Meet the CILIP NE RMN committee: Leanne Young

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.

Leanne Young

What is your role on the committee?

I'm currently the Digital Champion so my main role is editing the CILIP North East webpages and creating the event registration pages for our events. Until very recently I was also the Chair of the committee for almost two years.

I also contribute to ordinary committee member activities like organising and running events and contributing to social media.

When did you join and why?

I joined the committee in March 2019. I'd previously been a member of ARLG North East for quite a long time and after a few committee free years I decided to dive back in. As much as I like my job it doesn't often afford the development opportunities you get being on a committee - for example the range of skills you acquire when organising an a larger CPD event. 

What do you do in your role?

As Chair I did my best to make sure we were aligned with CILIP strategy, I chaired meetings, recruited committee members, wrote business plans and I hope) provided support to colleagues on the committee.

As Digital Champion my main role is updating our web pages and creating the event registration pages for our events. I support colleagues on the committee when they are using the system to manage events. In the absence of a Social Media Officer I've also been scheduling our social media posts - this includes creating graphics on Canva and writing tweets/Facebook posts. 

What is your day job?

I'm the Distance Services Librarian and Academic Liaison Librarian for Tourism at the University of Sunderland. I lead the library support for distance learners and liaise with faculty regarding supporting students, collection development, study skills and more. I teach information literacy skills in person an online to students all over the world.

What are your other interests?

I like travelling (obviously I haven't done a lot of that over the last couple of years although I am headed to New Jersey & New York this summer - hurray!) and I like hiking. I can often be found wandering around woods when I need to relax. I also like doing handstands, and I think I'm getting better at balancing but it's very slow going. I've been vegan for 14 years and was a vegetarian for 15 years before that so I'm passionate about animals and treating them all well - not just pets.