Left feeling inspired and empowered

Morwenna Rogers
Senior Research Fellow (Information Science), Evidence Synthesis Team, NIHR ARC South West Peninsula (PenARC) University of Exeter Medical School

The best thing about the EAHIL conference is the people. My first was in Dublin in 2017, and I felt comfortable immediately, as if I’d been coming for years. EAHIL is, without doubt, the friendliest conference I’ve ever attended.  It attracts a rich mixture of experts and novices from all over Europe (and further afield) who are keen to share experiences. I learn so much from people who have been in the profession for decades and from those just starting out, who always bring fresh insights and ideas.

From setting up new library systems, developing services for healthcare professionals, to systematic search methods, EAHIL is at the coalface of the health information world. Workshops and talks reflect the rapidly changing nature of our profession. This year in Riga there were sessions on automation, improving efficiency, tools for searching, and our role in systematic reviews. Plus the age-old question of whether single line searching is better than multi-line searching. The EAHIL conference wouldn’t be the same without that debate!

AI featured extensively. Most valuable for me was a workshop run by Marydee Ojala where, in typical EAHIL format, we were provided with information, tools, exercises to try, and told to get on with it. I learned to reword questions to get the best out of the tools. To always be polite to robots! And that we should embrace rather than dismiss or avoid generative AI tools. Only by using them can we understand their strengths and flaws (ChatGPT tells lies, Perplexity steals, we learned). Only then can we guide others, which, after all, is the main point of our profession.

I learned a lot in Riga, met many people, had fun, and left feeling inspired and empowered. Next year the conference is in Poland. I hope I get to go.