18 Jun 2026

Literacy for the future: Review of the LIR Annual Seminar 2026

This guest post is by Cathal Madigan, Library Assistant at TU Dublin.

On Wednesday May 13th, 2026, I had the privilege to attend the LIR Annual Seminar 2026. Hosted in the ASIERA Offices in Dublin and recorded over MS Teams, the Seminar had a theme of “Supporting Emerging Literacies,” and asked the question of how libraries design and deliver new literacy programmes. The presentations had a shared idea of literacy, with each presenter showcasing how libraries could hope to use these programmes to bolster services and assist clients.

LIR Group logo of a swan with its wings shaped like an opening book
LIR Group logo, from LIR Group website

The Seminar opened with a keynote from Dr Andrew Cox, Senior Lecturer at the School of Information, Journalism and Communication, University of Sheffield. Focusing on the emerging use cases of AI and how librarians could integrate it, Dr Cox provided an examination of the potential costs and benefits of AI integration in libraries, exploring the importance of knowing how best to safely integrate it into library structures and be aware of how students are using it in their daily activities.

Ann Byrne, Digital Librarian for Hibernia College, spoke about “digital literacy for all” and reflected on the process of creating a course in digital literacy for Hibernia College, a process that began in 2023 in the aftermath of COVID-19 as staff realised that students had no real instructions for how to use digital literacy. This made it a good choice for an open course system as it is a universal need. The pilot programme launched in 2023 and was deemed a success as part of UNESCO's Global Media and Information Literacy Week and Be Media Smart campaign from Media Literacy Ireland. The success prompted a second phase in 2025, which added new lessons and incorporated feedback like a dedicated module on AI.

A office building on Dublin’s North Wall Quay reflected in the water on a bright, sunny day” purely decorative image
ASIERA Offices, North Wall Quay, Dublin 1, where the event was hosted, from archdaily.com
Ronan Madden, Learning & Teaching Team Lead at UCC Library, discussed the new Digital and Information Literacy Framework that UCC had begun developing. A new team, the Framework provides tailored classes on request with a focus on increasing awareness of the different forms of literacy across the university, such as information, digital, media and AI literacy. Ronan outlined how the Framework had been developed and used by students and faculty at UCC, how students assisted with peer review, and how it is intended as a living document that is always innovating and expanding.

Siobhán Dunne,Teaching, Research Support and User Experience, TCD, spoke about the concept of Sustainability Literacy (i.e. the knowledge of the relationship/conflicts between humanity and the environment), discussing the Sustainability Action Plan that Trinity had launched in February 2026 after a survey for students requested sustainability awareness. One of the major components of the plan was that Sustainability Literacy would provide a new opportunity to position the library as a trusted information resource for students and staff. As an example of this, Siobhán shared how part of the Action Plan involved creating a space where students could learn about AI and its impact on the climate, and share their concerns.

An informational graph with a cheese-wheel graphic on the left discussing a library’s Sustainability Action Plan for the year of 2026
A still from Siobhan Dunne’s presentation showing TCD’s Sustainability Action Plan for 2026

Patrick Keegan, Learning Specialist Librarian at RCSI, discussed a pilot workshop for postgraduate learners which included AI Literacy, or learning when would be an appropriate time to use AI. The concept of "cognitive offloading" was discussed (i.e. how the brain can only process so much information so steps must be taken to know ways to offload). Patrick emphasised how important it was to train graduates to be ready to avoid detrimental offloading when in the workplace, and that being able to retain cognitive prowess when working with patients is a key skill. The workshop he worked on provided three examples of issues healthcare students may face as AI usage becomes more commonplace; how to critically evaluate suggestions from AI, how it can disrupt learning journeys, and how to explain the choices one makes in their day-to-day operations. Patrick ended with the key takeaways from the workshop and suggested a “human in the loop” style of AI oversight where suggestions made by AI are always run by a skilled professional first before being implemented.

