Somerset International conference for librarians and teachers 2010

Andrew J Stark, Head of library services and conference director for Somerset College writes an overview of the 2010 Somerset internatioanl conference for librarians and teachers, held recently on Queensland's Gold Coast.

The conference was, again, a tremendously successful two day event with activities and presentation on both days receiving extremely positive feedback. With Somerset International Conference being the academic precursor to the Somerset College Celebration of Literature Writers' Festival, it made March 15 - 19 a truly literary experience for everyone involved.

Conference Monday brought together 7 international recognised presentations who provided an inspirational insight into their areas of expertise. While all quite different in their areas of speciality, each presenter's paper resulted in delegates receiving a highly informative and global exploration of issues related to literacy, literature, research and the role of libraries in the 21st century. All presenters complemented the 2010 conference theme Reading Locally, Learning Globally: creating a universal experience and highlighted to those in attendance the need to understand the gloval implications of our profession, but no at the expense of local knowledge and resources.

Workshop Tuesday exceeded all expectation with the event being completed booked out. These informal sessions reflected the conference theme exceptionally well and I offer sincere thanks to all involved. Clearly, there is a real need for such workshops and networking opportunities being made available for librarians and teachers.

For your interest and reference, the conference presenters' papers are available for you to read online. I would like to extend to you an invitation to refer to these professionally challenging documents, to share their ideas with your colleagues and to consider and reflect upon teh issues raised by these experts in their fields.

Andrew J Stark
Head of Library services and conference director
Somerset College