2016 so far...

Life has rudely overtaken my efforts to keep up this blog over the last few months. In what has been an utter tumult of a year all round thus far, I have been completely neglecting these pages...and as such, first off I feel I owe a humble apology to the blog:

Sorry blog ☹

So that's that out of the way... meanwhile it's certainly proven an interesting time to have joined the Royal College of Nursing! The RCN is celebrating its centenary with a full calendar year’s worth of events, ranging from CenTEAnary tea parties (...puns, we got 'em!) to a walking relay which has taken our emblematic RCN Florence Nightingale lamp (pictured, right) all over the UK!

Some of the more outlandish centenary ideas suggested by staff have been taken up too; the organisation has adopted some 18 Galapagos tortoise hatchlings, as an example - one for each of the RCN offices!

As might be expected of an institution sitting slap-bang in the middle of London's medical district (just off the famous Harley Street) the RCN is also very keen on health and wellbeing. Colleagues and I have taken part in physical challenges including a table tennis tournament and a global walking challenge. Bowls of bananas and satsumas are ever-present in our library offices and we regularly have communal jigsaw puzzles on the go, encouraging people to get away from their desks!

All in all, it's a great place to work (reflected by the fact the RCN came 10th in the Sunday Times list of best companies to work for) and the RCN London Headquarters where I am based is a building both steeped in history and bursting with activity. 20 Cavendish Square had been the residence of MPs (including Herbert Henry Asquith, UK Prime Minister 1908-16) and aristocrats prior to being purchased by Lady Cowdray for use by the RCN in the 1920s.

It has been fascinating to learn about the history of the building, from accounts of suffragettes protesting outside the premises whilst Asquith - known to have an ambivalent stance on Women's Rights, at best - was inside…to tall tales of the ghost of a Lady Barrington who tragically tumbled down the grand staircase in 1883. An ominous black stone marks the spot where she fell.

The mural (pictured above) on these stairs was painted way back in the 1730s, shortly after 20 Cavendish Square was built. Since then the building has developed and grown, encompassing neighbouring 21 Cavendish Square, as well as neighbouring 1a & 1b Henrietta Place (conveniently tucked just behind John Lewis on Bond Street, for those who know London). Perhaps appropriately, given the RCN has been a Trade Union since 1977, the building itself has thrown off some of the shackles of its former stuffy aristocratic townhouse legacy with recent refurbishments reshaping it as a bright, 21st century cultural/educational space and workplace. Statuettes which can be spotted within the building now celebrate famous nurses and those who were instrumental in bringing the RCN into being.

The RCN's HQ near Oxford Circus was most recently renovated in 2013

and this included the creation of the new library and exhibitions space

There's been a lot to learn but fortunately the RCN is a company which actively encourages professional development. I have been helping to get speakers in from outside the organisation to talk as part of regular library CPD sessions which we run for staff. The library also runs a successful Graduate Trainee programme and the Grad Trainees even have their own blog - here - so you can find out all about what they do.

I act as the link person between the Customer Services Team and the Information Team too. This means I get to run my own database/information literacy sessions for the first time and this is something I have really relished about the job. There has been plenty of opportunity to get involved in events as well; I helped to run a stall at the RCN's big event of the year - known as Congress - and set up a Twitter competition for this inviting attendees to enter to win a coveted tartanised rubber duck!

See the Twitter hashtag #McDuck for more of this sort of thing...

You can see the building for yourself online as it now has its very own Google See Inside tour!:

Follow this link for the virtual tour: https://goo.gl/maps/zw4qDtXVqNG2

Outside of 'work' work (if that makes any sense...) I've been doing a fair bit on the international libraries front, taking on a voluntary role as Data Officer for the International Librarian Network (ILN) in addition to the work I do with CILIP's international group (ILIG). I have also really enjoyed editing articles for CILIP's International Library and Information Group (ILIG) journal Focus. One which stood out for me is an account of a sailing trip around the Øresund Straight in Scandinavia, taking in the article author's favourite library at Helsingør...which just so happens to be one of my own favourites too!

Official CILIP "Travelling Librarian" Frances Tout also wrote an article about a tour of libraries offering innovative services to communities in the USA. She also came to speak to the ILIG Group along with Abimbola Alayo who also received a similar grant and talked of a tour she undertook of American health libraries. It was great to meet Ian Anstice of Public Libraries News fame who hosted another of our ILIG Informal events too.

An example of work I have been doing for the ILN, showing participant numbers in countries around the world. With over 3,000 people having taken part since 2013, it is remarkable how global this unique peer-to-peer membership scheme has become in a relatively short space on time!

This all meant a bit less time for travelling around in the first half of this year...but I'm doing my best to rectify this! Sadly I missed out on a grant to attend this year's IFLA Conference in Ohio but I do get to go to Scarborough (surely the next best thing!) thanks to a bursary from CILIP's Health Libraries Group (HLG). As a newbie to the Health Libraries sector, the HLG Conference will, I expect, be a great opportunity to explore specific subject areas within healthcare and to find out all about other new developments within the sector.

Oh yup...and I'm currently here in Canada where I'll be participating in Cycling for Libraries - my 4th tour! I'm writing this on a long (+ delayed…grr) journey from Montréal to Welland, near Niagara Falls, where this year's tour commences tomorrow. Full update on this to follow…at some point. I’ll try not to leave it quite so long next time!

The amazing Grande Bibliothèque Montréal - part of Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec

(Note: views expressed on this blog post are my own and do not reflect those of my employer or its clients.)

#RCN #McDuck #CILIPILIG #InternationalLibrariansNetwork