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.

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.

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.

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.

Join the code4lib NYC for a code & coffee Zoom the first or second Friday of each month this spring & summer. 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.

About This Session Myth #3: “Emergency planning requires creating an immense 3-ring binder of information.” Disaster planning can seem like a daunting task, requiring a lot of paperwork and time, but it is not as difficult as you might think. There are simple tasks and tools that can help you prepare for the worst. In this webinar, you will learn about what essentials are necessary for your plan, how to prioritize your collection for recovery, and helpful hints working with recovery vendors. About This Series There are some longstanding “myths” about preservation; some stem from past theories that have been rethought or retooled and others from only remembering part of the story. Come to this webinar series to hear the truth about mold, climate control, and emergency planning. About Our Presenter: Tara D. Kennedy is the Preventive Conservator at the Yale Library Center for Preservation and Conservation. She holds an MLS and Certificate of Advanced Study in Preservation and Conservation Studies for library and archival collections. Before coming to Yale, she interned at the National Archives, and worked as a paper conservator at the Smithsonian’s National Anthropological Archives in Washington DC and the Ford Conservation Center in Omaha, Nebraska. She is a Professional Associate member of the American Institute for Conservation (AIC) and is a member of the National Heritage Responders (NHR), a group of volunteer conservators who assist cultural institutions and people around the United States whose collections have been affected by disasters. 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 be about political prisoners: Assata, an Autobiography (Available in all formats at NYPL, BPL and QPL) “Political Prisoners, Prisons, and Black Liberation” by Angela Davis (PDF may automatically download when you click the link) 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 spring & summer. 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.

About This Session Myth #2: “The perfect temperature and relative humidity for collections is 70ºF and 50% RH.” Back in the early years of the preservation profession, there was the 70/50 Rule: your space temperature had to be 70 degrees and 50% relative humidity, with no deviation from those set points. Nowadays, there is no perfect set of numbers that will create the ideal climate for your collections – it is about knowing your building, HVAC systems, collections, and space use. One also needs to consider reducing energy consumption and sustainability. In this webinar, you will learn about how to determine the best environment for your collections, troubleshoot common problems with temperature and relative humidity control in spaces, and helpful hints for sustainability in climate control. About This Series There are some longstanding “myths” about preservation; some stem from past theories that have been rethought or retooled and others from only remembering part of the story. Come to this webinar series to hear the truth about mold, climate control, and emergency planning. About Our Presenter: Tara D. Kennedy is the Preventive Conservator at the Yale Library Center for Preservation and Conservation. She holds an MLS and Certificate of Advanced Study in Preservation and Conservation Studies for library and archival collections. Before coming to Yale, she interned at the National Archives, and worked as a paper conservator at the Smithsonian’s National Anthropological Archives in Washington DC and the Ford Conservation Center in Omaha, Nebraska. She is a Professional Associate member of the American Institute for Conservation (AIC) and is a member of the National Heritage Responders (NHR), a group of volunteer conservators who assist cultural institutions and people around the United States whose collections have been affected by disasters. Please review our Code of Conduct, our Statement on Viewpoints, and details on Interpreter Services.

Equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) as topics are not only relevant to the work of libraries, archives, and museums, but often integral to the experiences of those who work in these organizations. Given the importance of understanding the impact and influence of EDI, and all of the various ways that it can manifest, it can sometimes be difficult to know where to start or where to focus our attention. So, rather than try to briefly touch on the myriad EDI topics of interest, this workshop will take a more personalized approach where those who plan to attend will select the EDI topic(s) to be addressed. Ready to take on this EDI Adventure? Sign up for the workshop and be sure to complete the quick topic selection survey by Tuesday, May 31st. 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.

