Librarian

KEYNOTES
Keynote 1: Wellbeing Begins with ‘We’ not ‘Me’: The Benefits of Social
Relationships
Dr Brenda O’Connell, B.A., Ph.D. , University of Limerick
Humans are inherently social beings, built for connectedness to people and community and not to exist in
isolation. In fact, we cannot thrive in our profession or in life without others. That is why the quality of our
social relationships directly affects our psychological and physical health. Drawing on perspectives and
evidence from social, health and positive psychology, this keynote speech will firstly discuss how healthy and
supportive relationships are a vital component of our wellbeing, and why they are particularly important in
the work environment. Secondly, Brenda will discuss the application of positive psychology in organizations,
with particular emphasis placed on the importance of healthy, high quality relationships with colleagues
in the work environment to promote a connected network and foster a culture of working collaboratively.
Finally, because social relationships are so important to our health and wellbeing, she will outline simple
ways we can improve and foster more positive and fulfilling relationships with the people we work with and
beyond.
About Brenda
Brenda O’Connell has just received her Ph.D. in Psychology and is currently employed
as a Lecturer at the University of Limerick, Ireland. Her expertise is in the field of
positive psychology. The purpose of positive psychology is to explore the factors that
allow individuals, work environments and communities to thrive and experience positive
mental health and wellbeing. Her doctoral research examined how interventions fostering
gratitude improved social connections and psychological health. She now conducts
research as part of the Centre for Social Issues Research Group and the Anxiety, Stress and Health Lab in
the Faculty of Education and Health Sciences. She has authored several scientific papers and has presented
her work both nationally and internationally. She has achieved many research accolades, for example
winning the International Positive Psychology Association Student Scholarship to present at their World
Congress and most recently was nominated by the Psychology Department for the 2016 Postgraduate
Research Excellence Award.
Keynote 2: What we did in Ferguson: a warts-and-all telling of stories
Scott Bonner, Ferguson Municipal Public Library
Scott will share the story of what he and the staff at Ferguson Municipal Public Library did when the
community was in turmoil following the killing of Michael Brown in August 2014. Scott’s talk will highlight
how libraries can be a focal point for a community in troubled times.
About Scott
Scott Bonner has been Director for the Ferguson Municipal Public Library since July of
2014, and has been a professional librarian since 2006. His library was named the 2015
Gale/Library Journal Library of the Year for its response when Ferguson, Missouri was in
turmoil. His first career was in ground-level mental health, working mostly with kids and
adolescents. He has 4 young children, and no sleep.
Twitter @scottybonner and @fergusonlibrary
CASE STUDIES (IN ORDER OF APPEARANCE)
Reels in the attic: the ITMA story that reached millions
Maeve Gebruers, Irish Traditional Music Archive
The Irish Traditional Music Archive (ITMA) constantly works to increase access to its collections. Primarily
our goal is to ensure that anyone with an interest in Irish traditional music is given the opportunity to engage
with the ITMA. But we are also conscious of the need to demonstrate to our funders through meaningful
audience figures the value which is derived from investment in our work. As PR Officer I am often engaged
in conversations which include ‘How can we increase footfall to our premises?’, ‘How can we reach potential
donors?’, ‘How can we let more people know who we are and what we do?’ ITMA invests staff time and
resources to increase audiences in different ways: social media, performance/information events, lecturing,
field recording, publishing, etc. This case study - based on the remarkable story of Anne Gannon, a 101 year
old music collector from Longford - demonstrates that if the ground work in establishing web and social
media platforms is done, it can pay extraordinary dividends. Every library has a story to tell
and the ITMA’s experience shows that when you find the ‘right’ story, it will do the work for
you.
About Maeve
Maeve Gebruers is the Printed Materials and PR Officer with the Irish Traditional Music
Archive (ITMA). Since joining the ITMA in 1997, she has specialised in the care of the
Archive’s printed and manuscript collections of Irish traditional song, music and dance. In recent years she
has added the role of Public Relations officer to her job title and now manages the ITMA’s events programme
and social media accounts. She is currently studying for an MA in Archives and Records Management in
UCD. Twitter: @ITMADublin / @MaeveGebruers
Research fellowships as a means of marketing your library, promoting
research and creating communities of readers: an Irish librarian’s
experience
Dr Bríd McGrath
Research fellowships are an established means of promoting scholarly collections and libraries,
encouraging research, and increasing the use of unique resources. They are also a remarkable marketing
tool for libraries; they promote the greater use of collections - especially scholarly publications based on
libraries’ special collections, as well as their general resources - increase citations for library manuscripts
and rare books or audio-visual resources, and draw national and international attention to libraries’
collections, services and expertise. While poorly developed in Ireland, they have an enormous potential
to raise libraries’ profiles nationally and internationally, promote research based on unique collections
or in line with organisations’ research objectives, enhance libraries’ reputations, provide new information
about collections and resources, and develop communities of library users and researchers. As those
awarded research fellowships already have considerable expertise in their own subject areas, they bring
this knowledge to contribute to explaining the library collections and resources and make discoveries which
are of value to the library, as well as the scholarly community. This case study draws on Bríd’s experience
of research fellowships in Ireland, France and the United States of America to demonstrate the value of
research fellowships for Irish libraries.
8 ACADEMIC & SPECIAL LIBRARIES ANNUAL CONFERENCE & EXHIBITION 2017
THE SOCIABLE LIBRARIAN: CONNECTING & CREATING COMMUNITIES
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