LIKE takes a night off (almost)

The librarians and knowledge consultants at LIKE enjoy networking so much that we decided to meet on our regular last Thursday of the month over the holiday period just for a social.

A LIKE social comes with many of the best characteristics of a (slightly more) formal LIKE meeting. We had planned to arrange something simple but Jenny's natural organisational instincts took over so we got a decent venue, a proper guest list, a web questionnaire to order our food and somebody to collect the money.

Every organisation needs a Jenny and I'm very glad that Jenny is ours.

We gathered downstairs at The Ship Tavern in Holborn, conveniently situated next to the tube station and a dazzling number of bus routes. The long bar had several seasonal ales to choose from and I started with the Rosey Nosey before moving on to the Rockin' Rudolph.

Once safely gathered with our drinks we went to the restaurant upstairs where our long table awaited us.

The reactions to the meal were mixed from "fine" to "excellent" so that part of the evening went well but the real reason we were there was for networking, the posh word for socialising, and that went superbly.

The fifteen of us, including a few new faces, were arranged a long thin table which meant that we broke up in to a number of small conversation groups when we could not but help ourselves from occasionally turning to topics of librarianship and knowledge management. We talked about other things too :-)

Jenny put another helping hand on the tiller and got us to shuffle places between courses (three were on offer and I was just a little pig and only had two).

The conversations flowed easily but this time nobody was taking notes, apart from a few tweets!

LIKE is blossoming out from its strong routes and this year the regular meetings have been complemented by a Summer picnic, a guided walking tour of the City of London and this party. Next year starts with a visit to the British Library's Growing Knowledge exhibition. I'll be there.