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!). This monthly discussion group with Prison Library Support Network will look at a rotating calendar of media resources for discussion, meeting the 2nd Monday of each month at 7:30pm. While the group's facilitators (and host) are affiliated with libraries, you do not need to be a librarian or information professional to attend this group. We will share our discussion calendar regularly through METRO and the PLSN listserv, so that folks can plan ahead to attend the months that sound interesting to them. For our final discussion of the year we want to explore moving forward and away from prisons and punishment. We will be watching all the videos in this series and talking about transformative justice, accountability, and what we can put into practice in our lives: Building Accountable Communities Video Series (watch all videos on the page) Optional: Beyond Survival (We read this last year but it is a great book! If you’ve already read it give it a skim through to refresh your memory) Please review our Code of Conduct, our Statement on Viewpoints, and details on Interpreter Services.

Join the code4lib NYC for a code & coffee Zoom the first or second Friday of each month this fall. These calls are generally casual discussions about projects we are working on, cool tools we have come across in the past month, and a casual forum for technical questions of all kinds.

When it comes to metadata and cataloging, many library staff members feel they get thrown into the deep end before being taught how to swim. Cataloging training in library education is frequently designed to give an overview rather than in-depth preparation, leaving actual cataloging practices to be acquired on the job. Sometimes a cataloging component gets added to a position (such as acquisitions or reference) after the fact, with little training or guidance. Melanie Wacker, Head of Digital Resources Metadata, Cataloging & Metadata Services Division, Columbia University Libraries, will provide some help by identifying three common areas of confusion in cataloging and strategies on how to navigate them. She'll go over why more isn't always more, the importance of authority control, and how to put non-MARC metadata work into the larger library context. By the end of this webinar, attendees will be able to: Identify each of these three common cataloging misunderstandings Notice when these things crop up in their work Take steps to align their cataloging efforts with common cataloging processes and procedures About our presenter: Melanie Wacker works with her colleagues within Columbia University Libraries to ensure the integration of digital metadata with local and national systems to enable information discovery. She provides guidance on best practices, and develops, documents, and maintains standards and procedures for metadata for digital content generated within the Libraries. Her other responsibilities include the cataloging of electronic resources and name (NACO) and subject (SACO) authority work. Melanie is the chair of the MODS/MADS Editorial Committee, a member of the VIVO Ontology Group, a member of the planning group for the OCLC Research Library Partners Metadata Managers Focus Group, an At-Large-Member of the PCC Policy Committee (PoCo), as well as co-chair of the BIBFRAME Interoperability Group (BIG). Please review our Code of Conduct, our Statement on Viewpoints, and details on Interpreter Services.

Join METRO's Director of Programs and Partnerships, Davis Erin Anderson, for a conversation with Sarah Lamdan about Lamdan's new book, Data Cartels: The Companies That Control and Monopolize Our Information. About the book: In our digital world, data is power. Information hoarding businesses reign supreme, using intimidation, aggression, and force to maintain influence and control. Sarah Lamdan brings us into the unregulated underworld of these "data cartels," demonstrating how the entities mining, commodifying, and selling our data and informational resources perpetuate social inequalities and threaten the democratic sharing of knowledge. Just a few companies dominate most of our critical informational resources. Often self-identifying as "data analytics" or "business solutions" operations, they supply the digital lifeblood that flows through the circulatory system of the internet. With their control over data, they can prevent the free flow of information, masterfully exploiting outdated information and privacy laws and curating online information in a way that amplifies digital racism and targets marginalized communities. They can also distribute private information to predatory entities. Alarmingly, everything they're doing is perfectly legal. In this book, Lamdan contends that privatization and tech exceptionalism have prevented us from creating effective legal regulation. This in turn has allowed oversized information oligopolies to coalesce. In addition to specific legal and market-based solutions, Lamdan calls for treating information like a public good and creating digital infrastructure that supports our democratic ideals. About the author: Sarah Lamdan is a Professor of Law. She teaches administrative law, environmental law, data privacy, information access, and government transparency courses. Before teaching law, Lamdan was a librarian in academic and private libraries. Professor Lamdan’s 2017 reference book Environmental Information: Research, Access & Environmental Decisionmaking (Environmental Law Institute) is a resource for journalists, scientists, and researchers who rely on government science. Her work has been published in law reviews and information science journals, including the NYU Review of Law and Social Change, Library Journal, Government Information Quarterly, and forthcoming work in the Georgetown Law Technology Review. When she’s not teaching, Professor Lamdan is active in national information access and data privacy research and organizations. She is a Senior Fellow with the SPARC (the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition) and a fellow at the Engelberg Center on Innovation Law & Policy at NYU School of Law. She’s also a member of the Environmental Data & Governance Initiative (EDGI) and a co-chair of the Invest in Open Infrastructure (IOI) Community Oversight Council. Please review our Code of Conduct, our Statement on Viewpoints, and details on Interpreter Services.

