Our intrepid events team organizes webinars to grow your skills, online panel discussions to keep your mind sharp, and networking calls to keep you connected.
Programming is curated by METRO staff and our interest groups. Registration is required for participation in our workshops, meetups, and symposia.
Please review our Code of Conduct. Also, see our Statement on Viewpoints and details on Interpreter Services.
Current and Upcoming Events
Displaying results 1 - 8 of 8
On The Importance Of Personal Narratives: An Approach To Academic Reference Interviews
Online/Virtual Event
As a form of conversation, reference interviews are uniquely positioned to facilitate relationship building, collaboration, and community care. This can be especially salient in academic settings where productivity, efficiency, and achievements are built into the community’s expectations. In this webinar, Tricia Clarke, PhD, explores the relevance of personal narratives as part of the academic reference interview.
By embracing practices that view academic reference interviews and research appointments as more than mere transactions, librarians can create spaces for patrons to share personal narratives, which fosters a sense of belonging and well-being among students, faculty, and staff and helps to encourage healthy interpersonal relationships among librarians and patrons.
Attendees will gain:
Insight into the power of personal narratives
An understanding of the transformative potential of encouraging personal narratives
during reference interviews and research appointments
A look at best practices which can contribute to building a more inclusive and
supportive learning environment in the academic landscape
About our presenter:
Tricia Clarke is the Community College Engagement Librarian at the University of the District of Columbia, a historically Black land-grant university and the only public university in Washington, DC. She has loved libraries throughout her entire adulthood and much of her childhood, which was spent growing up on the English-speaking Caribbean islands of Trinidad and Tobago. She has a doctorate in Folklore and her research and professional interests include cultural heritage, community engagement, and supporting and contributing to diverse and inclusive communities. She is passionate about fostering literacy and cultivating a rich cultural learning environment.
Please review our Code of Conduct, our Statement on Viewpoints, and details on Interpreter Services.
Tour & Social Hour: Center For Brooklyn History
Presentation
Join us for a behind-the-scenes tour of the Center for Brooklyn History’s incredible space and current exhibition entitled “Brooklyn Is…” The Center for Brooklyn History was founded in 1863 as the Long Island Historical Society and continues to maintain a robust collection of materials, including books, photographs, oral histories, audio visual material, maps, and more. Join us in the lovely Brooklyn Heights neighborhood to explore a space that truly encapsulates the deep and rich history of the Brooklyn community.
Following the tour, join us for a social hour at a nearby location to connect with fellow local library and archives workers.
Please note: Space is limited, so if you’ve secured a spot but then find you’re unable to join, please let us know so we can open your spot to someone on the waitlist.
Tour & Social Hour: Lesbian Herstory Archives
Presentation
Founded in 1974, the Lesbian Herstory Archives is an all-volunteer run organization dedicated to the collection of materials by and about lesbians. Join us for a behind-the-scenes tour of this wonderful space with a vast collection of print and non-print materials, giving a thoughtful and meaningful exploration of lesbian herstory.
Following the tour, join us for a social hour at a nearby location to connect with fellow local library and archives workers.
Please note: Space is limited, so if you’ve secured a spot but then find you’re unable to join, please let us know so we can open your spot to someone on the waitlist.
Equity in Action Grant Recipient Presentations: Barnard College, The Afro-Argentine Diaspora Oral History Project
Online/Virtual Event
The Afro-Argentine Diaspora oral history project is designed to uncover the history of the Afro-Argentine diaspora community in Argentina and NYC. A common narrative promoted within Argentina and globally is that there are no Black people in Argentina. This narrative of erasure around the African roots of many elements of Argentine culture, including cuisine, music, dance, language, and lineage was historically reinforced through the education system, media, and official public history institutions.
This webinar will focus on the process of developing the project, collecting the oral histories and applying for the Equity in Action grant. The Afro-Argentine Diaspora oral history project is led by Julia Cohen Ribeiro and Tatiana Bryant.
About Our Presenters:
Julia Cohen Ribeiro is an Argentine and Brazilian Afro-descendant Jewish Queer independent historian and filmmaker based in Buenos Aires.
