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 - 10 of 10
Zine Making In The Park
Workshop
Join METRO and Zine Educator Emma Karin Eriksson for an afternoon of zine-making and snacking in the sunshine. Emma Karin will teach you the basic one-page fold technique to create a mini-zine from a single sheet of 8.5" x 11" piece of paper. There will be prompts and supplies on hand for you to use to create your own unique zine. Emma Karin will also provide tips and tricks you can use to teach zine-making to your patrons and colleagues. There will also be supplies for you to contribute to the new collaborative zine From the Stacks: Stories and Snippets of Wisdom from NYC Information Workers.
We will provide all zine making materials, but feel free to bring any stickers, stamps, washi tape, bits of wrapping paper, old magazines, discarded books, and anything else you might like to use in your zine.
The workshop will take place outdoors in Prospect Park, near the Prospect Park/Parkside Avenue B/Q subway stations. While there may be some benches, we cannot guarantee a seat to everyone, so please bring something to sit on if you would like (picnic blanket, portable chair, etc.). We will have some surfaces to lean on but encourage you to bring a clipboard, sketch book, or other hard surface to work on.
METRO will provide some light snacks and beverages, but please feel free to bring your own.
NOTE: In case of inclement weather, we will meet on the rain date, Sunday, August 4th from 11:00am to 1:00pm.
Library Field Imagining At Ward Pound Ridge Reservation
Workshop
Help us imagine the future of the Library Field Project. Get involved today!
This summer the Metropolitan New York Library Council (METRO), alongside our consulting team BKS Studio, is hosting a series of community gatherings aimed at bringing together a diverse and creative group of cultural institution workers from New York City and Westchester County. We began with the meet and greet Social Happenings in June (more info here) where participants explored key relationship skills, reflecting on their histories with spaces, and began to identify needs and challenges of working outdoors. These meet and greet social happenings set the groundwork for building new or renewing existing relationships with each other and our surrounding environments. Now as we shift to full summer mode, it is time to find inspiration and envision ideas for the future outdoor Library Field project!
We invite all current and future METRO members to the following community envisioning sessions - THE IMAGININGS! Help us keep the momentum going this August!
Imaginings are in-depth nature learning, interagency demonstrations, and brainstorming sessions in outdoor spaces. We will focus on bringing together METRO’s current members and potential partners to explore the benefits of place-based programming, learning, and sharing. Participants are invited to attend 1 of 2 sessions held at various sites in Westchester County. During the Imaginings attendees will share and relive memories of New York City and Westchester County using native-to-space/native-to-place based techniques that center the past, present, and future of the Library Field initiative.
New and returning participants welcomed! For these Imaginings we invite all current and prospective METRO members, leaders and workers at cultural heritage institutions to meet and share with each other their vision for the Library Field. This would include not only your expertise in the fields of galleries, archives, libraries, and museums but also your insights as inhabitants and enjoyers of the local environments, land, and resources found in New York City and Westchester County. Your views will help craft the future of the project! As a token of our appreciation, we would like to offer participants an honorarium of $25 for sharing their time, expertise, and engagement with our Imaginings.
Are you ready to join the fun? Registration is open through August 1st, 2024 on a first-come, first-served basis.
What to expect at Ward Pound Ridge Reservation
ABOUT THE SITE: 4,700 acres of rolling countryside and is Westchester County’s largest park. The terrain is extremely varied, ranging from deep hollows to ridges 800 feet high. There are hemlock gorges, dry uplands, wetlands, ponds, and two rivers, meadows, marshes and vernal pools, all connected by 35 miles of trails. Want to preview some of the interesting sights to see when you visit the park? Check out this cool story map!