Dr Simone Fühles-Ubach, Library and Information Science at TH Köln, and Professor Elisabeth Kaliva, Computer Scientist and Educational Researcher at TH Köln, opened the final stage of the Seminar with a shared presentation on a research project they had been undertaking since 2020, based on the “Data Literacy” research project at TH Köln. They presented the progress and research findings of their project, focusing on the contribution and collaboration of academic libraries and the impact this had on students. The Data Literacy Initiative (DALI) at TH Köln has become a centralised shared working space for students and staff, creating an infrastructure to advise students on data literacy and usage of it while researching.

Ben Lee from Shared Intelligence, speaking about future literacy at the LIR Seminar 2026

The final speaker of the day was Ben Lee, director of think-tank consultant group Shared Intelligence. His event was named “Come Rain or Shine: futures literacy for libraries, and the role of libraries in building futures literacy among their users and communities.” Ben discussed how a report was made in 2023 to discuss the challenges facing public libraries in the United Kingdom and how to increase awareness and usage in local communities. The report suggested finding new ways to reverse declining attendance rates in libraries, and to beware the retirement cliff. Ben spoke of Futures Literacy, i.e. the concept of using the ideas of the future to inform the actions of the present. This led into a group exercise where Ben asked those in attendance to combine two uncertain future concepts on a graph to create different versions of the future, showing the different paths an uncertain future can generate, before the Seminar concluded.

The LIR Seminar proved to be a stimulating day. I was pleased to get to attend and found the experience very enlightening. The overall questions raised in the introduction of the Seminar of how libraries design and deliver new literacy programmes was appropriately answered and elaborated on. Each of the different representatives discussed how their own libraries oversaw new programmes to increase awareness of digital literacy among their clientele, providing a wide variety of alternate perspectives that showed how each of the guest speakers came to their conclusions. This allowed for improvements in their offered services and allowed for each facility to be more adept at handling queries asked by the modern library customer. 

16 Jun 2026

Demystifying Joyce - A reflection of the Ulysses Book Club at Dublin City University Library

This guest post is by Alana Mahon O'Neill who is a library assistant based in the Research and Teaching directorate in DCU Library.

Please note: This article gives examples of the language in Ulysses that led to the novel being banned in several countries. 

Ulysses is considered one of the most important texts of Irish Literature and it is celebrated as a pinnacle of English modernist literature. Celebrants mark the occasion annually on Bloomsday by walking Dublin's streets, reenacting scenes from the book, and turning fiction into living history.

Collage featuring James Joyce statue, the James Joyce bridge and the title of his book ‘Ulysses’]
James Joyce's mark on Dublin City. Image credits: Wikimedia Commons.
Joyce echoes in our culture, referenced in literary works from Flann O’Brien to Sally Rooney and resonates within the musical ambitions of Kate Bush, Lou Reed, and Fontaines D.C., to name a few. Widespread literary consensus holds that Joyce has influenced much of modern literature and art, and that Ulysses alone challenges narrative structure, experiments with language, and introduces stream of consciousness.

A collage of musicians Kate Bush, Lou Read, and Fontaine’s D.C. overlaid with lyrics from their music inspired by Ulysses. For Kate Bush are the lyrics “And yes I said yes I will yes”, for Lou Reed are the lyrics, “My Daedalus to your Bloom”, and for Fontaines D.C. are the lyrics “Horseness is the Whatness”.]
Ulysses inspired musicians Kate Bush, Lou Reed and Fontaines D.C. who reference lines from the text in their song lyrics. Image credits: Photographs by Columbia Records via Wikimedia Commons, Garry Gross and Simone Joyner/Getty Images.
So, why haven’t more people read it? Last year, the Dublin City University (DCU) Arts and Culture department announced a Ulysses book club. The objective: meet once a month (with a break for the summer) and discuss two chapters over some tea and biscuits? Yeah, sure.