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!). This monthly discussion group with Prison Library Support Network will look at a rotating calendar of media resources for discussion, meeting the 2nd Monday of each month at 7:30pm. While the group's facilitators (and host) are affiliated with libraries, you do not need to be a librarian or information professional to attend this group. We will share our discussion calendar regularly through METRO and the PLSN listserv, so that folks can plan ahead to attend the months that sound interesting to them. In recognition of Native Heritage Month, we will be looking at the incarceration of Indigenous populations in North America: The U.S. criminal justice system disproportionately hurts Native people: the data, visualized Indigenous Spirituality Inside Oregon Prisons (PBS Video 9 minutes) Exploring the States of Incarceration Minnesota webpage, "Carceral Colonialism: Imprisonment in Indian Country: How has settler colonialism shaped the carceral state?" Optional: An Indigenous Abolitionist Study Guide by Yellow Head Institute Please review our Code of Conduct, our Statement on Viewpoints, and details on Interpreter Services.

Join the NYC Economics & Business METRO community to learn about how the NY Research Data Center (NYRDC) at Baruch College facilitates access to restricted-use microdata from a variety of statistical agencies. Our speakers will cover: The restricted-access demographic, economic, health, and other data available through the NYRDC Examples of the types of questions that can be explored using RDC data How researchers can apply to use data via the NYRDC Speakers: Shirley Liu, PhD, Economist & Administrator, NYRDC at Baruch Diane Gibson, PhD, Executive Director, NYRDC at Baruch and Professor, Marxe School of Public and International Affairs Please share this event with social science colleagues who may be interested in attending! Individuals outside of the NYC metro area may wish to connect with their regional RDC to organize a similar event: https://www.census.gov/about/adrm/fsrdc/locations.html

This event is co-sponsored by the Prison Library Support Network and the Reference and Instruction Special Interest Group. It is the second event in a series, leading up to a symposium on Critical Race Theory in LIS, slated for May 2023.