Tatiana Bryant is the Director of Teaching, Learning, and Research Services at Barnard College.
Destiny Arias is a freshman at Barnard studying History and Human Rights. She is Dominican, born and raised in Miami, and plans to use her background to become a federal court judge and work in the non-profit sector!!
Manuela Moreyra is currently a First-Year at Barnard studying Political Science and Economics. She is Peruvian, born and raised in Lima, and plans to be a journalist in the future, hopefully an international correspondent.
Equity in Action Grant Recipient Presentations: Brooklyn Public Library, Borrowed and Banned Podcast Series
Online/Virtual Event
In late 2023, Brooklyn Public Library debuted a podcast series entitled Borrowed and Banned that told the story of America’s ideological war with its bookshelves. The series followed the teachers and librarians whose livelihoods were endangered when they spoke up, the writers whose work has become a political battleground, and the young people caught in the middle.
Over ten episodes, Borrowed and Banned examined the past and the present of censorship in America, beginning with the Library’s impact on one school district in Oklahoma and a teacher’s protest that captured the nation’s attention. Co-hosts Adwoa Adusei and Virginia Marshall talked to the young activists making a difference in their communities, and shared accurate, up-to-date information about the role of school boards and local government in advocating for or obstructing intellectual freedom.
This webinar will focus on the process of creating the podcast and applying for the Equity in Action Grant.
About Our Presenters:
Virginia Marshall is the writer, producer, and co-host of Borrowed and Banned. She has been producing audio at Brooklyn Public Library since 2018, including launching the Library’s flagship podcast Borrowed, producing BPL’s podcast for kids, making audio walking tours, assisting BPL staff in creating audio with patrons, and helping out with BPL’s oral history archive.
Adwoa Adusei is co-host and writer of Borrowed and Banned. She is the manager of BPL’s new Library for Arts & Culture, set to open in downtown Brooklyn later this year. She has been a librarian at BPL since 2015, producing 3 short seasons of a community teen podcast series called Brownsville Excerpts, and has been a co-host of Borrowed since the Fall of 2019.
Noella Scott is the Director of Institutional Giving at BPL.
Ethical Digitization Considerations
Workshop
Join the Archivists Round Table of Metropolitan New York, Inc. (ART) in collaboration with the Metropolitan New York Library Council (METRO) and the Feminist Institute (TFI) for a workshop on ethical considerations surrounding digitization and oral history.
As our world becomes increasingly digital, so do archives. Bringing materials online presents a unique set of challenges. The Feminist Institute shapes our archival practices within feminist ethics of care. This means we prioritize building relationships with our record holders, view ourselves as caretakers of their materials, and utilize a collaborative cataloging model to create a participatory archiving environment. An extension of this form of care work, called reciprocal ethnography, asks questions like, “how do we give agency to our narrators to be advocates of their own stories.” By looking at projects like the NYC Trans Oral History Project, we learn how grassroots and volunteer-led collective work can model this by placing an emphasis on accessible materials and community engagement.
This workshop will allow participants to learn and discuss the ethics surrounding digitizing personal cultural material and oral histories. What kinds of releases are needed? What role does relationship building play in digital archiving? How might we de-professionalize institutional roles so that marginalized communities have more access to the recording and preservation of their histories? Participants will get hands-on experience in wrestling with digitization ethical considerations, oral history exercises, and compassionate listening.
Goals
Understanding of feminist ethics of care
Understanding of digitizing implications and begin building an ethical framework
Understanding of ethical and care-focused oral history techniques
This is an in-person workshop limited to 30 people (ART + METRO members only). Box Lunch catered by Lenwich will be provided (water bottle and snack included).
Workshop Fee
ART Member member rate: $25 per person
METRO member rate: $25 per person. Check here to see if your institution is a METRO member.
No refunds for cancellations, and registration is non-transferable. Please note that you MUST pay in advance online in order to attend this workshop.