The gathering was successful thanks to Jen and Claire. Inspired by their own book club, they facilitated this reading of Ulysses as James Joyce “enthusiasts”, rather than as academics, and invited an assembly of Drumcondra residents and DCU staff. We conversed at meetings and between sessions shared links to articles, podcasts and interesting tidbits. We all had very different approaches to engaging with the material: some read the text, others preferred the audiobook. Personally, I opted for full immersion by consuming the two at once, like a VR headset. This was particularly engaging for chapters like Circe, where Joyce uses onomatopoeia for inanimate objects, which the audio production conjured up into an eerie chorus of voices.

Collage of Quotes from Ulysses, including The Bells saying “Haltyaltyaltyall”, The Gasjet saying “pooah! Pfuiiiiiiii!”, The Gong saying “Bang Bang Bla Bak Blu Bugg Bloo” and finally The Doorhandle saying “Theeee”
Examples of onomatopoeia from 'Circe', chapter 15 of Ulysses

If you haven’t read Ulysses, the pictured quotes might be surprising. It was for me. Popular sentiment is that it has been rigorously analysed by prestigious academics and therefore becomes “inaccessible” for the vast majority. This negates the most fascinating aspect of the book: it’s silly.

Ulysses is full of word plays, tongue-in-cheek allegories and crude language. It’s shameless, rude and transgressive in its religious, political and social allusions. When people gush incredulously about the book being banned in Ireland, believe them.

A collage of crossed-out curse words and vulgar quotes
A sample of the 'highbrow' language used in Ulysses.
Also, don’t believe them. It was never banned. Irish authorities believed so few would read the novel that there was no need to submit it to the censorship board.1

In hindsight, it was a miracle that the book was ever published. Joyce went through incredible lengths to make Ulysses true to life. While living in Paris, he wrote back letters to family members in Dublin to confirm the minutest of details, from the time it takes for a piece of paper to float down the river Liffey,2 to whether one could jump the fence at No. 7 Eccles Street,3 and the presence of a shooting star in the night sky on June 16, 1904.4

I want to give a picture of Dublin so complete that if the city suddenly disappeared from the earth it could be reconstructed out of my book.” - James Joyce.5

Jen and Claire shared some of their “rabbit-hole” deep dives into references within and between the lines of the text. Businesses mentioned on O’Connell Street led to an elaborate unfolding of the origin of Elvery’s Elephant logo.6 In Drumcondra, the Goose Tavern pub may have taken its name from the flocks of Brent Geese that flock to the area in the winter months. There are many more examples, but I do not have the word count to start unpacking. It felt like every line of the book had some deeper meaning, some way to spin it to illustrate secret and nuance, a reality to the unreality. After all, more than 600 people were referenced in the text, from Irish historical figures such as Charles Stewart Parnell and Daniel O'Connell, to real people such as pub owner Davy Byrne and National Library of Ireland director Richard Irvine Best.7

I would also like to acknowledge that we didn’t always enjoy the process. Some of us expressed frustration at its meandering narrative, its sizeable chapters, and the likability of its protagonists. ‘Do you like Bloom, yet?’ was a frequent topic at each meeting. I think such dialogue is important because in a typical book club setting, with contemporary texts, we get to express our frustrations and delights at surface-level impressions. If a book published last year has something unlikable about it, then why not a classic, too? Joyce is thoughtful in his detail, but also rather pedantic and self-indulgent, and this is also what made Ulysses so intriguing and mysterious to his critics.

Jen and Claire’s conversations at the book club were heavily inspired by the text “Ulysses and Us”,8 which argues that Ulysses is written about the people of Dublin and for the people of Dublin, but only for those who are willing to seek it out.

“It is not my fault that the odour of ashpits and old weeds and offal hangs round my stories. I seriously believe that you will retard the course of civilisation in Ireland by preventing the Irish people from having one good look at themselves in my nicely polished looking-glass.” - James Joyce.9

Joyce initially had quite an incredulous reception in Ireland, and only started seeing recognition posthumously. With that, his most lingering legacy appears to be the preconception that his works are not made to be read by just about anyone.10

So, what are we missing out on?