About This Session Myth #1: “Freezing alone will kill mold.” Does the act of freezing kill mold? The answer is more complicated than just placing that moldy book in the freezer. So what else is involved when it comes to preventing and getting rid of mold? In this webinar, you will learn about how mold thrives, how to prevent mold in your collections, and what to do if you discover a mold outbreak in your collections. About This Series There are some longstanding “myths” about preservation; some stem from past theories that have been rethought or retooled and others from only remembering part of the story. Come to this webinar series to hear the truth about mold, climate control, and emergency planning. About Our Presenter: Tara D. Kennedy is the Preventive Conservator at the Yale Library Center for Preservation and Conservation. She holds an MLS and Certificate of Advanced Study in Preservation and Conservation Studies for library and archival collections. Before coming to Yale, she interned at the National Archives, and worked as a paper conservator at the Smithsonian’s National Anthropological Archives in Washington DC and the Ford Conservation Center in Omaha, Nebraska. She is a Professional Associate member of the American Institute for Conservation (AIC) and is a member of the National Heritage Responders (NHR), a group of volunteer conservators who assist cultural institutions and people around the United States whose collections have been affected by disasters. 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 be about zines. Zines are independently created and published mini-magazines. A.B.O Comix - readers can choose whatever zine or comix they’d like! We suggest True Fluidity, The Last Plantation, or Untreated Mental Illness in Prison Prison Renaissance Zine (digital zines issues one and two) How we use zines to support queers in prison — and how you can, too (article) 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 spring & summer. 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.

Zotero is a free and open source citation management tool that organizes research resources, facilitates in-text citation, fosters collaboration with other scholars, and quickly generates bibliographies. Zotero is not tied to any institution and is available to all at no cost. Attend this session to learn how to set up and work with Zotero so that you can share its benefits with colleagues/students and incorporate it into your instruction sessions. This is the second hour of this two-part workshop. It will be dedicated to strategies and examples of how to use Zotero to teach information literacy skills and as an organizational tool for individual and collaborative research projects. To learn more about part one, click here. Prerequisite knowledge/experience: No prior experience necessary. This workshop is open to librarians from public, academic, and special libraries who are interested in learning about Zotero and how to effectively use Zotero for bibliographic instruction and collaborative and personal research. By the end of this two-part program, participants will be able to: download and install Zotero for Mac/Windows/Linux and the Mozilla Firefox browser add-on get your research resources into Zotero customize your Zotero preferences organize your Zotero library according to your specific needs cite your resources within Microsoft Word, Google Docs, and/or Open Office generate bibliographies take snapshots of web pages and add notes sync your resources between multiple computers and to Zotero’s cloud server create and configure a group library in Zotero integrate Zotero into information literacy and other instruction advocate for Zotero at your institution Presenter Biographies: Kimberly Detterbeck (she/her) is the Art Librarian, Coordinator of Library Instruction, and Interim Assistant Library Manager at Purchase College, SUNY. In her work, she oversees collection development, reference, and library instruction for art history, art + design, new media, entrepreneurship in the arts, and arts management. Kim also oversees the Library’s instruction program as well as participates in Library-wide projects such as assessment, outreach and communications, scholarly communication, and instruction across multiple disciplines. Kim has been published in Art Documentation and The Global Librarian and has presented at local and national conferences including SUNY’s Conference on Instruction and Technology (CIT), SUNY Librarians Association annual conferences, METRO’s annual conferences, ARLIS/NA, and ACRL. She received an MLS from the University of Maryland, an MA in Art History from Syracuse University, and a BA in Art History from Rutgers University. Marie Sciangula (she/her) is the Assistant Director of the Teaching, Learning, and Technology Center at Purchase College, SUNY. She manages and administers Moodle, the College’s current learning management system (LMS), and promotes innovative uses of academic technologies across campus. She offers a variety of group workshops and individual consultations for faculty and staff geared towards effectively integrating technology into teaching and encourages the use of open source applications. Most recently, Marie has been named Purchase College’s Campus Lead on the SUNY-wide effort to create a new digital learning environment. This includes leading the campus migration from our current Moodle system to D2L Brightspace, the soon-to-be hub of the digital learning environment. She has presented at local and national conferences including SUNY’s Conference on Instruction and Technology (CIT), SUNY Librarians Association conference, METRO’s annual conferences, and ARLIS/NA. Marie has been published in Art Documentation and The Global Librarian. She received a bachelor's degree in Gender Studies from Purchase College, SUNY and an MLIS from Long Island University’s Palmer School of Library and Information Science.

