use of. And the Ian images were highly amusing too.
• Bruce Klopsteins’ paper Butting heads or building minds, in which he pulled together a bunch of ideas from his reading and presented a paper that felt more like a keynote than a first time paper. Some really intelligent thought went into this one. I’m looking forward to reading the full paper.

Some non program highlights included dinner at a fabulous Italian restaurant on Thursday night, followed by dinner at my favourite Melbourne restaurant Cafe Zum Zum on Friday. Also a highlight was catching up with friends from afar – friends from uni, colleagues from my former pow, the people I get to see only on the conference circuit, and a whole bunch of new people.

The New Generation Advisory Committee (NGAC) is currently reviewing the future of the New Librarians Symposium and looking for feedback. If this is a topic close to your heart, check out the article in this month’s inCite, which outlines the four models we’ve come up with, then drop us an email with your feedback.

As for me, I think this will probably be my last NLS. I’m feeling a little like I’m at the end of my new grad-ness, and less like I identify with the issues that seem to be facing lots of new grads. I’m also stepping down as chair of NGAC as soon as new members have been recruited, so I can focus on a few other things in the year ahead. It’s been fun, but time to move on.