It sounds like the challenge has been set; most don’t engage because they don’t think of themselves as the target audience. Self-exploration involves challenging preconceptions. Let me assure you that Ulysses is for you.

If there is one thing I could take away from this experience, it is that, one, we need more book clubs focusing on demystifying classic novels, and two, everyone should try to read Ulysses cover to cover at least once. Well, this is what I would personally declare; other passionate readers have assured me that I will read it again.

A crowd of people posing for a photo in a library.
The final gathering of the Ulysses Book Club in Belvedere Library DCU, March 2026. Image credit: Kyran O'Brien/DCU, 2026.
I also want to declare my thanks to Jen and Claire, whose passion and dedication made the experience so enjoyable for everyone involved. 


1McCourt, J. (2023). From hostility to homage. The reception of Joyce’s Ulysses in Ireland. Journal of Irish Studies, 37, 4–14. https://www-jstor-org.dcu.idm.oclc.org/stable/27301718
2 Joyce, J., & Murray, J. (1922). Letter from James Joyce, in Paris, to his aunt, Josephine Murray. https://catalogue.nli.ie/Record/vtls000743146/HierarchyTree#tabnav
3 Joyce, J., & Murray, J. (1922). Letter from James Joyce, in Paris, to his aunt, Josephine Murray. https://catalogue.nli.ie/Record/vtls000743153
4 Olson, D. W., & Olson, M. S. (2004). The June Lyrids and James Joyce’s Ulysses. Sky & Telescope, 108(1), 76–77.
5 From a conversation with Frank Budgen, circa 1918-1919, Zurich. Budgen, F. (1960). James Joyce and the Making of 'Ulysses'. Indiana University Press. pp. 67-68.
6 Rodgers, J. (2025, Jul 11). The colourful story of the Elephant House on Dublin's O'Connell Street. RTÉ. https://www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2025/0711/1495830-elephant-house-dublin-sackville-street-oconnell-street-elverys-supermacs/
7 Who Were the Real Men in the Library from "and Charybdis"? (2024, Mar 28). Blooms and Barnacles. https://www.bloomsandbarnacles.com/blog/who-were-the-real-men-in-the-library-from-scylla-and-charybdis
8 Kiberd, D. (2011). Ulysses and us: the art of everyday living. Faber.
9 James Joyce, on his collection of short stories ‘Dubliners’ in letter to his publisher, Grant Richards, on 23 June 1906, in Joyce, J., & Gilbert, S. (Ed.) (1957). Letters of James Joyce. Faber and Faber. pp. 63-64.
10 McCourt, J. (2023).

Posted on Tuesday, June 16, 2026 | Categories:

15 Jun 2026

Discover the Latest Issue of the Health Sciences Libraries Journal (HSLJ)

This is a guest post by the HSLJ editorial team about the latest issue of the Health Sciences Libraries Journal, Vol. 2 No. 1, (2026)

Picture of a butterfly under the text: Volume 2, Issue 1 Summer 2026 Health Sciences Libraries Journal Official Journal of the Health Sciences Libraries Group of the Library Association of Ireland
The Health Sciences Libraries Journal, Vol. 2 No. 1 (2026)
The theme throughout the current issue of HSLJ is Diversity, Equity, Belonging and Inclusion (DEBI). 

Dr Deborah Reed reflects on her career in librarianship across the UK and Ireland, exploring accessibility in Further Education and the importance of creating truly inclusive environments. Walsh et al. continue this conversation with an insightful examination of accessibility and belonging for neurodiverse librarians and library workers. While Jane Burns explores Graphic Medicine and its power to portray trauma across and between communities.

Readers will also discover the impact of the Human Library project through O’Neill and O’Connor’s account of a successful event at Dublin City University, where human “Books” and “Readers” come together to challenge stereotypes and foster understanding.