After registering through the Eventbrite link, an email will be sent out with further details about transportation and access details
Transportation and environmental information about Ward Pound Ridge Reservation
Food will be provided (lunch, dinner, and breakfast)
BONUS SOCIAL HAPPENING: Family-Friendly Overnight Camp-Out at Ward Pound Ridge Reservation
Join us for an all-ages Library Field camping opportunity to be held shortly after the Imagining event with an official start of 6:00pm. Attendees are welcome to stay overnight at Ward Pound Ridge Reservation with us as we continue to imagine and learn about the future of the project. Alongside optional activities, attendees will be provided camping support and advice, supplies, dinner and breakfast, as well as an open air structure for shade and protection. NOTE: Site is both tent and car camping friendly. Prior to the event, METRO will send more information on camping tips and a walkthrough of provided supplies.
Activities will be held outdoors with adequate shade, hydration, and sitting breaks
Are you a beginner to outdoor programming? Nervous about extreme climate such as heat, rain, or other inclement weather? Worried about being outside unprepared? Not a problem! With the guidance of METRO staff and BKS, we aim to provide all necessary supplies to help soothe some outdoor frustrations or concerns. BUT we also emphasize that as we plan for the Outdoor Library, there will be many lessons to learn on how humans can re-adapt to our constantly changing environments.
What METRO will provide
Meal ingredients, cooking and eating supplies, and fire pit
Cool and icy treats
Canopy for shade
Tents (limited supply; please confirm if you need one)
Bug repellent
Sunscreen
Lighting
Coolers and ice
Potable and drinking water
Chairs
Emergency first aid supplies
Backup toiletries
Trash bag and containers
Ventilation and reflectors
Flashlights
Multi-tools
Hand sanitizer and basic cleaning supplies
Emergency electricity
Experience and advice on various camping and outdoor activities
What YOU should bring to make the event more enjoyable
Water bottle
Hat
Sun screen
Bug repellent
Fans (anything to help with heat and potentially rain)
Closed-toe shoes (optional back up sandals)
Change of clothes, light colors preferred (optional)
In case of inclement weather, METRO staff will
Notify registered participants day-of if weather prohibits event attendance
Confirm a backup rainy-day alternative date once after registration
If you have questions or issues when registering please contact libraryfield@metro.org for more information. If you can’t make these events, sign up for the monthly newsletter for future opportunities (details below).
But what exactly is the Library Field project?
The Library Field is a new project for METRO. We are looking for a nonurban, semi-rural outdoor location that our network of libraries, archives, museums, and other organizations can use as a shared programming space. During the COVID-19 pandemic, METRO took part in a nationwide initiative that revealed some of the implications of moving library programs and services outside of buildings. Cultural institutions all over the country refocused their efforts on safe outdoor programming through environmental education, storywalks, community gardening, nature connectedness work, citizen science projects, and more. Based on what we learned during that difficult time, METRO plans to open a permanent facility that will serve our region and become a prototype for a new service model for libraries, their partners, and their communities. With activities situated somewhere between those of a park, a preserve, a museum, and a library, the Library Field will be a shared environment that will deepen the community’s understanding of the natural world and the way that we study it, find inspiration in it, and are responsible for its protection.
For more information about our ideas and our progress, sign up for our newsletter via this form or peek at our journal entries here.
Archipelago Summer Workshops Series Session 1: Archipelago 1.4.0 Local Deployment & Features Tour
Online/Virtual Event
Description: Join us for a walkthrough of an Archipelago 1.4.0 Local Deployment and a quick tour through some of the new and updated features baked into the latest release.
Library Field Imagining At Hilltop Hanover Farm
Workshop
Help us imagine the future of the Library Field Project. Get involved today!
This summer the Metropolitan New York Library Council (METRO), alongside our consulting team BKS Studio, is hosting a series of community gatherings aimed at bringing together a diverse and creative group of cultural institution workers from New York City and Westchester County. We began with the meet and greet Social Happenings in June (more info here) where participants explored key relationship skills, reflecting on their histories with spaces, and began to identify needs and challenges of working outdoors. These meet and greet social happenings set the groundwork for building new or renewing existing relationships with each other and our surrounding environments. Now as we shift to full summer mode, it is time to find inspiration and envision ideas for the future outdoor Library Field project!
