I've not blogged about any of the Things so far this year, as I'm still using them in pretty much the same way as before. However since last year's post on face-to-face networking, I've made a real effort to do more offline networking. Taking advantage of the fact that I've been in London a lot this year, I've been to a couple of LISNPN meetups with lovely London graduate trainees, met up with several people I know from Twitter, and I've started going fairly regularly to London Information and Knowledge Exchange events which has been a great way to meet information professionals from other sectors.
I said last year that I thought joining a committee might be something I'd try at some point in the future, well with some encouragement from Chris, I joined the Cambridge Library Group committee in September, which has been a really worthwhile experience so far. In a few weeks there's the CLG garden party at Newnham, which will be the first event I've organised for the group. I've got my fingers and toes crossed that all goes well and it doesn't rain!
Like many librarians, I'm somewhat of an introvert, and find "networking breaks" with rooms full of people I don't know to be a scary prospect. But the lovely thing is, the more events you go to, and the more people you meet, the more those rooms become filled with friends rather than scary strangers.
If you're a fairly new librarian and like me are a bit nervous of networking, I'd really recommend LISNPN meetups if you see one going on in your area. They're very informal, usually in a pub, and I've met some really nice people through LISNPN. Getting to know people online before you meet them face-to-face helps tremendously too. So, if anyone fancies another LISNPN meetup in London at some point soon, let me know!
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| Tweeters getting out and about. Image by tanakawho on Flickr |
Hear hear to more London meet-ups! I might try to organise one just before the madness of the Olympics. Will keep you posted.
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