In the occasion that the event is sold out, we highly recommend joining the waitlist. An ART staff member will reach out to you if a spot becomes available. Unless you've been given permission, please do not show up at the event without registering.
This workshop will be led by Allison Elliott and Aviva Silverman.
About Our Instructors
Allison Elliott is an archivist interested in queer and counter histories, community archives, autonomous memory sites, feminist networks, and information activism. She is currently the Manager of Archives and Programs at The Feminist Institute, where she develops content partnerships, curates digital collections, and produces TFI’s annual Pop-Up Memory Lab. She’s recently earned her MA in Media Studies + Social Justice from CUNY Queens College and Interactive Technology + Pedagogy Certificate at the Graduate Center. Her praxis focuses on using archival materials in creative works to activate the present and as a tool for liberatory education.
Aviva Silverman is an artist and activist working in sculpture and performance. Their practice utilizes religion, gender-nonconformity, miniatures, and nonhuman actors to investigate technologies of spiritual and political surveillance. Silverman has exhibited at numerous galleries and museums including MoMA P.S.1, the Swiss Institute and Marta Herford. Their work has appeared in Artforum, The New Yorker, BBC Radio, and Art in America. They do organizing work with prison-abolition and Palestinian-solidarity groups in NYC and are broadly interested in community-based healing through oral history, earth-based diasporic Judaism and transformative justice initiatives. As the former project coordinator of the NYC Trans Oral History Project (NYC TOHP), they have co-developed one of the largest repositories of trans oral history in the world. They have organized and led community conversations with leading trans activists and artists including Cecilia Gentili, Sandy Stone, Ceyenne Doroshow and others and have independently contributed over 30 interviews to the archive. They believe orality is a powerful tool for building a legal and historical record of one’s community.
Location
Pen and Brush, 29 E 22nd St, New York, NY 10010
Abolitionist Futures: A PLSN Discussion Group / Taking The Mic: A Conversation With Journalist & Producer Maggie Freleng
Online/Virtual Event
Want to learn more about prison abolition? Looking to explore the role of information in the prison industrial complex? Excited to discuss ways we can collectively offer resources to address violence caused by mass incarceration? Join the club (literally!). The Prison Library Support Network is collaborating with METRO to host Abolitionist Futures: A PLSN Discussion Group, which will meet quarterly on the second Monday of the month at 7:30pm.
In 2024, we will continue to curate a rotating calendar of media resources for discussion, including: books, podcasts, videos, zines, and more! We’re also re-committing to the “futures” part of our discussion group by intentionally building in time during each meeting to share actionable steps for practicing everyday abolition.
Also new in 2024! We’re aiming to be joined by special guest facilitators (authors, librarians, and more) with a range of experiences relating to prison abolition. More details to come!
If you’re on our PLSN listserv, you’ll receive information throughout the year on how to join each discussion group, who our featured guest will be, and which materials we’d like you to engage with before joining. As a reminder, both upcoming discussion content and past years of discussion materials can be found on this doc.
In June, join Abolitionist Futures for a conversation with Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and producer Maggie Freleng. Dive into her reporting on wrongful convictions, the criminal legal system, and other social issues via podcast episodes, articles, and more. Together, we will discuss the evolution of Maggie’s work, the important yet challenging task of highlighting the lived experiences of incarcerated individuals from the outside, and how journalism is a key component of abolition.
As always, our discussion materials are free to access and contain a variety of media formats. Before joining the meeting please read, listen to, and explore these materials:
LISTEN Buried Abuse (38 min)
READ Shackled: The Devastating Reality of Childbirth Behind Bars
Optional:
LISTEN Suave (7-episode podcast series)
READ In Search of Safety: An Investigation of Abuse at an Immigration Facility (Rewire.News article accompanying Buried Abuse podcast)
EXPLORE More of Maggie's reporting and podcast work
About our guest:
Maggie Freleng is a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and producer based in New York City reporting on wrongful convictions, the criminal legal system and social issues. She is the host and producer of the Signal and Anthem award winning podcast “Wrongful Conviction with Maggie Freleng”, as well as “Murder in Alliance” and “Unjust & Unsolved.” She is also the host and producer of the Pulitzer Prize winning podcast “Suave” on PRX. “Suave” also won the 2022 International Documentary Award and Maggie was nominated for the 2022 Livingston Award for National Reporting on “Suave”.
