Lucem sequimur*

I’d just returned from a 3 day Cataloguing and Indexing Conference at the University of Exeter. I was up at 5.30am on Monday morning to catch the 7.25am train to Birmingham and then the Cross-country train to Exeter. We were surprised to see quite heavy traffic at this time.

 

Babe held my hands while waiting for CC to turn up. CC and I got up the train and wasn’t pleased to see someone on our reserved seats. We’d to ask them to vacate and off course, they demanded to see our tickets. Don’t blame them cos the reserved sign above the seat wasn’t working. Luckily, it was only a 20minute train journey.

 

At Birmingham, it was a quick dash towards the next platform to continue our journey. We got the end part of the carriage to ourselves and made ourselves at home for the 3 hour ride. I spent the time doing Sudoku and trying to catch some beauty sleep which failed miserably.

 

At Bristol Park, we were stuck for about 30 mins, due to point failures on the track. We were the 4th. train queuing to get through the station. That was the only exciting part of the journey. We arrived in Exeter at about 11.15am. There was a long queue for taxis that we decided to get something light to eat.

 

We didn’t fancy the restaurant by the train station. Did you see the prices??? We looked around and spotted the Brunel Restaurant. We lugged our bags into the hotel. We couldn’t order lunch cos lunch starts at noon and we were about 15 mins too early. WTF? No food but you can get drunk. In the end, we just ordered a tall glass of iced orange juice.

 

We walked back to the taxi rank and got a taxi to the University. I’m soo pleased we did cos it was a steep walk up the hill. We were told that it took 15 minute to walk to the campus but I can bet it was much longer and it was up, up and up.

 

We registered and met KS who arrived on Sunday and was waiting for us. She looked happy and has filled up nicely. We walked further up to get our keys to our rooms. Another very long queue. There were 3 conferences running simultaneously. I got my keys but CC’s room wasn’t ready yet. So she dumped her stuff in my room. Just look at our accommodation?

 

After a quick change of clothes, we made our way to the conference venue. First on the agenda, was a very delicious finger buffet lunch. I mingled and met old and new acquaintances. There was J from Northampton University, GJ from LLGC, E from Leeds City Council, CS from Leeds University and many, many more.

 

The keynote speech was delivered by the president of CILIP. She began by putting away any notion of negative press surrounding the ‘backroom’ staff of libraries to rest. Cataloguers and indexers were there to make sense of the chaos in the information world and by doing so providing a very valuable service.

Next up was the standards forum where the basics of RDA and changes made to MARC21 were outlined. The results of the RDA survey were interesting and every one agreed that basic training need to be taken first. By 5pm the session was over.

I took the opportunity to checkout the famous sculpture walk before dinner. Unfortunately, due to building works being carried out around the campus, a lot of these sculpture were stored. But, I did managed to see a few. Check out this sculpture, titled June 1989 by Dominic Hopkinson, a former student, to commemorate those killed in the Tiananmen Square massacre in China.

It was constructed in secret in the dead of night, against the wishes of the University bosses. Students with counterparts from the nearby Exeter College of Art and Design designed and built this sculpture after the massacre in 1989. It became the focus for those mourning the death of protesting Chinese students. What a wonderful story…

The university has 22 other sculptures by renowned artists such as Barbara Hepworth. This was her Figure for Landscape or better known as Mother and Child which lies opposite the Queen’s Building, the venue of the conference.  Hepworth chose this location for her sculpture knowing the environment was going to grow and the landscape would change around the sculpture throughout the seasons and over the years reaching a maturity that was  in keeping with her art.

The Streatham campus, the University’s largest site in Exeter, was built around a country estate overlooking the city. A Registered Botanic Garden, this campus was described by The Times as the ‘best-gardened campus in Britain’ and by The Independent as having a ‘sublime’ setting. The grounds feature many exotic trees and shrubs and with stunning views across the city.

Then a long, leisure dinner with new and old acquaintances. There was a lot of catching up to do. Then, we adjourned to the bar for a fun-filled quiz night. My team didn’t win anything but it was full of laughters and banters.

Tuesday’s schedule was jam packed. There was a talk was on using the collective intelligence of cataloguers to assign LCSH. Then SH talked about improving performance in cataloguing and technical services workflows by integrating Japanese models aka Process-Fix.

The next speaker wasn’t able to attend the conference but sent along the slides for his presentation. His presentation followed similar lines to SH’s. There were soo much duplication that I was lost in translation. Not good at all…

Two more presentations followed in the afternoon. DG-O talked about the need for retrospective conversion. Last on the agenda was the CIG AGM. Since I’m not a member, CC and I decided to check out Exeter. We walked into town absorbing this vibrant ancient town. We went our separate ways near the Cathedral Yard. I checked out the famous Exeter Cathedral which was unfortunately having building works done and seemed to be a popular hang-out for the Goths, students, homelessness and drunks. Quite intimidating…

I checked a few old buildings around town and somehow missed the newly opened Princesshay Shopping Complex. Our schedule was soo tight that I didn’t even get a souvenir, not even a fridge-magnet. Then another slow-walk uphill to get ready for the highlight of the day, the conference dinner.

It was held at the majestic Italianate Reed Hall which was set within beautifully landscaped gardens. Everyone was dressed in their best rags. I wore a black slinky maxi from New Look with a black and white polka-dot cardigan from T. K Maxx. Food was served in the Woodbridge elegant dining room. The food was ok but the portions was way too small. I guess the huge chocolate mousse for dessert compensates for the dainty meal :-).

The final day kicked off with CIDOC CRM, a modelling tool for "exchanging rich cultural heritage data". Next was  on repository metadata. The final portion of the conference was an open session. Several interesting issues were raised such as hunting for electronic information available only over the Internet, the need for a UK library acting as a NACO funnel for other libraries that do not currently contribute to the scheme but need to make authority proposals and finally on shelf-ready books.

The conference ended at noon. We said goodbyes and hoped to meet again in 2012, fingers-crossed. CC and I couldn’t go for the library visits because we’d a train to catch. Not happy at all.

What did I get from this conference? It was very stimulating and I’m going away with plenty of things to ponder. Also lots of readings to catch up with and ideas to be a better metadata librarian. We have to be seen doing things. We need to be out there. A scary thought…

Since it was a nice day, CC and I decided to walk to the train-station. And it was all downhill. We stopped midway at Wetherspoon for lunch. I’d the vegetarian burger with thick chips and salad washed down with a tall glass of J2 orange and passion fruit. These tables were soon filled with people having lunch. Don’t blame them. The food was delicious and it was a nice day.

Then we continued our walk, very s-l-o-w-l-y. At the train-station, we met some of the conference participants. We spent the time enjoying the wonderful camaraderie. Then it was time to go our separate ways.

On the train, I did a few Sudoku before managing to catch some beauty sleep. We reached Birmingham New Street during the rush hours. We were not pleased when we found out that our seats wasn’t reserved. Luckily, it was only a 20 minute trip.

We reached Coventry in one piece, very tired but happy to be home. It was lovely to be in Exeter but it was lovelier to be back with Babe.

It is also not too late to wish all Muslims “Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri. Ma’af Zahir Batin” which meant  “Happy Eid” in Malay. “Maaf Zahir dan Batin” translates to “I seek forgiveness (from you) physically and spiritually”, for Eid is the time to reconcile and renew relationships with others.

Hopefully, we will be blessed for our observance of the faith and self discipline during the month of Ramadan. May we all be forgiven and may we forgive generously without reservations. Amen!!!

*We follow the light-Exon’s motto.