Michael Charlton and Kirsten McCormick
22 librarians gathered in the Saltire Centre, Glasgow Caledonian University, last Wednesday for Travelling Librarians, an event hosted jointly by GLTU and the newly reformed CILIPS West Branch. Heather Marshall (@macmarsha), CILIPS West Secretary, organised excellent hospitality and Robert Ruthven (@Bgbop), both CILIPS President and CILIPS West Chair, extended a warm welcome. We had two great speakers in Kirsten McCormick and Michael Charlton, and afterwards 16 of us repaired to Masala Twist on Hope Street for a warming curry and a chat.
Kirsten McCormick – Australia
Kirsten is Librarian, General Services, at Glasgow’s Mitchell Library. As the recipient of the CILIP / ESU Travelling Librarian Award for 2013, she spent a month travelling around Australian libraries researching ways in which they record major sporting events and their legacies for the social record. This experience, which has had an immediate beneficial impact on her professional development and on the work that she does at the Mitchell, particularly with relation to the forthcoming Commonwealth Games, was described in the first part of her talk. In the second part, Kirsten gave tips on applying for this year’s award (closing date 28th April). She’s very happy to help anyone who wants to apply – her contact details are in her slides.
Michael Charlton – Peru
Michael is Head of Research at Mildwaters Consulting LLP. In 2012, he spent 5 months in Zapallal, Peru, where he created a library and learning centre for the 40 children, aged 5-18, who live in the Project Peru children’s refuge. The children at the refuge come from communities of extreme poverty and where there is no culture of reading for pleasure and studying for educational and vocational purposes. Michael told us about his experience working with the children and the community of Zapallal, and showed how the library developed from an idea into a real place of learning and fun. He also made an impassioned plea for help with Project Peru by donating or volunteering – as Michael points out, a room full of books needs a librarian to become a library. Michael’s talk can be viewed on Prezi.
The curry
A curry has become almost obligatory as part of a Glasgow tweetup. This was a good one! Here’s a room full of librarians anticipating their dinner:
And here is some of what we got!
https://twitter.com/macmarsha/status/443826610215862272
Thanks to everyone who came and made this such an enjoyable event.
Glasgow Library Tweetups 