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