We invite all current and future METRO members to the following community envisioning sessions - THE IMAGININGS! Help us keep the momentum going this August!
Imaginings are in-depth nature learning, interagency demonstrations, and brainstorming sessions in outdoor spaces. We will focus on bringing together METRO’s current members and potential partners to explore the benefits of place-based programming, learning, and sharing. Participants are invited to attend 1 of 2 sessions held at various sites in Westchester County. During the Imaginings attendees will share and relive memories of New York City and Westchester County using native-to-space/ native-to-place based techniques that center the past, present, and future of the Library Field initiative.
New and returning participants welcomed! For these Imaginings we invite all current and prospective METRO members, leaders and workers at cultural heritage institutions to meet and share with each other their vision for the Library Field. This would include not only your expertise in the fields of galleries, archives, libraries, and museums but also your insights as inhabitants and enjoyers of the local environments, land, and resources found in New York City and Westchester County. Your views will help craft the future of the project! As a token of our appreciation, we would like to offer participants an honorarium of $25 for sharing their time, expertise, and engagement with our Imaginings.
Are you ready to join the fun? Registration is open through August 12th, 2024 on a first-come, first-served basis.
What to expect at Hilltop Hanover Farm
ABOUT THE SITE: Hilltop Hanover Farm and Environmental Center is dedicated to the development and advancement of sustainable agriculture, environmental stewardship, community education, and accessible food systems for all. The Farm is a bucolic 400-year-old historic working farm in Yorktown Heights, Westchester County New York. In 2011, the non-profit organization The Friends of Hilltop Hanover Farm and Environmental Center, Inc. a 501(c)(3) was established. Today Friends conducts the farming and educational programming, in a cooperative public-private partnership with the County of Westchester. More information can be found on their website.
After registering through the Eventbrite link, an email will be sent out with further details about transportation and access details
Transportation and environmental information about Hilltop Hanover Farms
Lunch will be provided
Activities will be held outdoors with adequate shade, hydration, and sitting breaks
Are you a beginner to outdoor programming? Nervous about extreme climate such as heat, rain, or other inclement weather? Worried about being outside unprepared? Not a problem! With the guidance of METRO staff and BKS, we aim to provide all necessary supplies to help soothe some outdoor frustrations or concerns. BUT we also emphasize that as we plan for the Outdoor Library, there will be many lessons to learn on how humans can re-adapt to our constantly changing environments.
What METRO will provide
Meal ingredients, cooking and eating supplies, and fire pit
Cool and icy treats
Canopy for shade
Bug repellent
Sunscreen
Lighting
Coolers and ice
Potable and drinking water
Chairs
Emergency first aid supplies
Backup toiletries
Trash bag and containers
Ventilation and reflectors
Flashlights
Multi-tools
Hand sanitizer and basic cleaning supplies
Emergency electricity
Experience and advice on various camping and outdoor activities
What YOU should bring to make the event more enjoyable
Water bottle
Hat
Sun screen
Bug repellent
Fans (anything to help with heat and potentially rain)
Closed-toe shoes (optional back up sandals)
Change of clothes, light colors preferred (optional)
In case of inclement weather, METRO staff will
Notify registered participants day-of if weather prohibits event attendance
Confirm a backup rainy-day alternative date once after registration
If you have questions or issues when registering please contact libraryfield@metro.org for more information. If you can’t make these events, sign up for the monthly newsletter for future opportunities (details below).
But what exactly is the Library Field project?