Part II of the Foundations of Evaluation and Assessment in Library Settings workshops will focus on what these concepts looks like in practice. Building on real-world examples, this session will address a variety of approaches used to conduct evaluations and assessments, with a focus on participatory approaches designed to be more inclusive and democratic. Examples of concepts covered will include data collection approaches (focus groups, interviews, observations, surveys, etc.), data analysis approaches, and implementation of the results. Participants will learn to: Compare data collection and analysis techniques to aid in the selection of appropriate methods that align with evaluation and assessment projects Recognize the importance of participatory approaches to evaluation and assessment, particularly for the integration of inclusive practices Identify potential opportunities for implementing results of completed evaluation and assessment projects Sign up for Part 1 of this series here. About Our Presenter: Dr. Kawanna Bright is Assistant Professor of Library Science at East Carolina University. Dr. Bright earned her PhD in Research Methods and Statistics from the University of Denver in 2018. Prior to earning her doctorate, Dr. Bright worked as an academic librarian for twelve years, with a focus on reference, instructional services, and information literacy. She earned her MLIS from the University of Washington iSchool in 2003. Dr. Bright’s current research focuses on assessment in libraries, equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) in libraries, the application of research methodology to the study of library and information science, and the importance of the liaison librarianship role in academic libraries. Her work with Dr. Amy VanScoy (University at Buffalo) to investigate the reference and information services experience of librarians of color received a 2014 ALA Diversity Research Grant and was awarded the 2017 Beta Phi Mu-Library Research Round Table Research Paper Award. Dr. Bright is also a co-PI on a recently funded IMLS grant project that will utilize survival analysis to determine when and why BIPOC librarians are likely to leave the profession. Dr. Bright is a 2021 recipient of an ECU College of Education Profiles in Diversity Award and a 2021 recipient of a 2021 NCLA Round Table for Ethnic Minority Concerns’ LIS Instructor Roadbuilder Award. Please review our Code of Conduct, our Statement on Viewpoints, and details on Interpreter Services.

Join the code4lib NYC for a code & coffee Zoom the first or second Friday of each month this fall. These calls are generally casual discussions about projects we are working on, cool tools we have come across in the past month, and a casual forum for technical questions of all kinds.

Once you start dealing with big batches of files, File Explorer and Finder can only go so far. If you’re looking to deal with files on a larger scale, with more control, and in a systematic way, there are some tools that can help. This workshop, led by Katie Wolf, Science and Technology Librarian at Fordham University Libraries, will cover the command line and the ways you can manipulate files, folders, and more—all with minimal mouse clicking! And, for those who want to be a bit more programmatic about it, this webinar will also cover essential Python recipes for repeated file manipulation strategies. Get ready to go beyond the GUI. Participants will: Become comfortable navigating the command line and using it to navigate files and folders quickly Learn how to use the command line and Python to work with files in large batches and in a reproducible way Take away Python code recipes for manipulating files that can be adjusted for individual projects Please review our Code of Conduct, our Statement on Viewpoints, and details on Interpreter Services.

Join us for a project presentation from one of our esteemed 2022 Equity In Action Grant recipients! New York Public Radio implemented a Field Recording Cataloging Project that described approximately 1,278 MiniDiscs. This cataloging project assisted in the preservation of field recordings made by WNYC reporters whose ‘beats’ focused on underserved communities, communities of color, the homeless, health, the environment, social services, the police, and the courts. About this grant program: The METRO Equity in Action Grant program aims to support member institutions by providing funding that assists with new and ongoing efforts to preserve our cultural history. We endeavor to fund digital projects that focus on anti-racist practices and marginalized communities. Rooted in community and collaboration, this program encourages partnerships between organizations in order to cultivate a mutual knowledge exchange that empowers both parties and creates a pipeline for access.

Join us for a project presentation from one of our esteemed 2022 Equity In Action Grant recipients! The Lesbian Herstory Archives and the LGBT Community Center National History Archive partnered on a project to create a research guide to materials about Black Lesbians in each collection. Team members surveyed, created metadata for, and digitized on an as-needed basis both organizations’ collections, which encompass a wide range of materials spanning the 1950s to the early 2000s. Materials processed included manuscripts, personal papers, correspondence, graphics, photographs, and ephemera from both individuals and relevant organizations. About the grant program: The METRO Equity in Action Grant program aims to support member institutions by providing funding that assists with new and ongoing efforts to preserve our cultural history. We endeavor to fund digital projects that focus on anti-racist practices and marginalized communities. Rooted in community and collaboration, this program encourages partnerships between organizations in order to cultivate a mutual knowledge exchange that empowers both parties and creates a pipeline for access.

