Meet the CILIP NE RMN committee: Louise Masson

We wanted to introduce our committee members and enable them to share their experience of being a part of the North East Regional Member Network. Inspired by the CILIP Information Literacy Group we'll be asking our committee members some question. 

Thanks to the Information Literacy Group who have kindly let us re-use the questions they use on their blog.

Louise Masson

What is your role on the committee?                                                              

I am an ordinary member on the North East Regional Network committee. 

When did you join and why?

I have been a member of this committee as it has evolved over the years. I was orginally part of the Career Development Group North East serving as secretary and chair during that time. I was also involve at National level serving as the Marketing Officer. This local group then merged with the NECILIP branch in March 2014 and I decided to continue as part of the committee under it's new name as a Regional Member Network. 

Orginally I was introduced to the group by a work colleague who was part of the committee. It was a great way at the start of my career to meet professionals outside of my organisation and I have always loved hearing about challenges and projects in other libraries. It has also helped to build up a wide range of networks in the North East for public, voluntary and charity based libraries. 

What do you do in your role?

I regularly attend committee meetings, online or in-person, and contribute to planning events and brainstorming ideas for us to run. In 2022 I organised our annual conference; all the logistics from planning the programme, organising speakers, liaising with delegates and advertising. 

What is your day job?

I am a Faculty Liaison Librarian based at the Philip Robinson Library at Newcastle University. I manage the subject team which supports Social Sciences. This involves collection management, benchmarking resources, meeting with academics to understanding programme needs, helping students with dissertations and looking for information, managing our resource budget, overseeing reading lists, delivering teaching sessions, creating online resources such as videos. It is a very diverse role in helping to shape the library services and offering support and guidance to our academics, researchers and students. 

What are your other interests?

Since having children I've embraced listening to audiobooks (multi tasking whilst pushing a pram!) and reading magazines on my phone whilst waiting for swimming classes to end. Both of which provided by my local public library for free. I also enjoy travelling and visiting different places although again international travelled kerbed by the pandemic and the arrival of my 2 children. I'm now a specialist in researching play parks, caravan parks with kids enterntainment and child friendly restaurants I live by the coast so am a big fan of walks along the beach with an icecream as a reward. (regardless of the weather or the extent of the North Sea breeze)