Nearly there for #bla26. Some members enjoying a tour of the library. We had our AGM, confirmed new Committee Member and last keynote by Cara Clarke and Algirdas Kraunaitis on “The Other Side” – Working as a lecturer and a librarian in a private provider of higher education. Safe travels.

#BLA26 provided Alice Cann of Brunel University and her developing skillset with EBSCO. An example of a professional showing how they keep learning to be a valuable asset for lecturers and students.

And that's a wrap! Thank you for everyone who attended our Summer Conference! We hope you had a lovely time, learned a lot and made friends with other professionals! #bla26

Huge congratulations to the wonderful Fred Milton – Teeside University, for winning Leslie Baldwin award for his presentation: "Would have gotten away with it, if it hadn't been for you meddling librarians: Unmasking AI ghost and phantom references"! #bla26

Our final Keynote presentation was delivered by Algirdas Kraunaitis and Cara Clarke. Their presentation focused on the partnership delivery model practiced at QAHE and highlighted some of the challenges/opportunities for librarians and lecturers. #bla26

#BLA26 Day 2 finished with a visit to i360 on the Brighton seafront.

#BLA26 shots of Brighton, myself and sociable librarians.

The final #bla26 keynote is Cara Clarke and Algirdas Kraunaitis (our wonderful BlA Marketing officer), QA Higher Education on From “The Other Side” – Working as a lecturer and a librarian in a private provider of higher education.

A huge thank you to our wonderful #BLA26 conference organiser, Dan. And to the University of Brighton for hosting @blalib.org.

#bla26 final day - final Key Presentation loading!

Another stimulating day at #BLA26. Members enjoying a little time to explore Brighton. Before some of us are going up in i360 for pre-dinner drinks (others staying on ground floor). Followed by gala dinner sponsored by our Gold sponsor EBSCO.

#BLA26 hard core members drinking and discussing the night away.

@alicecann.bsky.social , a long time BLA supporter is delivering our final Members Paper! Her knowledge on systematic searching, databases (such as EBSCO) is truly admirable and it is such a pleasure to watch her share things she is genuinly passionate about! #bla26

Now at #bla26 @hporter.bsky.social Hannah Porter, from the University of Portsmouth is doing a members paper on Using Interactive H5P Workbooks to Teach Library and Referencing Skills.

The wonderful Hannah Porter presented our 5th Members Paper - an honest exploration on how to make teaching more interactive. This is something a lot of teaching librarians tackle, so her presentation is timely and quite inspiring! #bla26

The next Members paper at #bla26 has been @maretteh.bsky.social Marette Hickford, talking about the BIPC (British Library) Business & IP Information Clinics: Matching user needs to our business collections and experts on their entrepreneurial journey.

Now we’re hearing from Andrew Jack, journalist from the Financial Times (silver sponsor). #bla26 Value of current examples for teaching.

Final Silver Presentation from FT Professional. Hearing from one of their journalists on linking their content across ages. Highlighting rankings, their free acres to schools and research across academia. Have a look at the Business news insider. Focus on how embed FT content into teaching. #BLA26

Next at #bla26 is another wonderful members paper. Becky Whyley-Smith from the University of Huddersfield, talking about Race across the Library: a cross-team collaboration to demystify the library space. First ran in 2024, and again this year.

Race across the library up next at #BLA26. Using a map and passport with timed activities (getting to various checkpoints). Becky Whyley-Smith from the University of Huddersfield.

Making libraries more welcoming with gamification - what an interesting presentation by our 4th Members Paper speaker, Becky Whyley-Smith! #bla26 You can also read about this in our Year in Review publication.

A very special presentation by FT - our Silver sponsor! A bit of inside view of how FT prepares their publications, their guiding principles and hard work in contributing to a healthy research environment. #bla26

@britishlibrary.bsky.social is a wonderful institution and we are honoured to have Mary Hickford speaking at the #bla26 conference! Information clinics sounds like a great innitiative and we hope our business students will take adventage of them!

Our members, hard at work completing the Sponsors Bingo in between talks! #bla26

Now at #bla26 we are hearing from one of the Silver Sponsors, Statista. Nataly asked us about obstacles to positioning the Library as a strategic partner

Statista - our Silver Sponsor - doing a little presentation! Statista is incredibly popular, being often a visual resource that students like to use. They have established itself as a reliable and diverse source for reseaech. #bla26

This is true for almost anything, but for librarians to be honest and open with academics, and to get the buy-in from the higher ups, to achieve anything - is so important! Thank you to Lee and Phil for reminding us of this! #bla26

Invaluable discussion about adopting open access resources. There is a sense that librarians are both keen and sceptical - University of Coventry is showcasing how an institution could champion this to their benefit! #bla26

Many librarians have heard of Sylla, but not many libraries use it. Hearing about University of Coventry taking it up is truly inspiring. #bla26

#bla26 featured a presentation from UWE Bristol about how involved the library service is involved in contributing towards international students critical thinking and writing skills in the English language.