September 13, 2014
NAG is very pleased to report on another successful Conference.
This year’s Conference was held once more at the Royal York Hotel, on Wednesday 3rd and Thursday 4th September 2014, and with eight papers, two discussion panels and the chance to attend two out of four workshops on offer, we hope this conference lived up to previous years.
Feedback already received includes –
- Overall, some great content and inspiring subjects
- Enjoyed the conference, some good ideas to take back to the day job.
- Interesting and useful papers. Great networking opportunity.
- As a first-timer I thought it was a great conference – it was a great environment to listen, talk and discuss the various challenges and experiences that libraries (both academic and public) are facing nowadays. Very well organised.
- Thought the presentations were for the most part of interest to both public & academic colleagues, a good mix
- Really enjoyed the student forum – interesting & informative presentation method
- Excellent conference & valuable networking opportunity
- One of the best things from NAG is talking to colleagues and suppliers & the conference was as good & useful as always.
- The content was very relevant and informative.
However, not all feedback was quite this good. NAG’s youngest Committee member found it hard to concentrate on some of the sessions
(Little Alfie James Walton is the very new grandson of NAG’s Finance & Admin Assistant, Christine Hall).
More mature delegates, however, clearly did find much to appreciate both in the sessions……
and on the social side.
After a warm welcome to York from Karen Bradley, Librarian of the National Railway Museum, the Conference started with an inspirational Keynote address from CILIP Past-President Phil Bradley (pictured below with NAG’s Chair Angela Turner). Phil spoke enthusiastically about the future rôle of libraries and librarians, and about the use of technologies in all sectors.
This set the scene for energetic debate and a range of topics which included
- Future libraries and the technological singularity
- Working with volunteers
- Student Empowerment through free textbooks
- The National E-book Pilot Scheme
- Social media and its uses within a library setting
- Providing information resources in non-standard or alternative formats for disabled users
- Journal Usage Statistics Portal: Getting to grips with your usage statistics
- Assessing PDA activity in the academic library
- A look behind the scenes at the new Library of Birmingham
- Student panel on problems with ebooks/mobile devices
- The public library and the 21st century ‘People’s University’
- The Kirklees libraries volunteer initiative
The wide range of speakers can be seen in the programme , and for NAG members the papers are available to read or download – your login (which is your membership number preceded by the letters NAG) will be required for this. If you do not know your membership number, please ask the NAG office for this.
Non-members who attended Conference and who wish to have access to the papers should email the NAG office at nag.office@nag.org.uk and we will provide you with a separate link.
This year’s NAG Award for Excellence, sponsored by Nielsen, was awarded to the Guildhall Library, City of London Corporation, for their Incunabula project. For more information about the presentation and the project itself – http://www.nag.org.uk/about/nag-award/current-winner-2/
Our exhibitors at Conference were: Askews & Holts Library Services, Better World Books, Bolinda, Bright Books, Cambridge University Press, Dawson Books, Ingram Content, Star Books, Talis Education, YBP Library Services.
Generous sponsorship came from Askews & Holts Library Services, BDS, Nielsen and Talis.