The issue also features a diverse range of contributions, including a dissertation summary by Annmarie Whyte on Australia’s role in the development of library and information science, a scaffolded model used to train librarians in systematic and scoping review services from Murphy and Adydan of Vanderbilt University, and Penny Wiggle’s engaging career journey across public, health, and school libraries.

Rounding out the issue are Mairéad Mooney’s historical exploration of James Wilkinson’s leadership of Cork City Libraries, Mc Keown and Lombard’s practice‑based insights on AI, and a report from the Health Sciences Libraries Group (HSLG) Conference in March, ensuring valuable insights are shared with the wider library community.

Whether you are interested in inclusion, professional practice or the stories of librarians past and present, this issue has something for every library and information professional.

Read the full issue here: https://journals.ucc.ie/index.php/hslj/issue/view/388.


Call for Winter 2026 submissions
: The HSLJ editorial team invites new and returning authors to submit their work for our next Issue. We welcome submissions from students, researchers, and practitioners across all areas relevant to the journal. For submission guidelines and further information – https://journals.ucc.ie/index.php/hslj/about/submissions 

Research Articles - Submission Deadline: 10 July

General Submissions - Submission Deadline: 1 October

Posted on Monday, June 15, 2026 | Categories:

3 Jun 2026

Why publish in An Leabharlann?


Guest Post by Hugh Murphy, interim editor of An Leabharlann. 

This month marks the (counts on fingers) twenty ninth anniversary of me becoming a qualified librarian.  In some ways it doesn’t feel like that, but by most professional metrics I am a probably well into dinosaur territory.  What that brings of course is experience and (hopefully) a degree of professional, if not necessarily personal maturity.  And our profession needs that – I hope.  

However, our profession also needs freshness of perspective.  This is critical as library and information studies in Ireland are shaped not only by theory and practice, but also by the ideas, research, and voices of those within it.  One of the most powerful ways we can contribute to our wonderfully varied field is through academic writing and publication in professional journals.

Publishing may seem daunting at first, but it is underpinned by a diversity of perspectives. And for our more recent graduates, a fresh perspective and outlook is a strength. You are uniquely positioned to question established practices, explore emerging technologies, and reflect on the changing role of libraries in Irish society. Whether your interests lie in digital literacy, community engagement, unique and distinctive collections, or open access and scholarship, your insights can add really meaningful value to discourse within the profession.

More than that, engaging in academic writing also strengthens your own professional development. It should sharpen your critical thinking, deepen your understanding of key issues, and hopefully enhance your confidence as a practitioner. Writing for journals such as An Leabharlann (or other LIS publications) can really enable you to compare and contrast your local experiences to a national or even global conversation.  And importantly this can help ensure that Irish librarianship (in all its aspects) is visible and influential on a wider stage.

Publication in An Leabharlann is not reserved for seasoned professionals - we actively welcome contributions from early-career library staff and we have a wonderfully supportive review process. And the great thing about working in libraries is that much of what you could write about is practice based – writing about a project you have done can be an accessible starting point.

In our last two issues of An Leabharlann we have seen voices from students and early career staff through to the full cretaceous era dinosaur. But we need to ensure that this breadth continues, and is also represented in terms of diversity of library experience.  Academic libraries, public libraries, special libraries – all are part of the national experience and we need all voices. An article may be too intimidating, so perhaps review a book or give a conference report. And for those of you who have delivered blog posts on platforms such as this, perhaps an article, with its greater length and rigour might be a really beneficial next step.

By choosing to write and publish, you are not only building your own career—you are helping to shape the future of our profession. Your voice matters. Your experiences matter. Ireland’s library sector benefits when its newest members contribute thoughtfully and confidently to its shared body of knowledge.

