What are the personal as well as institutional benefits of arranging a workshop for EAHIL?

If you want to raise your library’s profile and that of your profession then organise an EAHIL workshop! By inviting our Minister for Health and my institutional CEO to open the workshop and inviting high profile speakers from the wider library, healthcare and research community we strengthened the position of health libraries in our country and demonstrated our role as health information professionals and part of the national healthcare and health research infrastructure.  It was a big step for Irish health librarians, who are a very small and under recognized profession within our health service.  I firmly believe Irish health librarians have become a stronger profession due to hosting the workshop. On a personal level I developed a range of new skills:  event management, budgeting, diplomacy and sometimes even crisis management (what to do if one of your speakers doesn’t turn up!)  I have also gained a tremendous amount of confidence in my own abilities. We librarians are often too shy and happy to work in the background – organizing an EAHIL workshop will change that!

Do you have advice for coming organizers?

As author Susan Jeffers said, feel the fear and do it anyway!   Ultimately organizing a workshop is hard work and can be daunting, but it is also surprisingly enjoyable.

• Keep your Local Organizing Committee small and involved – remember they are the backbone of the workshop and the people who ultimately make it all happen.
• Don’t forget to delegate! There is a lot to organize:  CEC schedules, the scientific programme, the budget and the social events – you cannot manage it all yourself.
• Keep your employer/manager informed and involved.  The workshop does take up a lot of your working and personal time so make sure your organization understand the real benefit of your participation.
• Remember the EAHIL Board always has useful advice and information so if you are in any doubt just ask!
• Retain a  portion of your budget to take your LOC out for a nice meal after the workshop is over to thank them for all their hard work.
• And finally make sure to schedule some annual leave directly after the workshop – you will need a break!

Do you recommend being an organizer for EAHIL?

Yes – on a personal and professional level I learned so much from having you all visit us in Dublin in 2009.  I remember clear blue skies, a lot of chatting with delegates both during the workshop and at the social events and some really interesting scientific sessions.  I really got to know my EAHIL colleagues and developed a better sense of our commonalities as well as our differences. In fact, I enjoyed it so much that I am volunteering again to bring EAHIL and ICML to Dublin. The challenge this time is to organize a bigger event, and to make it different to EAHIL 2009.