So much about finding a job has changed, and yet so much remains the same. We still take great care to format and word our resumes appropriately. We still spend time crafting cover letters that are specific to the job we are applying for. And yet, we now live in a world where remote meetings and, yes, remote job interviews have become commonplace. Join this session to learn answers to: What interview skills carry over from in-person interviewing? What new skills should job seekers develop for being a part of remote interviews? How does one put their best selves forward on meeting software? Presenter Mary Bakija completed her MSLIS at the Pratt School of Information without full-time employment in May 2020, entering the job market in the pandemic amidst a rapid rise in virtual interviews. By the time she started as a Program Manager at METRO Library Council in August 2021, Mary was invited to twelve virtual interviews and received four job offers (and was rejected or ghosted by several dozen other employers). For her previous roles in libraries, archives, and news organizations, all interviews were by phone and in person, which she found much more nerve-racking than the virtual experiences. This event is part of a series programmed and planned by METRO's Library Assistants and Support Staff Association (LASSA). Many thanks to Anthony Wyche, Val Colon, Cheryl Marriott, and the rest of the LASSA board for their hard work in planning this series. Please review our Code of Conduct, our Statement on Viewpoints, and details on Interpreter Services.

About This Session Web 1.0 and 2.0 started out full of idealism, too. What is to prevent the decentralized web from being corrupted by profit, market domination, and bad actors? What is the normative or social layer we need to build alongside the tech? About This Series The World Wide Web started with so much promise: to connect people across any distance, to allow anyone to become a publisher, and to democratize access to knowledge. However, today the Web seems to be failing us. It’s not private, secure, or unifying. The internet has, in large part, ended up centralizing access and power in the hands of a few dominant platforms. What if we could build something better—what some are calling the decentralized web? In this series of six workshops, we’ll explore the ways in which moving to decentralized technologies may enhance your privacy, empower you to control your own data, and resist censorship. Join us to hear from experts in the leading peer-to-peer technologies, from identity to data storage. We’ll see demonstrations of blockchains, cryptocurrency, NFTs, and decentralized storage projects in action. Learn how the decentralized web might yet create systems that empower individuals by eliminating central points of control. This series is a partnership between Internet Archive, DWeb, Library Futures, and Metropolitan New York Library Council. Please review our Code of Conduct, our Statement on Viewpoints, and details on Interpreter Services.

Join us for METRO's 2022 Annual Meeting, featuring updates from your METRO staff and a keynote presentation from newly-elected ALA President Emily Drabinski We're thrilled to announce our 2022 Annual Meeting! Taking place on Tuesday, June 14, 2022 from 10am until noon, our meeting features a keynote presentation from Emily Drabinski, Critical Pedagogy Librarian at the CUNY Graduate Center and incoming President Elect of the American Library Association. Our program also includes remarks from METRO's Board President Shannon Mattern, our Executive Director Nate Hill, and program directors Davis Erin Anderson, Diego Pino, and Colin Rhinesmith. This meeting will take place on the 7th floor event space at The Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library at 455 Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. Coffee and snacks will be provided before and after the program. We invite you to enjoy a social hour on the terrace immediately following. Registration begins at 9:15am. See you there! A note on COVID ameliorations: All presentations will take place indoors. We require masks to be worn throughout the meeting, and all participants must be vaccinated. If you prefer to avoid being indoors in a crowd, please feel free to join us for the social hour at noon; the terrace is open air and will be available to us.

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 Pride month, we will be talking about queering abolition and its struggles. Queering Abolition from Rustbelt Abolition Radio (28 minutes) Captive Genders: Trans Embodiment and the Prison Industrial Complex, Chapter Transforming Carceral Logics by S Lamble (Audiobook, 1 hour) Please review our Code of Conduct, our Statement on Viewpoints, and details on Interpreter Services.