Take the first step: write, submit, and become part of the conversation. Send us an abstract at editor@libraryassociation.ie 


28 May 2026

Libfocus Link-out for May 2026

Welcome to the May edition of the Libfocus link-out, an assemblage of library-related things we have found informative, educational, thought-provoking and insightful on the Web over the past while.

Man in white suit. Photo by Arvin Keynes on Unsplash; Books on shelf. Photo from Irish Examiner

Stitching History Together: The University of Nebraska–Lincoln’s Quilt Research Collections and the International Quilt Museum.
Ella Shoenberger looks at the Quilt Research Collections at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries and its relationship to the International Quilt Museum.

Observing Collections a Micron at a Time: A Tools of the Trade Post.
As part of Library of Congress’s Tools of the Trade series, Megan Zins introduces us to how microscopy is used in preservation and conservation.

Cork public library set for Counting House complex after €35m purchase.
A new public library for Cork city is set to open in the restored Counting House complex on South Main Street, with plans for expanded study, cultural, music, and community spaces in a landmark €35m redevelopment project.

Decolonizing the Community-Centered Library: Making Way for Radical, Decolonized Librarianship.
Edgardo Civallero explores how libraries can move beyond “neutral” institutional models to become collaborative, community-led spaces that centre marginalised voices, local knowledge, and social justice.

From Open Access to Preprints: Are We Repeating the Same Mistakes in Scholarly Publishing?
In this Guest Post on the Scholarly Kitchen blog, Jonny Coates argues that the next few years will prove pivotal in determining whether preprints become a stable part of the scholarly ecosystem or drift into the same patterns of fragmentation and inequity that have complicated the open access transition.

Big publishers are ripping off our public libraries.
Barry Andrews reports in the Irish Examiner that the public library model is in danger due to extortionate pricing and licensing terms for the lending of e-books by major commercial publishers.

Lost copy of seventh-century poem in Old English discovered at Rome library.
In this article for The Guardian, Rory Carroll describes the discovery of the earliest surviving poem in the English language by two scholars from Trinity College Dublin.

University Libraries names first Indigenous Knowledges faculty librarian.
Katie Randall has become the first Indigenous Knowledges Librarian in The University Libraries at CU Boulder. She speaks about how her role aims to build a more inclusive and accurate understanding of the histories and futures studied in the University.

“We’re Good at Search”… Just Not the Kind That the AI era Demands - a Provocation.
Aaron Tay reflects on how a lot of us (librarians) struggle with the impact of AI on search.

The AI detection delusion.
James O'Sullivan hits the nail on the head! “...the solution to one form of technological recklessness cannot be another. Detection tools give their users the feeling of objective certainty while delivering probabilistic guesses, and in doing so, they can cause real harm to real people — students who lose marks or face disciplinary action, professionals whose reputations are damaged, and writers whose command of English is held against them by an algorithm that mistakes simplicity for artificiality.”

27 May 2026

What does Librarianship mean to A&SL Conference attendees? A summary of thoughts

Guest post Stephanie Chen, Learning and Teaching Librarian, Academic Services, UCC Library

For the A&SL 2026 conference, I facilitated a session titled: “What does Librarianship mean to you? Putting your values into practice.” This was neither a presentation nor a case study and could easily have been a dud so I do want to extend a massive thank you to the conference organisers for being open to including this in the programme and to all the attendees for participating. 

My aim for this session was to give attendees an opportunity to reflect on themes from previous sessions and, importantly, to give them a space to reflect on their own values and personal understanding of librarianship through participation in online polls, Padlet, and individual reflections.  

This blog post brings together the responses shared from attendees during the session. I have also included the questions and activities used, along with some context, for those who were unable to attend. If you would like to work through the questions and activities yourself, please know there are no right or wrong answers. 

Professional Values 

I began the session by introducing values. Values can exist at multiple levels: societal, values of the community and users libraries serve, our own personal values, and professional values. For the purposes of the exercises, I asked attendees to try and focus specifically on their professional values. Examples of professional values include Gorman’s enduring values (stewardship, service, intellectual freedom, rationalism, literacy and learning, equity of access to recorded knowledge and information, privacy, democracy) and Lankes’ new librarianship (service, learning, openness, intellectual freedom and safety, intellectual honesty). 

