Uni of Edinburgh
I’ve just read Isla Kuhn’s posts about EAHIL2015 and I have to agree with her – it was a great event and I’m glad I attended. Like Isla, it was my first EAHIL conference and perhaps it won’t be the last. I attended many great workshops. Some have already blogged about it and I feel a little tardy (I started writing this post a month ago – oopps)! However, I hope my posts will add to what has been written and not offer more of the same. It is worth reading other reports anyway because you can’t be in two places at once. There were so many great workshops offered and it was hard to choose which to attend.
The Ceilidh
The conference dinner at the National Museum of Scotland was a treat (waiters coordinated serving – almost like a dance) and the ceilidh itself was massive fun. I met some great people – some I had communicated with via email and twitter only, so it was nice meeting them face to face at last. And wouldn’t you know it, I found out who the other Australian attendee was – from Eastern Health, just a few suburbs away from the Royal Melbourne Hospital!
The plenaries were interesting and sitting in the main lecture theatre made me feel like an undergrad again. I did my Major in Sociology so the sense of deja vu was very strong (the plenary presentations also had this effect on me). Professor Hazel Hall talked about the DREaM project which aimed to create a network of researchers in the library and information field and along the way, encourage the application of research in practice. This project finished in 2012 but the resources and the networks are still available. Dr Joanna R Eckerdal talked about her dissertation subject which was around how health literacy informed contraceptive method choice in young women, and the topic of Dr Liz Grant’s talk was about the Global Health Academy Project which amongst other goals, addresses sustainability and equity issues. You can read about member activities on the Academy blog
EAHIL 2016 will be hosted in Seville, Spain and if you are considering a holiday in Europe next year (or fitting a holiday around an overseas conference like I do), I encourage you to think about attending.