The Library Field is a new project for METRO. We are looking for a nonurban, semi-rural outdoor location that our network of libraries, archives, museums, and other organizations can use as a shared programming space. During the COVID-19 pandemic, METRO took part in a nationwide initiative that revealed some of the implications of moving library programs and services outside of buildings. Cultural institutions all over the country refocused their efforts on safe outdoor programming through environmental education, storywalks, community gardening, nature connectedness work, citizen science projects, and more. Based on what we learned during that difficult time, METRO plans to open a permanent facility that will serve our region and become a prototype for a new service model for libraries, their partners, and their communities. With activities situated somewhere between those of a park, a preserve, a museum, and a library, the Library Field will be a shared environment that will deepen the community’s understanding of the natural world and the way that we study it, find inspiration in it, and are responsible for its protection.
For more information about our ideas and our progress, sign up for our newsletter via this form or peek at our journal entries here.
Archipelago Summer Workshop Series Session 2: Review of Display/View Modes and Strawberryfield Formatters
Online/Virtual Event
Strawberryfield Formatters are one of the key tools powering Archipelago's display and rendering of your repository assets. In this session we will review Archipelagos default Strawberryfield Formatters and Display Modes, and discuss how you can adjust these to your own display preferences and needs.
Archipelago Summer Workshop Series Session 3: Search & Solr Overview plus Strawberry Keyname to Facet Block Walkthrough
Online/Virtual Event
Join us for a two hour long session dedicated to Archipelago's Search & Solr setup. After the first hour focusing on the nuts and bolts of Search and Solr, we will take a short break and then resume for a live walkthrough of the Strawberry Keyname Providers to Facet Block process, following step-by-step with our related Archipelago documentation guide.
An Audio Preservation Primer
Workshop
What is the difference between disc and DAT? How can I give my patrons access to audio recordings? Why on earth would you bake a tape? This hands-on workshop will examine the current state of audio preservation for libraries and archives—both as physical formats and digital files.
By the end of the workshop, you should be able to:
Identify most audio formats found in a library or archive, and understand their operating principles
Determine the best environment for long-term care of your physical media
Prioritize your audio materials for reformatting according to their fragility, obsolescence, value, and property-rights issues
Know current best practices and standards in reformatting of physical audio formats
Be knowledgeable about long-term preservation issues of digital audio objects
Bring a curious mind, alert ears and—if you wish—an audio item you want to identify!
Recommended reading:
Guidelines on the production and preservation of digital audio objects. (Aarhus, Denmark): International Association of Sound and Audiovisual Archives (IASA), 2004. Available from https://www.iasa-web.org/tc04/audio-preservation
About our presenter:
Marcos Sueiro Bal is the Archives Manager at New York Public Radio. He is a member of the technical committees of the Association of Recorded Sound Collections (ARSC) and the International Association of Sound and Audiovisual Archives (IASA), and was part of the Collection Management Task Force that drafted the Library of Congress National Recording Preservation Plan in 2012. In 2011 he co-translated the definitive text on audio preservation, IASA's Guidelines for the Production and Preservation of Digital Audio Objects. He is a member of the Standards Committee of the Audio Engineering Society (AES), and has taught Audio Preservation at Long Island University's Palmer School of Library Science. In 2011 he mastered and restored Jacqueline Kennedy: Historic Conversations on Life with John F. Kennedy (Hyperion), and in 2008 was nominated for a Grammy for his restoration work on Polk Miller and His Old South Quartette (Tompkins Square). Marcos has worked at the Alan Lomax Archives, Columbia University Libraries (where he developed AVDb, a preservation prioritization tool), the Center for Black Music Research, Masterdisk mastering studios, and Emory University.
Abolitionist Futures: A PLSN Discussion Group / A Book Discussion On The Attica Prison Uprising
Interest Group Meeting
Join us for a book discussion led by special guest hosts Joseph Morris and Mia Vasquez (Librarians with Brooklyn Public Libraries Jail + Prison Services). Using Blood in the Water by Heather Ann Thompson as a guide, our hosts will lead us in conversation about the politics and societies that grow and exist within prisons, the limitations of prison reform, and their own roles in providing jail-based library services for individuals in NYC DOC facilities. We will end our conversation with takeaways for our participants in how we can all work to provide information to those inside.
