Lilac conference day 2
What, no famous author tweets Lisa? Well, no, sorry, not today. Let me tell you about the day though, because there’s still lots of hear about, and all in all, I think day 2 was more enjoyable than day 1 in many ways.
For a start there was more cake. Always A. Good. Thing. Even if I was caught on camera, and no I’m not sharing that particular snapshot. The pace of the day seemed a little less frantic, a combination of becoming more familiar with my surroundings and how things work, and also having some longer sessions, so less moving around.
A particular highlight was Ruth Carlyle from HEE delivering a keynote on health literacy. I’m a clinical librarian, so I’ve had the opportunity to hear Ruth speak several times, and I attended a day long awareness workshop that Ruth co-led on health literacy. So you’d have forgiven me for sitting back a little during this talk, after all I’m already on board, right? Well, no, I found the talk interesting, empowering, thought provoking. I love that health literacy is at the forefront, that my chosen library sector is smackbang in the middle of this conference. It can feel a little overwhelming, sometimes, in conference land. There are a lot of academic librarians (nothing against HE, I worked in the sector for 25 years almost), and it does feel like us NHS lot stick together a bit. So walking from the auditorium through the lovely Nottingham uni campus after the keynote, it was so heartening to hear all these different librarians from different sectors chatting away about health literacy and health information.
Pip Divall led a brilliant workshop where we participated in a journal club, with the discussion section led by an Advanced Nurse Practitioner, just as it had been in the workplace. Using de Bono’s 6 hats theory to frame the discussion, it was something I can see us applying at work in the future, maybe when our journal clubs are further developed.
I came away from the day with ideas on teaching TNAs, free online resources to engage session participants, teaching tips and techniques, and a desire to realise my worth as a librarian, and more. Oh, and a new found appreciation for carrot cake. Roll on day 3.