TRIMESTER - Rotunda Library Newsletter March 2012 | Page 2
2
Trimester
Rotunda Library Newsletter
Unlocking Your Potential
Academic and Special Libraries Seminar
O
nce again we would like to give
you an insight into the challenges
and opportunities we face as a
medical library in the midst of these trying
economic times. New databases, changing
search trends, self-assessment and training
needs are regularly being updated, changed
or indeed turning into a brand new entity
for both us, as information professionals
and for you as the users. Budgets, training
and access needs are constantly changing,
becoming limited, or unfortunately, as is
often the case, unavailable. We must
contend with these now common place
barriers while still delivering a service that
supports you, our users, in your specialised
and varied needs.
Every year we face changes not only on
an economic scale but also with changing
technologies. Libraries are continually
reinventing, changing internal attitudes and
developing in a direction that may surge
away from what was predicted years earlier.
We attended the Academic and Special
Libraries (A&SL) Seminar on the 24th
of February this year. A&SL is a branch
of the Library Association of Ireland
who hold an annual seminar for all its
members. It is an excellent opportunity
for us to gather with colleagues and
discuss these changing trends, the
significant trials and the technological
changes libraries face. The seminar allows
us to discover and conceive new ways of
delivering a modern health library and
information service.
This years seminar was aptly named
Unlocking Your Potential: Innovative
approaches to Library Service Delivery
and was once again a relevant and
informative day. As with previous
years, this years seminar focused on
case studies of libraries in the UK
and Ireland. It proved to be a valuable
day with new attitudes and developments
being introduced and reinforced to us all.
We heard from leading library and
information strategy consultant Ken
Chad about the cutting edge solutions
for the times we live in. His talk was
called Navigating the Perfect Storm.
He covered a difficult topic in which
“libraries in all sectors face the challenge
of relentless, disruptive, technologydriven change and tough economic
ti mes.”
Case studies were presented from our
peers with their innovative answers to the
daily pressures of delivering a modern
library service by utilising social networking to cross the barriers to reach users.
The A&SL seminar is invaluable to us
to know that our own library here in the
Rotunda, the resources and services we
provide are regarded highly. And that we
are in a strong position throughout all of
the changes we face to adequately
provide you all with a service that is
indeed moving with the times.
G Walsh
“ libraries in all sectors
face the challenge of
relentless, disruptive,
technology-driven
change and tough
economic times
”
“The shape of
our knowledge is
changing…
Change will
not be
instantaneous,
but it will be
relentless
”
Ken Chad at the A&SL Seminar 2012