Join us for a second event in a series of panel discussions where we talk about the joys and challenges of working in various settings within the library industry. On Wednesday, October 19, we'll be joined by Susanne Markgren (Manhattan College), Linda Miles (Hostos Community College), and Sharell Walker (BMCC) to talk shop about working in academic libraries. We'll learn what aspects of their work make them excited to show up every day, what their day-to-day experiences are like, and how you, too, can be a part of the thoughtful and engaged academic library staff. We'll have time for questions from our audience; feel free to show up prepared. This event is a co-production between METRO and ACRL/NY. Please review our Code of Conduct, our Statement on Viewpoints, and details on Interpreter Services.

Join us for a project presentation from one of our esteemed 2022 Equity In Action Grant recipients! Asian American Arts Centre in New York City (AAAC) and Pratt Institute’s Semantic Lab worked together to ensure continued online access to resources documenting AAAC’s work. The project team digitized, described through Wikidata records, and contributed AAAC’s full collection of approximately one hundred exhibition flyers to the open repository Wikimedia Commons. Speakers will include Robert Lee, Executive Director of the Asian American Arts Centre and Karen Li-Lun Hwang, Semantic Lab Research Fellow and Former Employee of the Asian American Arts Centre. About the grant program: The METRO Equity in Action Grant program aims to support member institutions by providing funding that assists with new and ongoing efforts to preserve our cultural history. We endeavor to fund digital projects that focus on anti-racist practices and marginalized communities. Rooted in community and collaboration, this program encourages partnerships between organizations in order to cultivate a mutual knowledge exchange that empowers both parties and creates a pipeline for access.

Join us for a project presentation from one of our esteemed 2022 Equity In Action Grant recipients! CUNY Graduate Center and NYU Libraries joined forces to create an oral history collection that documents the stories of individuals and groups who are engaged in developing and implementing alternative library classification schemes or controlled vocabularies. In addition to creating a fully transcribed and cataloged oral history collection, the project team produced an audio piece that synthesizes their work and that can be shared with wider audiences through broadcast, exhibits, and conferences. About the grant program: The METRO Equity in Action Grant program aims to support member institutions by providing funding that assists with new and ongoing efforts to preserve our cultural history. We endeavor to fund digital projects that focus on anti-racist practices and marginalized communities. Rooted in community and collaboration, this program encourages partnerships between organizations in order to cultivate a mutual knowledge exchange that empowers both parties and creates a pipeline for access.

Join the code4lib NYC for a code & coffee Zoom the first or second Friday of each month this fall. These calls are generally casual discussions about projects we are working on, cool tools we have come across in the past month, and a casual forum for technical questions of all kinds.

Conducting useful and impactful evaluations and assessments in libraries often starts with needing to understand the distinction between the two concepts. This session will serve as an introduction to evaluation and assessment as concepts, and begin laying the ground work for understanding how to apply both evaluation and assessment to library programming, services, and practices. Examples of concepts covered will include summative versus formative approaches, the use of conceptual frameworks, and the importance of pre-planning. Participants will learn to: Clearly state the difference between evaluation and assessment, particularly in terms of how they apply to libraries Understand how evaluation and assessment impact library programming, services, and practices Recognize the usefulness of conceptual frameworks and pre-planning for the success of evaluation and assessment processes Sign up for Part 2 of this series here. About Our Presenter: Dr. Kawanna Bright is Assistant Professor of Library Science at East Carolina University. Dr. Bright earned her PhD in Research Methods and Statistics from the University of Denver in 2018. Prior to earning her doctorate, Dr. Bright worked as an academic librarian for twelve years, with a focus on reference, instructional services, and information literacy. She earned her MLIS from the University of Washington iSchool in 2003. Dr. Bright’s current research focuses on assessment in libraries, equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) in libraries, the application of research methodology to the study of library and information science, and the importance of the liaison librarianship role in academic libraries. Her work with Dr. Amy VanScoy (University at Buffalo) to investigate the reference and information services experience of librarians of color received a 2014 ALA Diversity Research Grant and was awarded the 2017 Beta Phi Mu-Library Research Round Table Research Paper Award. Dr. Bright is also a co-PI on a recently funded IMLS grant project that will utilize survival analysis to determine when and why BIPOC librarians are likely to leave the profession. Dr. Bright is a 2021 recipient of an ECU College of Education Profiles in Diversity Award and a 2021 recipient of a 2021 NCLA Round Table for Ethnic Minority Concerns’ LIS Instructor Roadbuilder Award. Please review our Code of Conduct, our Statement on Viewpoints, and details on Interpreter Services.