Maggie is an Adjunct Professor at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY and formerly the Producer-at-Large for NPR’s Latino USA. She was an NPR Next Generation Radio fellow and 2019 Ford Foundation “50 Women Can Change the World in Journalism” fellow. In 2023 she was honored during “World Woman Hour” by the World Woman Foundation for “breaking the role” as a female change-maker. Maggie is also a Webby and iHeart nominee for “Wrongful Conviction with Maggie Freleng.”
Maggie graduated with an M.A in Journalism focusing on Health & Sciences and Radio Broadcast from the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY in December 2015. She earned a B.A in Journalism and English from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst in 2011.
Her work has been featured in Rolling Stone, The LA Times, The Atlantic, Spin, The Observer, Democracy Now!, MSNBC, NPR, Vulture, People, HLN, WNYC, NPR’s Code Switch, NBC New York, WHYY, Dr. Phil, Dr. OZ, Boston Globe, The Huffington Post, and Voices of New York.
Linked Out: The Connections Between Library Work And Nature (A METRO Annual Meeting)
Presentation
Please join us for this special event where Executive Director Nate Hill will provide an overview of the work METRO has done for our membership and the field at large in 2023-2024. You’ll hear stories about our programs and events, grant programs, software services, research, and more. Nate will also speak about METRO’s new Library Field project and the related workshops taking place this summer. Finally, we’ll also be joined by an amazing panel of library leaders whose work explores the connections between library work and nature connectedness through gardening and food production, environmental awareness and kinship, and global goals and coordination.
Our panelists will include Sue Buswell of Library Farm, Maria Mayo-Peaseley of Anythink Nature Library, Helene Schvartzman of Aarhus Public Libraries, and Acacia Thompson of the Greenpoint Library and Environmental Center.
About our panelists:
Susan (Sue) Buswell is the Library Farm Manager at the Library Farm at the Northern Onondaga Public Library (NOPL), Cicero branch. As a mother of three, Sue started maintaining a garden plot at the Library Farm when it began in 2011. She was offered the position to manage the garden in 2019 based on various community involvements. Becoming a Master Gardener Volunteer in 2022 increased her passion for gardening and community engagements. She is starting her fifth season as the Library Farm Manager, which still brings joy to her days.
Maria Mayo-Peaseley has been with Anythink Libraries for eight years, and in that time has worked in library customer service, adult programming, branch management, and most recently, as manager to the yet-to-be-opened Anythink Nature Library. In this role, Maria is part of the Anythink Nature Library’s design team, while also serving as interim manager of Anythink's central branch, Anythink Wright Farms. Maria earned a Master’s in Library and Information Science at the University of South Carolina in 2017, and prior to her time at Anythink worked in the Interpretation and Education Division of Rocky Mountain National Park.
Helene Schvartzman has been a Library Transformer at Aarhus Public Libraries in Denmark since 2011. Helene’s greatest professional passion is making the complex sustainability crisis tangible, accessible and shareable. The library aims at connecting Culture and Nature through systemic, planetary design approaches, and she gets to do just that every day as head of the SDG-Library. That is expressed sometimes in the form of outdoor reading sessions, seagull-yoga, seed library, or walking library, and sometimes through textile, woodwork, or plant-workshops. The goal is to transform Libraries into DreamLabs for a sustainable future.
Acacia Thompson's role as the Environmental Justice Coordinator for Brooklyn Public Library centers around creating environmental education programming, promoting sustainability, and keeping patrons abreast of environmental justice issues in New York City and around the world. As a librarian, Acacia helps connect patrons to environmental resources, aides in research, and shares activism opportunities in her community. You may follow her work at #bklyn_geec.
Please review our Code of Conduct, our Statement on Viewpoints, and details on Interpreter Services here.