Thanks to Heather Lincoln, Victoria Rees, Eleanor Roberts, Tatiana Usova and Anonymous contributors for this blog post.
At the closing session of LILAC 2025, held at Cardiff University, delegates were invited to reflect on their experience of the conference. They were asked to write about what surprised them, made them feel something, or to write about something they might do after the conference. At a conference with three keynotes, 41 parallel sessions, two social events and library tours, each person’s LILAC is different as they choose their path and attend what interests and is relevant to them. We received many brilliant ideas and responses so have put these together as a series of posts for the ILG blog. This post is about the theme of connections and the Information Literacy teaching community that LILAC hopes and aims to connect. We have pulled out some of the comments that highlight interesting reflections, and you can read the Padlet of Reflections in full here: https://manchester.padlet.org/samaston/collective-reflections-on-lilac25-5let0xh1zi5znxn6 . If you attended LILAC and didn’t contribute your reflection you can still do so, and we welcome your contribution.
Our first reflection talks about the community at LILAC, and mentions trepidation at attending the conference without knowing anyone else and how they fortunately found the experience welcoming and friendly:
A Genuine Community
I was nervous before I came to the conference. I didn’t know anyone and wasn’t presenting, so I didn’t know if I would spend the 3 days on my own. That absolutely isn’t what happened. I have barely had a moment to myself! Everyone has been extraordinarily friendly and welcoming. Librarians are the best people.
In terms of the sessions themselves: I deliberately attended all the AI sessions and we so impressed at the level of nuance and discussion. Three have been so many great ideas and tools shared. I was also struck by how present concerns about privacy and autonomy have been, exemplified by Elinor Carmi’s fabulous keynote.
My absolute favourite bit of the conference (outwith the disco!) was the Race Across the Library session. I am looking forward to showing my notes to my colleagues and including a similar event in our inductions in the future. Thank you all so very much 💖’ – by Eleanor Roberts
Another reflection addresses the benefits of discussing and sharing Information Literacy work which validates it in a community that benefits its members. For this person the conference community is akin to finding their professional tribe:
Finding Your Tribe
It is very refreshing to come to the conference and not feel overwhelmed with content by having “just the right amount”. What’s is more important is that people make you feel “at home”. Peers that attend the conference deal with similar issues and are willing to talk and share. You feel as part of a tribe and find joy in discussing and learning. The conference not only helps us grow as professionals, it also validates our work and efforts in helping library users to become better prepared to live in the complex world and introduce changes to the society that benefit everyone – by Tatiana Usova
Professional connections are important for the next reflection, and these connections are intellectual as well as social:
Reflect on Perfect
For me LILAC is about the community. The coming together of so many wonderful people and the time spent with them is like being immersed in a sea if IL tinged love. Its been said many times before but the conference is the connections we have, the knowledge that is imparted, the inspiration that is infused, and even the songs which are sung (often drunkly) – by Anonymous.
It’s interesting to read a reflection on the different ways the next person has engaged with LILAC. This included attending one day at the conference, volunteering for one day and a future aim to share their ideas with colleagues after the conference. Like the first reflection, it’s a nice, succinct write-up of all the aspects of the LILAC conference experience:
Reflection
I have found this conference thought-provoking, inspirational and as a Cardiff local, am full of pride that these conversations and collaborations have come to us here!
I was lucky to be an attendee on Monday and met up with LILAC friends from last year, chatted about what we are doing and came away with a lot of new thoughts- they keynote left me questioning information literacy and the potential ways of reframing it and what we do to support our users further. Today I have volunteered and was blown away by some of the sessions I was lucky enough to volunteer in, the race across the library has definitely inspired me further, and the keynote has left me questioning and thinking a lot about the digital world we live in.
I look forward to sharing these ideas and thoughts further, to collaborating with colleagues and those in the wider field and want to say thank you LILAC- what a great few days!’ – by Victoria Rees
The last two reflections on this blog post are about the role that community and collaboration can have in attempting to address professional and social problems:
Cardiff 2025
I feel very privileged to have an opportunity to spend time with peers, colleagues and friends, and talk freely about key professional and societal issues facing us and how might want to try and address them. This years’ LILAC has been a salient reminder that many people increasingly are finding themselves less able to do so for a variety of reasons. We shouldn’t take things, even the more mundane ones, for granted’ – by Anonymous.
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Collaboration and unity is vital for the way forward- we can make it together! – by Anonymous
Our next blog post will continue these ideas, take them further and show some of the LILAC 2025 reflections on Information Literacy, Power and Social Justice.
By Heather Lincoln, Victoria Rees, Eleanor Roberts, Tatiana Usova and Anonymous contributors.