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!). This monthly discussion group with Prison Library Support Network will look at a rotating calendar of media resources for discussion, meeting the 2nd Monday of each month at 7:30pm. While the group's facilitators (and host) are affiliated with libraries, you do not need to be a librarian or information professional to attend this group. We will share our discussion calendar regularly through METRO and the PLSN listserv, so that folks can plan ahead to attend the months that sound interesting to them. This month's discussion will focus on children's books that are about incarceration: Middle Grade Novel: From the Desk of Zoe Washington by Janae Marks (Available at NYPL, BPL, and QPL) Picture Book: Visiting Day by Jacqueline Woodson, and James E Ransome (Available at NYPL, BPL, QPL) Picture Book: Milo Imagines the World by Matt la Pena and Christian Robinson (Available at NYPL, BPL, QPL) We will be giving a storytime performance of this book during the discussion Optional: Far Apart, Close in Heart: Being a Family When a Loved One Is Incarcerated (Available at NYPL, BPL, QPL) Please review our Code of Conduct, our Statement on Viewpoints, and details on Interpreter Services.

File management is an essential part of staying digitally organized, but it can also quickly become overwhelming. If you’re not sure where to start or you’d like to brush up on your digital organization skills, presenter Katie Wolf, Science and Technology Librarian at Fordham University Libraries, will discuss key conventions and useful tips for getting those pesky files sorted. With a few foundational principles and some guiding rules of thumb for file naming, folder structure, and version control, you’ll have all the basic tools you need to make sure that your files start out organized and stay organized. Participants will: Learn how to create a data document for easy file organization Understand essential file and folder naming and structure conventions Understand version control necessities and preferred file formats for long-term file management Please review our Code of Conduct, our Statement on Viewpoints, and details on Interpreter Services.

Prioritizing well-being is a priority right now. By tending to ourselves, we give our brains reprieve so we can be more present in meetings, relationships, and decision-making. This also allows us to be more equipped to show up for the hard and messy work that is advancing social justice. In the last few years, there has been an increase in the number of disciplines and organizations interested in applying a “trauma-informed” lens. While being trauma-informed is important, it is only a starting point. In this webinar social work scholar Ozy Aloziem, MSW will discuss why we must move past simply being trauma-informed toward actively promoting holistic and collective healing. Participants will learn: How to distinguish between different types of trauma About the impacts of race-based stress and trauma in the workplace The difference between trauma-informed and healing-centered About a culturally responsive wellness model that incorporates a healing-centered framework About Our Presenter: Ozioma (Ozy) Aloziem is the Founder and Principal Advisor of HEAL INC LLC. She is a TEDx speaker and an award-winning Igbo social worker deeply committed to collective liberation, racial justice, and healing. Ozy was the Denver Public Library's first Equity, Diversity & Inclusion Manager during which time she was named a 2021 Library Journal “Movers & Shakers” award winner for her racial equity research and advocacy. Ozy is a social work scholar and professor that is deeply committed to embodiment and prioritizing equity in her teaching, scholarship, and activism. She uses this focus to amplify the voices of communities that have been marginalized and left on the fringes of research, public policy, and global conversation. She is committed to prioritizing and creating space for healing. Ozy believes in engaging in critical research as a radical act of freedom. Presently, her research is centered around healing-centered organizational cultures, historical trauma, shared trauma, radical healing, and radical imagination.

