Going Local: Networking like Cambridge

Short of time or money? Geographically isolated from similar libraries and obvious peer groups? Want to invest in your local community? Tired of looking at teeny tiny pictures of people?

Try networking locally with people from other types of libraries; academic, special, public and school. You already have something in common to talk about - the council where your work, local restaurants and entertainment, overlapping audiences - so conversation should be easy. The payoff in ideas and energy from working across special interest groups can be tremendous.

To begin, try a pub night or host a reception for library and information workers from two institutions, for example university libraries and public libraries in the same council. Placing invitations on social networks such as LISNPN, Twitter will add special librarians and school librarians in your area to the mix.

With the help of some colleagues I plan to organise a pub night in the autumn for my public library colleagues, library workers from the University down the road, school librarians across the council and any specials librarians we can find. Stay tuned to hear the results. For further resources, London Information and Knowledge Exchange share tips on how they arrange their events at LIKE start your own

This post is dedicated to the generous Cambridge librarians who brought us cpd23 and their great local network which includes academic and public library workers. I'd also like to shout out to the CILIP staff and members who are working hard to build and represent a unified profession. The more we get to know each other locally, the more efficient our advocacy on regional and national levels.