Sylvia Piggott
Ulrike Lang

Dear CPDWL members and friends,

After a very active and successful year 2012 with a well attended pre-conference in Tampere, Finland and very good conference presentations at our session in Helsinki, Finland, we are now on the way preparing the 2013 Singapore Conference.

The high standard of the Tampere Conference can be seen in the papers contained in IFLA publication No. 157 The Road to Information Literacy and also in one of our presentations in Helsinki which will be published in the IFLA Journal.

We intend to keep delivering the same high quality in our future programmes, as we use the creativity and knowledge of our section members to create an interesting programme for Singapore in August.

CPDWL will host a workshop session. The theme is “Taking charge of your career”. The format will be of round table discussions, each lead by a team leader with some experience on the topic who will facilitate sharing and recording of information. Our information coordinator Catharina Isberg will start with an introduction “Competence wheel: communication and personal skills”.

The different tables will deal with intercultural competencies, publishing of papers, self managed careers, personal skills and competencies, the use of social media, alternative careers, internationalizing your career and jump starting career and, finally, professional ethics.

We hope you will be able to visit several tables but we will also prepare some flyers with the most important information from each table so you can carry home an overview of all the topics.

Additionally, and in collaboration with SET (Education and training section) we are planning a session with the theme “Libraries as learning organisations: how to nurture growth in our staff and our communities”. The Call for Papers is out with the expectation that submissions will be received by the end of January 2013.

And last but not least, together with NPSIG (New Professional Special Interest Group), CPDWL is planning the session “New librarians global connection: best practices, models and recommendations”, presented also in a workshop style.

Please check the IFLA programme for conference details and times at the end of March.

In addition to these professional topics, CPDWL is also very much interested in the modernization and enhancements of the IFLA organization.

We are also pleased to report that our Information Coordinator Catharina Isberg and Co-Chair Ulrike Lang are founding members of the IFLA DIAL Working Group and will help to promote the updating of communication in IFLA.

The strong connection with the New Professional Special Interest Group (NPSIG) spearheaded by Loida Garcia Febo, is also a significant part of our work. The webinars which Loida hosts with the support of ALA are a very good example of this. The sessions consisting of international participants with topics of global interests are generally well attended. The timing is very convenient for the different time zones worldwide and the entrance to the chat room is very easy.

Some of the section members will end their terms in Singapore. They will leave a huge gap of professional competency and we surely will miss their support. Therefore, if you are interested in working with an active international group please do not hesitate to contact us.

Finally, I, Sylvia Piggott, Co-Chair and Treasurer, have completed my two terms with CPDWL and will be moving on to another Section of IFLA at the end of the first CPDWL Section meeting in Singapore. It has been a pleasure to work with such a dynamic group. Having been coordinator each year of a CPDWL programme session I know how much we can count on our Section members for support of these sessions. I coordinate my final session in Singapore. I pledge continued support of your programme sessions despite the fact that I am moving on.

We wish you a happy and successful year and hope to see you in Singapore!

Ulrike Lang
Sylvia Piggott