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 empowerment, action and social justice. We have pulled out some of the comments that highlight interesting reflections. You can read the Padlet of Reflections in full here: https://manchester.padlet.org/samaston/collective-reflections-on-lilac25-5let0xh1zi5znxn6
Through a number of the posts there felt not only actions to take but a real sense of empowerment. A realization that there is action that can be taken within the roles we have to bring something we believe in to the forefront.
Does knowing there are others with similar beliefs support us to feel this?
What small steps have you taken since LILAC to make that happen?
And is there anything else that you have considered in the time LILAC finished and you reading this post related to empowerment and social justice?
From Sam, Mette, Murtaza, Carly & Anonymous Contributors.
Channelling anger into action
I think more than anything this year has made me think about what I can do with my own platform to support others, so like how I can support US authors who aren’t going to be allowed to write about EDI stuff in a few months, can we host the work/take up this work more in the UK? By anonymous
Beneath this post, anther attendee commented, alongside this picture:
I had to commend under this post. because I experienced spine-chilling moments during this LILAC that I’ve never experiences at previous LILACs, when listening to peers from the US talking about the anti-EDI legislation and he terrifying silencing that will happen and is already happening as a result. I’ve got too much anger to know how to channel it productively just yet. What actions can we take? Will anything help? Or will nothing help?
Another commenter shared their thoughts on AI criticality:
Actions after LILAC
I will look up a community that discusses, in depth, the algorithms of tools like perplexity, consensus, Scite_ai, scopusAI…
We are intrigues by AI – but are we being critical enough?
Questions like…
Is Elsevier material being pushed forward in ScopusAI?
What happens in SciteAI? They collaborate with a series of publishers, but why does it mean to the results of its research assistant that elsevier does not collaborate? And to the contexted citation snippets?
Are search terms being disregarded in google scholar?
How are the companies that are behind these tools reacting to what we have heard from the US these last 3 days? Will particular research or search terms be disregarded? Leaving researchers unable to locate already published research?
By Mette Bechmann
More feedback reflects on how this year’s LILAC different from previous years:
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 we might want to try and address them. This years’ LILAC has been a salient reminder that many people increasingly are fining 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
Other attendees have reflected the power we hold as librarians and how we can take action:
Taking action
My main takeaway is that I must DO something and for me that’s on the social justice theme. Why not ask difficult questions to library directors about why they can’t fund things, why would they only pay for 2 attendees at this conference (and all the other ‘big’ conferences) why has our education programme stalled because they haven’t replaces the post holder etc – by anonymous
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Lilac25 gas shown me the true power a librarian holds. I feel a librarian is no short of a superhero with immense power and with it undoubtedly comes great responsibility. I leave here with a sense of responsibility and with that a higher sense of power fuelled by knowledge and understanding. By Murtaza Fakhri
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A change is gonna come
I leave LILAC feeling very conflicted. While I am inspired and energized by the keynotes. presentations, and discussions that I’ve had with others, I am also keenly aware of what I am able to do within the confines of my library’s culture and dynamics. I am realizing that I may have outgrown the library that I am in, or it was simply never the right fit. I think that the conference has given me some confidence to star the job search process and explore further education opportunities! By anonymous
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I had great fun. It was fabulous to be t a conference where pretty much every moment felt relevant to my role, and centred what I most care about in librarianship! I particularly enjoyed the more overtly political discussions as I think we need to be louder and more honest about the threat right-wing movements are doing to all manner of literacies. Also, the dancing on Tuesday was good fun. By Carly Lockett
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On a mission but not alone
This was my first LILAC. It’s not like i didn’t have a mission before, or hadn’t realized how important IL is, but the conference and spending time with so many enthusiastic and engaged colleagues, who have shared their stories over the past days have underlined the urgency of what we do. I deeply believe that IL is a foundation for critical thinking both in academia and more broadly. It is a daunting task – but I’m not alone. We are many. By anonymous