This workshop will explore the role libraries play in patron health journeys, which includes the layout of our physical spaces, the way we handle sensitive documents, which resources we share, and more. Privacy advocate Tess Wilson will discuss practical approaches to patron support and ways we might teach patrons about their health data safety. At the end of this session, attendees will be able to: Identify points of vulnerability in interactions with patron health data Share tips and tools with patrons to support their data privacy Apply practical approaches to library spaces, policies, and procedures as a way to maximize privacy This workshop is intended for any library worker with an interest in privacy. About our presenter: Tess is a privacy advocate with Library Freedom Project. She is a librarian who loves talking loudly about digital literacy, equitable access, and citizen science. Most recently, she was a co-author of an ALA United for Libraries Action Planner and contributed a chapter to ACRL's forthcoming Data Literacy Cookbook. This is the second event is this series on health data privacy. See details about session 1 here. Please review our Code of Conduct, our Statement on Viewpoints, and details on Interpreter Services.

Starting a new project for the library can be exciting and feel a bit daunting, particularly when the project is funded through a grant. A range of techniques around planning, communication, and execution can help ensure success on even the smallest projects. If you are new to project management or just want to explore how your library can prepare for a new opportunity, join us for a discussion that will include tracking activity, budgets, and evaluation requirements on projects. Participants will learn to: Plan and execute a successful project start Implement techniques for managing the project and budget Consider communication needs for project stakeholders and team members About our presenter: Kendra Morgan is a Senior Program Manager with WebJunction, providing continuing education services to state and public libraries. She is particularly interested in the role libraries play in supporting healthy communities, including through opioid-related programming and services and the COVID-19 pandemic, and has successfully applied for and managed a number of grant-funded programs that address those issues. Kendra received her MLIS from the University of Hawai'i; and prior to joining OCLC in 2007, she provided training and technology support in hundreds of libraries as part of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s U.S. Libraries Program, and served as a technology consultant at The Library of Virginia. Please review our Code of Conduct, our Statement on Viewpoints, and details on Interpreter Services.

This webinar, facilitated by METRO’s Digitization Project Grant Program Managers Allison Lund and Traci Mark. Allison, reviews the main components of the grant process, including: The program’s information sheet Eligibility The application process Find full details and apply for a Digitization Project Grant here: https://metro.org/grants/digital

Join us for the first in a series of panel discussions where we talk about the joys and challenges of working in various settings within the library industry. Up first, we'll be joined by Lauren Comito (Brooklyn Public Library), Sarah Gluck (Queens Public Library) and Ricci Yuhico (The New York Public Library) to talk shop about working in public libraries. We'll learn what aspects of their work make them excited to show up every day, what their day-to-day experiences are like, and how you, too, can be a part of the intrepid and resourceful public library staff. We'll have time for questions from our audience; feel free to show up prepared. This event is a co-production between METRO and Urban Libraries Unite. Please review our Code of Conduct, our Statement on Viewpoints, and details on Interpreter Services.

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!). This monthly discussion group with Prison Library Support Network will look at a rotating calendar of media resources for discussion, meeting the 2nd Monday of each month at 7:30pm. While the group's facilitators (and host) are affiliated with libraries, you do not need to be a librarian or information professional to attend this group. We will share our discussion calendar regularly through METRO and the PLSN listserv, so that folks can plan ahead to attend the months that sound interesting to them. This month's discussion will examine the ways gender and race play a role in the juvenile justice system: Pushout: The Criminalization of Black Girls (Available in all formats at QPL, BPL, NYPL) Juvenile justice system confines Black youth at over 4 times the rate of white youth (PPI Data Graphic) Nearly 10% of confined girls are held for status offenses such as “running away, truancy, and incorrigibility” (PPI Data Graphic) Optional: Youth Confinement: The Whole Pie 2019 (Prison Policy Initiative Report) Please review our Code of Conduct, our Statement on Viewpoints, and details on Interpreter Services.