June 27, 2012

Our very successful Conference has now taken place.

The theme was Learning from Success, and the Conference took place on Wednesday 5th & Thursday 6th September, at the 4-star Royal York Hotel in the City of York. Feedback coming in includes the following comments

  • Again – excellent conference
  • As a first-timer it has been a great experience
  • I’ve never been to a NAG conference before, and I was a bit worried that I would find it to be a ‘conference of two halves’ – a series of papers on academic libraries that I would find relevant, and papers on public libraries that would be of little or no interest. I’m pleased to say that this turned out to be an unfounded concern, and almost all the papers were both interesting and potentially useful. And in some ways the papers from public libraries were the most valuable – not only did I learn more about issues facing public libraries, but it also made me think more creatively about how some of these issues might apply in academic libraries. It’s been both inspiring and refreshing to come away with so many new ideas.
  • Interesting and useful first Conference
  • Good mix of presentations, good facilities & food
  • It was FUN!

We were delighted to have Annie Mauger, Chief Executive of CILIP, as our Keynote Speaker. Throughout both days there were  plenty of opportunities to network, view the latest products, and talk to a range of suppliers.

 

 

 

The Conference programme is available to download – the papers and workshops covered a wide range of topics, aiming to provide content for all sectors of our mixed audience of public, academic and special libraries, publishers and suppliers.

A free place for a first time delegate was sponsored by Bertram Library Services, and was won by Catherine Hodgkinson, Manager (Knowledge)  at the UK Commissison for Employment and Skills.

We also saw the presentation of the NAG Award for Excellence, sponsored by Nielsen, to the University of Huddersfield’s MyReading team.

 

 

The speakers’ presentations are now available to NAG members, and to non-member delegates by request. Graham Stone of the University of Huddersfield has asked that his presentation “Library Impact Data Project Phase II: the data strikes back” also be made freely available at http://eprints.hud.ac.uk/14514/ . For all other presentations (and Graham’s is included with all the others too), NAG members will need to log in if they have not already done so, non-member delegates please contact the NAG office at nag1@btconnect.com and we will send you the presentations.

 

A brief report on the Conference has been published by BDS, and can be read here

 

And here are a few glimpses of the more informal side of our Conference.

 

 

The Conference drinks reception, on the terrace of the hotel and with a splendid view of the York Eye

Our lovely surroundings – the view from the Conference hotel

Our youngest delegate enjoying the lively debate.

(Little Anna is the daughter of Sarah Armitage of BDS, recently Secretary of NAG)