FIL Conference Booking - Now Open!

Hopefully by now you have seen one of the many emails winging their way round announcing the opening of bookings for the 2015 FIL Conference.

So maybe you are asking 'Why do I need to go to the conference?'

Well, first of all this if the only UK annual conference specifically for and about the world of inter-library loans, a good enough reason right there!  There are so few opportunities for Inter-lenders to get together for training, sharing of ideas, best practice or just networking with other inter-lenders that any opportunity like this we need to grab.

Those of you who have been lucky enough to go to the conference in the past will know the benefits and like me will be looking forward to meeting up with people you have met at past conferences, meeting new people and just chatting about what you do, what they do, how they do it and sometimes even why?  It really is a great place / way to find out so much that's going on in the inter-lending world as a whole, picking up ideas, hearing about new (to you) systems and procedures that you hadn't even thought about.

Personally as a Public Library inter-lender I've learnt a huge amount from our colleagues in HE over the years, especially in the last few years on Open Access sources and how us as a public library service can utilise these for our customers. Of course one of the other bonuses is the network of contacts you make, you get to meet people in other sectors, learn about their collections and know you have a friendly contact that you can turn to when you are looking for that elusive paper, dissertation, book or journal.

Obviously the other attractions of the conference are the speaker sessions and workshops and the sponsors who are advertising their goods - this also often gives you the chance to ask questions on problems you are having or just see the new developments they have to offer.

I can promise you we have a good range of subjects this year and some excellent speakers, so keep you eyes open as the formal programme will be coming out very shortly.

Finally, this year the conference is in Manchester at a very lovely hotel, The Midland, Manchester and as part of the conference we have arranged a guided tour of the beautifully refurbished and reopened Manchester Central Library.

So follow the link below and book your place on the ONLY UK Interlending Conference, see you there!

FIL Interland 2015 Conference - Interlending at the crossroads?

Tracey Jackson
FIL Committee Member

Inter-Library Loans Supervisor
Hertfordshire Libraries