I'm Joel Kerry, and I'm a Librarian...

The last week or so has been extremely hectic and eventful for me. Not helped by a holiday at the beginning of this week, which has meant that even today, I'm still playing catch-up on...

The holiday was beneficial. It allowed me to put everything that hit the fan at the end of last week to be put to the back of my mind, in the slightly optimistic view that most of it might be resolved by the time I returned this week. And to be fair, quite a few of the issues do seem to have been moved forward in my absence, which is a major relief.

Friday was the first day of my holiday and I woke up to find the latest edition of Update had dropped through my letter box and my cat was in the process of attempting to be helpful and open it. Usually, I lightly skim through the articles then read it in more depth from cover to cover usually a few days later on the train to work. However, the articles promoting and related to the various Postgraduate courses immediately caught my eye. Now I haven't written an email to the Update Editorial Team before, however after reading the various articles, I felt I should and at some point today will attempt to compose one. I felt that the articles laid too much emphasis on the Postgraduate study of Library and Information Studies. I studied a Undergraduate course in Information Management, part-time I might add, while working full-time over five years. I'm in a Librarian post and as of last year, gained Chartership. I do not feel in any way disadvantaged by the fact that I chose to pursue my qualification at an Undergraduate level. In fact, many other Information Professionals I work with or socialise with also followed this route and are all successful. However, what makes my blood boil is the presumption that the Postgraduate qualification is in some way superior to the Undergraduate qualification, more often than not in job advertisements, although I have heard a few flippant comments from other qualified Information Professionals, who look at you in surprise when you mention that you haven't in fact followed them along the Postgraduate route, but instead took the deviant Undergraduate route. The Update articles appear to support this presumption.

During my studies to gain my Undergraduate degree, I clearly remember that the Postgraduate students sat along side us in the lecture theatres, following the same course content and modules and I also clearly remember that not all the Undergraduate students in the same lecture theatre were not all freshly out of a FE or Sixth Form College, but were happily employed and experienced Informaton Professionals studying the course on either a full-time or part-time basis. To add more coal to the fire, CILIP accredits both Undergraduate and Postgraduate courses.

I feel the Update articles have misrepresented both the option of studying an Undergraduate course in Library and Information Studies and those who have worked and studied hard to gain a qualification following the route above and that they failed to  portray the actual reality that the same career choices and opportunities are also available to this selection of Information Professionals and there is in fact little or no difference between the two route of study in the long-term.

*Climbs off soap box*

On Monday and Tuesday this week, I had the opportunity to visit London, rather cheaply I might add, to attend the Career Development Group's (CDG) National Council Meeting and attend the new Group's Presidential Reception.

The Presidential Reception was a really interesting experience and opportunity to network with a variety of Information Professionals, old and new, who are / or were involved in the Chartered Institute of the Library and Information Professionals (CILIP) and / or the Career Development Group. The venue at the British Library was excellent and the new CDG President's speech was inspiring.

It was my first ever visit to a National Council Meeting and it wasn't quite what I expected. I'd envisaged it to be quite like the informal Divisional Committee Meetings I'm used to attending. While being quite formal, the meeting at times did create some debate and discussion around key issues and everyone felt confident to contribute their ideas and points. The brainstorming sessions during the second day were an excellent opportunity to contribute and feel involved in the decision making processes of the group and also for individuals to bring their ideas and views forward based on their experience, skills and knowledge.