This year the CLIG Christmas Party held on 29th November was a first. It was the first time that ourselves, the City Information Group (CiG), the British & Irish Association of Law Librarians (BIALL) and the Industrial & Commercial Libraries Group (ICLG) joined forces and offered a single huge Christmas bash for all their members.

The venue was One Whitehall Place, and what a fabulous place it was. The building itself is Grade I listed and has been the home of the National Liberal Club since it was built in the 1880’s. Now partially converted into a hotel and conference centre, the Italian Classic décor has been restored to such a high standard that even 350 Information Officers and Librarians were generally unaware that the Gladstone Library in which the disco was held was almost entirely stocked with fake books.

Despite the somewhat confusing dress code of Smart/Black Tie, most took the opportunity to dress up to the nines. It was good to see bow ties and gowns being worn (not at the same time) with great aplomb by a large proportion of the gathering. The party got off to a sparkling start with Champagne being offered to the first one hundred to turn up. This seemed to have the desired effect, as only half an hour after the official start of the event the venue was filling up fast.

The raffle prizes were extremely generous and kindly sponsored by a whole range of information providers, too many to mention here. But one of our own CLIG committee members, Susanna Winter, managed to pocket the highly desired nest of Wildy’s owls.

Being a combined event, old friends and acquaintances who were members of different groups had an opportunity to meet and catch up on old times, and as the wine flowed the evening flew by. Only to be somewhat marred by the general lack of food to soak up the alcohol. This particular party-goer left at 10:30, but is reliably informed that well past midnight there were some how many headaches were being nursed at work the next day!

Many thanks to everyone involved in organising and sponsoring the party and to all of those from CLIG, CiG, BIALL and ICLG who attended.