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, the last post in a series of three, is about the theme of knowledge and inspiration and how the sharing of ideas at the conference can help both of these. 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 is about the development of information literacy pedagogy within papers observed from a long-standing delegate:
Pedagogy
I was inspired this year by the depth of engagement in theories of learning and teaching by the presenters ar this year’s LILAC conference, I’ve been coming to LILAC for a long time, and I’ve noticed how much more sophisticated conceptions of information literacy teaching have become in recent years. This is great! Our teaching is theory-informed, and better because of it. I’d love to do some more research to explore the professionalism of information literacy educators.
The next two reflections reference specific sessions which have inspired:
Inspired
The talk on helping incarcerated students was amazing and it was really inspiring to see the ways of getting around barriers to helping students.
Another piece of feedback:
Here at the end of 3 days my mind is overflowing! So I have no clear idea yet of what to do with all this inspiration but I know that many seeds have been planted and they’ll bear fruit for years to come. Picture of the blank worksheet from the fab punk pedagogy talk, it took me a little longer to get started filling it out but my mind cooks ideas slightly slower than some others!
Another attendee shared the following:
So much to process
I have a load of notes to reread later, and a very long list of articles and websites to look up! LILAC is always a rich source of ideas and inspiration for me and I look forward to seeing how I can incorporate some of the the things I’ve learned into my practice – by Emily Haikney.
There were also several reflections on how exposure to a range of ideas can inspire, also describing how delegates planned to act on these ideas when returning to work:
My my, hey hey, Information Literacy is here to stay
I am very grateful for having been here. Lots to think about on how I can improve my approach to talking with students about critical thinking, lots to think about around Data Citizenship, emotions in research…Thank you for this wonderful exchange of knowledge and ideas – by Eleni.
Another comment read:
I was really specifically inspired by the Grey Literature session that I went to, it made me really think about how I present this information to the people I work with. I am already making notes on how to incorporate it into a session I am delivering next week. I also absolutely loved connecting with other NHS librarians in my area who I feel I can have an ongoing collaborative relationship with.
Finally, the last reflection nicely exemplifies the theme of knowledge and inspiration:
We would love to hear about any actions, things you have done or ideas you have implemented because of LILAC 2025 in the comments section of this Blog post.
We would also like to thank everyone for contributing their reflection to the Padlet and we hope to see you at LILAC 2026!
By Eleni, Emily Haikney, Heather Lincoln and Anonymous contributors