ICML conference: 14-16 July

Katie Barnard, Senior Knowledge Specialist

Just as I was preparing to wave off colleagues heading up to Glasgow for ICML 2026, I became the lucky recipient of an HLG bursary for virtual attendance of the conference. What followed was a jam packed three days soaking up a wealth of knowledge and a good dose of fun, all from the comfort (and parenting convenience) of my workplace and home.

Rather than reporting my conference highlights, I wanted to outline the personal goals that the conference has inspired me to make:

  1. Make my practice more evidence-based: It was wonderful to see so many high-quality presentations, workshops and posters at the conference, especially those showcasing innovations where evidence had been collected and used to inform the project. However, Professor Alison Brettle and Gillian Siddall’s presentation and workshop on KLS practitioners’ experience of putting research into practice demonstrated that putting evidence into practice is not as widespread in KLS as we might think. 1 2 This served as a prompt for me to up my game and to make better use of existing evidence when planning projects, and has already caused me to reconsider a current piece of work.
  2. Contribute to the evidence base: Brettle and Siddall’s presentation also found that KLS practitioners lacked confidence in conducting research – despite a widespread appetite for doing research. However, the breadth and quality of research presented at the conference demonstrated just how valuable KLS practitioner research can be when it is undertaken and shared. This has inspired me to set myself the goal of carrying out a research project of my own, perhaps to share at the next HLG conference.
  3. Continue reaching out beyond my workplace silo: Many of the talks and posters I saw were on topics related to my own workplace activities, such as talks on systematic review teaching initiatives. 3 4 This, of course, meant I went away with lots of ideas I want to ‘borrow’, but it was also a handy reminder of the value of connecting with colleagues from further afield – something I feel I should do more often.
  4. Don’t panic about AI: Like me, lots of KLS colleagues are clearly also grappling with how to adapt to a future increasingly shaped by AI. It was inspiring to hear about efforts to upskill KLS staff and to develop training sessions for KLS users, 5 6 7and a talk on practical prompts for literature search admin was really useful. 8 But it was also reassuring to hear that others are facing some of the same barriers as us, such as restrictions by information governance and/or IT teams on AI education activities. So, while we still have a lot of work to do here, I feel hopeful that as long as we keep sharing our experiences and innovations, we can collectively navigate the opportunities and challenges that AI presents.
  5. Keep learning: I really enjoyed and learned a lot from some of the talks on more niche topics, such as article retractions,9 why posters aren’t further published,10 and multi-lingual searching in systematic reviews.11 This was a reminder for me that, despite working in NHS libraries for most of my career, there is still so much to learn!

Footnotes

  1. Alison Brettle & Gillian Siddall, Planting the seed: are health librarians practising what they preach in relation to evidence based practice? ↩︎
  2. Alison Brettle, Workshop: How do I make my practice evidence based? ↩︎
  3. Coral Pepper, From Curiosity to Confidence: Developing Systematic Review Training for NHS Staff ↩︎
  4. Paul Cannon, The development and evaluation of an innovative online systematic review escape room for early career clinicians ↩︎
  5. Nicola Walsh & Monica Casey, Future ready: strategic leadership in skills development for health information professionals ↩︎
  6. Celestina Lau, Within the AI Race: Navigating the narrative within clinical teams in Ashford and St Peter’s Hospitals ↩︎
  7. Lucy Wells, AI Literacy training – developing content and sharing practice ↩︎
  8. Mê-linh Lê, 5 Simple Prompts to Streamline the Evidence Synthesis Process ↩︎
  9. Federica Bianchini, Unpacking retractions: Librarians as stewards of research assessment ↩︎
  10. Matt Holland, An investigation into the conference posters that are not further published ↩︎
  11. Alice Stokes, An analysis of practices for multi-lingual searching as reported in Cochrane systematic reviews ↩︎