Yes we’re onto Paul McCartney referencing and a rather daft animated video that went along with it – of frogs – in chorus – naturally!
The Benefits
I’ve been intensely involved in professional associations for almost fifteen years now. For me they’re about the network, the knowledge, the opportunities, and amassing some very good friends. Generally speaking there has been three ones throughout my career that I’ve stayed with, and different levels of involvement between them. I’m fond of them.
The SLLG (Scottish Law Librarians Group)
From a purely sectoral viewpoint I’m a long-time member of The Scottish Law Librarians Group – which has always been a convivial local group, a source of support, networking, training, bursaries, newsletter, but above all a lot of my very good friends are in it who keep each other sane, give encouragement, exchange information about useful sectoral developments… I don’t get as often as I once did physically but I always enjoy it when I do. It’s by far the cheapest professional annual subscription around at fifteen quid a year. It’s been good to me down the years so I try and be good to it back, whether it’s giving other people’s time(!!), writing, course compiling suggesting contacts… Scottish law librarians tend to be solo or very small teams for lots of offices, before email especially it could be incredibly isolating, so the Group has always been important. Especially for new entrants into the sector or geographical area. It’s also a good source for jobs in better years and climates, and for support and advice in lousier financial ones. People in much the same situation who get together, look after each other. It’s therapeutic!
BIALL (British and Irish Association of Law Librarians)
Again on the sectoral front, but wider geographically based, there’s BIALL, The British & Irish Association of Law Librarians, which again I’ve been a member of for a long time. I’m fond of BIALL, again, it benefits me, so I’ll try and give back in wee bits, and they are wee bits, but it’d usually be doing the odd presentation for them etc, one-off things that I can fit in. BIALL is a very good source of wider knowledge for the UK and abroad, a larger network of expertise to call on. That network last helped me last week, the BIALL email list as an entry point into the Commonwealth Association of Law Libraries email list and a lovely helpful person. BIALL is fairly international and it has a lot of subject specialists, it can be a lifesaver. It also has a very good journal, a very useful wiki, and a large annual conference I’d love to be able to get to, I try various devious ploys but they rarely come off. It’s also getting more involved in advocacy just now through being one of the participants in the On Firmer Ground blog.
CILIP (Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals)
This has been my main professional involvement for around fourteen years now. I love that it’s cross –sector, that it’s about the whole information profession with all the differences and commonalities, that it’s primarily UK but also international, that it does a huge variety of activities on all subjects under the information sun for all interests (e.g. through the Special Interest Groups), that it supports the profession and the sector and fights for it. I love that it supports individual careers and development and interests, whether through qualifications, or through reading the journal or one of the books. Through CILIP involvement I’ve done so many interesting things that my job wouldn’t have given me, I’ve developed courses, conferences, journal edited, a lot of writing, presentations, mentored, lots of qualifications, done committees or working groups on every subject it sometimes feels. I have done a whole lot of things at higher and higher level in a fairly short space of time that I often had no conception I could even do. Take a deep breath and leap has always been a fairly good mantra. These days I’m Leader of CILIP Council, so mostly I discuss overall organisational governance, risk, finance, strategy, policy, advocacy, and every other subject going in its season as Chair of Council and head of governance. Some of the things I loved and used to do in CILIP there simply isn’t much space for time-wise anymore and I do miss them, but I still believe in them, and what I do helps enable them to happen in other places within CILIP. CILIP is a good place to be.
Finding bodies that complement each other in the mix I want
It’s back to The Frog Chorus, I believe in All Together Now. So I do CILIP as overall cross-sector organisation and professional body, because there’s more that binds us than separates us and lots to be learned from each other. But I also do SLLG and BIALL because I find them valuable for me too as a career law librarian. The two things complement each other and cross over in some aspects (lots of law firm bod’s in CILIP too), but also have their distinct differences. I like all three for some of the same, and lots of different, reasons.
Find the core and vary it slightly occasionally
I don’t have time for other organisations much, which is a shame. For many years I had a policy CILIP-wise of being a member of seven Special Interest Groups a year and always rotating one Special Interest Group just to experience new Groups and subjects. I don’t have the time for that number currently these days but I think the principle holds at a wider level for professional bodies generally. Identify what means something to you and benefits you, that’s the core, be a member and give something back too, but try and regularly ‘play’ with a temporary one just to give it a try and keep changing it, just so you don’t get too set in your ways and miss something you’d have liked. One of these days I’ll do something about my curiosity about AALL (American Association of Law Librarians) for instance….
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