Materials to discuss:
Blood In the Water: The Attica Prison Uprising Of 1971 And Its Legacy, by Heather Ann Thompson (available at BPL, QPL, NYPL)
Suggested: ATTICA Documentary (1974)
While we are asking you to engage with Thompson’s whole book, we ask that you study Parts II and III (p. 43-161) in closer detail. Parts I, IV, and V are also important for wider context, and will be referenced throughout our discussion.
About Our Hosts:
Joey Morris is the Outreach Associate in Jail & Prison Services at Brooklyn Public Library. He has been bringing library services into NYC jails for over 8 years. He thinks a lot about the liberatory potential of the public library and is cautiously optimistic.
Mia Vasquez is part of the Jail and Prison Services team under Justice Initiatives at the Brooklyn Public Library. They navigate the rewarding yet challenging position of supporting incarcerated patrons through library services and correspondence.
Please review our Code of Conduct, our Statement on Viewpoints, and details on Interpreter Services here.
A Beginner's Guide To Failure
Workshop
A Beginner's Guide to Failure is a half-day cohort experience that teaches library workers how to celebrate failure–really! Instead of viewing failure as evidence of something lacking, this short course endeavors to help individuals better integrate failure as part of being fully human, taking creative risks, and growing critical skills and mindsets for learning organizations. In other words, despite the common misconception, failure is the rule, not the exception, and more failure actually leads to better ideas, creative solutions, and more productive workplaces! This workshop draws on teachings in emotional intelligence, psychology, philosophy, and culture. Our specific goals and objectives for this workshop are to:
Encourage critical engagement and exploration of the concept of failure in our lives, especially, but not exclusively, our work lives;
Experiment with new ways of failing productively, including design-thinking and prototyping approaches;
Explore stories of failure in library-settings, normalizing the experience of failure;
Experience failure as part of a work of beauty and impermanence; and
Help workers orient themselves and develop unique connections to fellow workers in a shared spirit of celebrating failure.
Lunch will be served.
About the Instructor:
A.M. Alpin is a creative librarian and educator who teaches creative workshops at NYU, the Made in NY Media Lab, and other institutions. In addition to producing countless failures, she is the past recipient of the Sundance Institute's Sheila C. Johnson Creative Producing Fellowship, the American Library Association's Advocacy & Innovation in Library History Award, and the Association of College & Research Libraries' Outstanding Professional Development Award. Her creative work has been supported by the Sundance Institute, the Independent Filmmaker Project, the Austin Film Society, the Southern Humanities Media Fund, and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
Being The Change We Wish To See: Neurodiversity-Affirming Practices For Library Workers And Patrons
Online/Virtual Event
This session will provide and talk through practical tips for supporting the agency of autistic and neurodivergent individuals in your library. Led by Bailey Hoffner, an adult-diagnosed autistic librarian, the session will encourage attendees to ask questions such as:
What are specific ways of thinking that aren't serving your entire community, and how might you work towards a neuro-affirming, universal design?
What are things that you and your library are doing because you think you should and which of those things could be dropped to better support autistic and neurodivergent individuals?
What parts of yourself may need tending to make the necessary paradigm shift towards more neuro-affirming practices?
Participants will walk away with actionable steps they can take in nearly all areas of librarianship, from more inclusive ways to engage with patrons to better policies to support all workers.
About our presenter:
Bailey Hoffner is an artist, writer, mother, partner, and PDA autistic, white woman. She currently serves as the Metadata Librarian for Digital Resources and Discovery Services at Oklahoma State's Edmon Low Library. In her own research and creative work, she is interested in investigating ways in which metadata and descriptive practices have the power to uphold or dismantle the structural racism, sexism, ableism, and discrimination inherent in their creation and use, with a particular interest in the representation of autistic experience in library work and library metadata.
Please review our Code of Conduct, our Statement on Viewpoints, and details on Interpreter Services.