Tales from the CDG Tardis

Well, I’m just back from our big two day Council meeting. It has felt like a full week! On Sunday I travelled to London to stay over the night before the meetings began. I dined alone in the Tavistock - not my idea of a great night out but even I am too inhibited to approach strange single male diners! On Monday morning (which dawned beautifully warm and sunny) I was interviewed by Elspeth Hyams for a piece that may later appear in CILIP Update. I hope I didn’t say anything too radical or self-damaging… apparently I talk very fast (she should meet my friends Kate and Rachel)… had to have photos taken too, ouch.

Monday afternoon we had our divisional reps’ meeting and the first instalment of full Council. Great turnout - the table full on all four sides, must have been around 25 of us? Great that people have travelled to London and come ready to represent their divisional committees and share best practice.

Monday night was my big night - the Presidential Reception at the British Library, Lovely location, fine weather, great turnout of group officers and past officers, past presidents from the 1960s, 70s, 80s, 90s and noughties, a few old colleagues, my director of service (all the way from Dundee!) Stayed off the wine till after the speech (wise decision). Was not booed and hecklers although present were not fully audible at the front. Yummy mozzarella and basil thingyboos. It was all rather fabulous and I got to dress up and do a lot of hugging, which I enjoy To be honest it was quite a lot like getting married (naturally I made a speech at my own wedding, I wasn’t one of those silent blushing brides… I spoke then about everything we need to know, we learned in kindergarten).

Tuesday it was down to the serious business of Council, hard to contain every different topic and decision in my head, great that many people joined in discussions. Somehow there never seems enough time. Another glass of wine with a couple of colleagues put the final seal on the meeting before I rushed off to get my train.

Train was random - no naps for me - sat next to a rather chatty guy who was an international baseball umpire. Random. And on my second connection from Edinburgh to home, I ended up next to a student from Abertay, where I work (never seen him before so he must have skipped my information literacy classes!

Day off today, much needed recovery. Still in dressing gown at midday (result). Cats attempting to disturb the peace by bringing in the first ratoncito of the year - ratoncito being our code word for any small creature brought into the house, alive or dead. This one had wings and may eventually have used them to get away, or else perhaps we will find it again under the sofa. All in a president’s day…

Photos are at http://www.flickr.com/groups/398516@N22/

Busy times as the Career Development Group National Council is almost upon us - Monday and Tuesday see our biggest business meeting of the year, and for 2008 I am its Mummy. Yikes. We have some wighty matters to discuss including finance and governance. Monday night also sees my Presidential Reception at the beautiful British Library, in the company of around 70 of my assembled colleagues - fellow group members, Past Presidents and officers, the great and the good of CILIP, even my boss (although I did warn him off staying at the Tavvy…) I am expecting another night when style will triumph over substance (hasn’t Boris shown us that…) and I will be relying on my trusty Jackanory binder for moral support and pre-menopausal memory lapses.

Flicked through the Big Issue yesterday, Lisa at Dundee Station always saves me one. The seller’s profile at the back this week caught my eye:

“I want to better myself, and books can help you do that. It’s mainly biographies I read; crime and sport stuff… True-life stories by people who’ve had a hard time are more interesting to me than fiction because real people have got a story to tell. Their experiences can make you think”.

I don’t agree about fiction but I do agree on the enabling power of books! Librarians should stop apologising for the books!

Also been enjoying Young Musician of the Year category finals on BBC4 this week. Technical ability goes without saying; it’s more about the performance, how to communicate with your audience, how to choose the programmes that will delight and inspire them. Sound familiar?

RSVPs to my Presidential Reception invites are trickling in. Today I hear back from several colleagues I’ve served with on the group over the years - it will be great to see them and catch up. There is a real sense of commonality, even dare I say it of family. The thing about committee work is that it can develop bonds of trust and a shared sense of achievement as you work together to make an event or a publication or project happen, while juggling the day job and everything else. These are the people who have endured the same travel troubles, dodgy hotel breakfasts, stressful moments along the way as well as memorable special events and the odd glass or three of wine.

Meanwhile back at the ranch, the new academic year can already be spotted riding into town with every intent of bursting open the saloon doors and drinking the place dry. Module descriptors are being revisited - it’s time to think about how we increase the strategic visibility of our information literacy programme. Also thinking about how to streamline and improve our assessment procedures, making the most of online submission tools. But part of me is screaming inside “NO NO I can’t deal with this yet!” Always a weird time of year. The clocks may have changed but the mental and biorhythms are confused by the constantly shifting work focus and unpredictable weather.

I know weather is coming up a lot in this blog but let’s face it, this is Britain, it’s a national preoccupation!

Well, in the spirit of the age, I thought when I became President I should keep a blog. The eagle eyed of you will realise that I am not in fact President yet. Behold the usurper! Here I come a-usurping, among the blogs so green…

I’m reminded of my good friend Mary who once decided she would like to read the Bible in a year. But knowing her own fallibility and the busyness of modern life, she started in September of the preceding year, to give herself a few months’ head start. Since I’m on holiday for the first week of my Presidency, I thought I’d do the same.

If you want this blog to be full of sound advice and profound thoughts, you may be out of luck. It’s a little bit of what’s inside my head at any one time, and as they frequently say here in snowy Scotland, ma heid is mince.

Why the TARDIS? Well I’ve started the whole Doctor Who thing in my ‘Meet the Pres’ article; I thought you would expect it. This evening in fact I was watching an episode of ‘Warriors of the Deep’, which pits Peter Davison’s Doctor, Tegan (fashion victim) and Turlough (fashionably sullen) against the Silurians, Sea Devils and the Myrka. It also features a great pseudo-librarian moment - how not to do student induction - monotonous chant of “There-will-now-be-a-short-orientation”. I once witnessed a librarian presenting in excatly the same style. I won’t tell you where and it certainly wasn’t any of my employers.

I have a weakness for ranting. So much so that at work I have been limited to one rant a day, to be over by 09.10. Today was Tesco day, and I have to ask… dental floss harps: why…? What next? Beard trimming bassoons? Cuticle removing cellos? Where’s Eddie Izzard when you need him?

I have actually done some CDG work today, in between day job, church and shopping. I’m organising a Revalidation event for Scotland - the first one under CDG auspices at least. Had some expressions of interest already. Exciting. And I’ve been printing labels to send out my Presidential reception invites. So many great people I know, and so many I look forward to meeting.

At the joint churches’ Good Friday service tonight I was struck again by the good relationships and sense of fellowship between members of our five very different local churches. It reminds me a bit of the CDG vibe, meeting folk from different sectors, senior managers, students, frontline staff, backroom staff… none of the distionctions matter, we’re all people, we’re part of a single community and we connect.

But it’s high time I gave the fingerbones a wee rest and poured myself a drink.