To help attendees get into a reflective mindset and identify a professional value, I asked them to complete the following exercise: 

Think of a time when you felt proud of your work or a sense of achievement in work. What was the situation, what did you do? What was the underlying value.

Attendees were asked to share this underlying value in an online poll. 

Here is a word cloud of what was submitted: 

 Broadly speaking, responses could be categorised into the following themes: 
  • Service
  • Connection and collaboration
  • EDI (Equity, Diversity, and inclusion)
  • Access and openness 
  • Learning and development 

The next exercise explored how strongly attendees related to professional codes of ethics from various library associations. While some associations do have explicit statements of professional values, most do not and instead have professional codes relating to ethics or conduct. An analysis of 60 code of ethics sourced from the IFLA website revealed the following broad values:

  • user service & quality
  • objectivity & impartiality
  • privacy & confidentiality
  • intellectual freedom & anti-censorship
  • professional integrity & ethics
  • access to information
  • social responsibility
  • cultural & heritage preservation
  • equity & non-discrimination
  • professional development

 

Values from Library Associations


The majority of attendees did relate to these values, although for a number of attendees, there does appear to be a disconnect. 

To try and explore this further, I asked attendees to engage in a sorting exercise in Padlet. From the list of values from library associations, attendees could sort these into four columns: non-negotiable values, important but flexible, aspirational values, and not important to me at all. 

Access to information and user service appeared most often as a non-negotiable value while professional development was typically viewed as being important but flexible. 

Some values, like social responsibility and cultural and heritage preservation, appeared in multiple columns. This demonstrates values do not always align between individuals and other values will take priority. 

While code of ethics can help articulate shared expectations, they can also fail to address any tensions in values, especially when our own values do not align with what these codes might say. When such conflicts arise, there is rarely an easy solution. However, I would suggest understanding our own values and reflecting on where we place importance and priority can act as a useful guide. 

Values into practice 

To give attendees something practical to take away from the session, I asked attendees to consciously foreground one value they wanted to put into practice. With this one value in mind, I asked them to consider the following: 

  • One tiny action I can take next week 
  • One medium-scale change I can influence this year (project, service, policy)
  • One big/aspirational change I’d love to see 

Attendees were invited to share their actions on a Padlet if they were comfortable doing so. Some of the smaller actions that emerged included checking in with fellow colleagues, prioritising staff wellbeing, and approaching work with more intentional positivity. Medium-term actions focused on increasing open access, improving practices, advocacy for librarianship, and professional development. Finally, some aspirational changes from attendees centred around achieving 100% open access, starting new initiatives, and the development of new library spaces or even a new library building (a hope many of us can probably relate to!)  

Defining librarianship

To conclude the session, I asked attendees to reflect on a final question: What does it mean to be a librarian today?

I asked attendees to complete the sentence: Librarianship is…

While many responses were positive, framing librarianship as essential and even “badass”, it’s important to also acknowledge the complexity involved in the profession, as highlighted by some attendees: “Being a Jack of all trades,” “hard work,” and “tiring.” Overall, responses showed librarianship as being a collaborative, people-focused profession centred on sharing knowledge and helping others.

To finish, I’d like to highlight some definitions that personally resonated with me, but I would encourage everyone to view all the responses

“Advocating and enabling for social justice and lifelong learning for everyone through collections, spaces, and research”

“Fostering a love of learning new things, while also learning new things yourself”

“A great career – be a contributor not an extractor” 


Acknowledgements

Thank you to the A&SL committee for giving me the opportunity to facilitate this session and thank you to my fellow UCC Library colleagues Ronan Madden, Learning & Teaching Team Lead, and Martin O’Connor, Communications Coordinator, for supporting me in developing the session.