Zotero is a free and open source citation management tool that organizes research resources, facilitates in-text citation, fosters collaboration with other scholars, and quickly generates bibliographies. Zotero is not tied to any institution and is available to all at no cost. Attend this session to learn how to set up and work with Zotero so that you can share its benefits with colleagues/students and incorporate it into your instruction sessions. This first hour of this two-part workshop will cover basic setup and advanced features of Zotero (version 6). The second hour of the workshop takes place on July 7, 2022 and will be dedicated to strategies and examples of how to use Zotero to teach information literacy skills and as an organizational tool for individual and collaborative research projects. Prerequisite knowledge/experience: No prior experience necessary. This workshop is open to librarians from public, academic, and special libraries who are interested in learning about Zotero and how to effectively use Zotero for bibliographic instruction and collaborative and personal research. By the end of this two-part program, participants will be able to: download and install Zotero for Mac/Windows/Linux and the Mozilla Firefox browser add-on get your research resources into Zotero customize your Zotero preferences organize your Zotero library according to your specific needs cite your resources within Microsoft Word, Google Docs, and/or Open Office generate bibliographies take snapshots of web pages and add notes sync your resources between multiple computers and to Zotero’s cloud server create and configure a group library in Zotero integrate Zotero into information literacy and other instruction advocate for Zotero at your institution Presenter Biogarphies Kimberly Detterbeck (she/her) is the Art Librarian, Coordinator of Library Instruction, and Interim Assistant Library Manager at Purchase College, SUNY. In her work, she oversees collection development, reference, and library instruction for art history, art + design, new media, entrepreneurship in the arts, and arts management. Kim also oversees the Library’s instruction program as well as participates in Library-wide projects such as assessment, outreach and communications, scholarly communication, and instruction across multiple disciplines. Kim has been published in Art Documentation and The Global Librarian and has presented at local and national conferences including SUNY’s Conference on Instruction and Technology (CIT), SUNY Librarians Association annual conferences, METRO’s annual conferences, ARLIS/NA, and ACRL. She received an MLS from the University of Maryland, an MA in Art History from Syracuse University, and a BA in Art History from Rutgers University. Marie Sciangula (she/her) is the Assistant Director of the Teaching, Learning, and Technology Center at Purchase College, SUNY. She manages and administers Moodle, the College’s current learning management system (LMS), and promotes innovative uses of academic technologies across campus. She offers a variety of group workshops and individual consultations for faculty and staff geared towards effectively integrating technology into teaching and encourages the use of open source applications. Most recently, Marie has been named Purchase College’s Campus Lead on the SUNY-wide effort to create a new digital learning environment. This includes leading the campus migration from our current Moodle system to D2L Brightspace, the soon-to-be hub of the digital learning environment. She has presented at local and national conferences including SUNY’s Conference on Instruction and Technology (CIT), SUNY Librarians Association conference, METRO’s annual conferences, and ARLIS/NA. Marie has been published in Art Documentation and The Global Librarian. She received a bachelor's degree in Gender Studies from Purchase College, SUNY and an MLIS from Long Island University’s Palmer School of Library and Information Science.

Join the code4lib NYC for a code & coffee Zoom the first or second Friday of each month this spring & summer. 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.

With the Center for an Informed Public at the University of Washington, facilitated by Iman Powe-Maynard The COVID-19 pandemic and the fallout from the 2020 U.S. presidential election have highlighted the acute impact of misinformation on democracy and public health. In addition, current global political crises have illuminated a new era of information warfare, with political groups and governments weaponizing disinformation to undermine trust and democratic conversation globally. The spread of misleading information online has thus become a core societal concern. This webinar will explore why misinformation and disinformation spread online. Drawing from academic research across a wide variety of disciplines—from social psychology to journalism to information science—we will explore what makes misinformation so compelling, how social media platforms undermine our ability to spot falsehoods, and why we are all vulnerable to believing and sharing misinformation. We will end with a discussion of what we can do to improve the quality of information sharing and help restore trust in authoritative information sources. Rachel E. Moran, Ph.D. researches the role of trust in digital information environments and is particularly concerned with how trust is implicated in the spread of mis- and dis-information. Moran’s work has been published in Information, Communication & Society, Digital Journalism, Journalism Practice, Media, Culture & Society, and Telecommunications Policy. Dr. Madeline Jalbert, Ph.D. researches how context and subjective experiences impact memory and judgments of truth and risk. Jalbert's work has been published in Cognition, the Journal of Applied Research in Cognition & Memory, Consciousness & Cognition, and Consumer Psychology Review. Dr. Rachel E. Moran and Dr. Madeline Jalbert are both Postdoctoral Scholars at the Center for an Informed Public based within the Information School at the University of Washington. Iman Powe-Maynard is a librarian at Poly Prep Country Day School, where she teaches middle schoolers the fundamentals of library skills and research. She also recently led a series of activities and discussions for the school's first HBCU (historically Black Colleges and Universities) Week. Prior to joining Poly, Iman served as a children's librarian and as civic engagement manager at Brooklyn Public Library, where she also facilitated workshops and lectured on information literacy and trauma-informed librarianship. She received her MLIS from St. John's University in 2011. This event is presented in partnership with the Brooklyn Public Library. Please review our Code of Conduct, our Statement on Viewpoints, and details on Interpreter Services.

Louisa Tatum of The New York Public Library's Career Services staff will discuss how to put your best foot forward in your job search with a clear, well-written, and effective resume. Louisa Tatum is a passionate, energetic and innovative career coaching professional and presenter, who currently works as the Manager of the NYPL’s Career Services department. Her talent lies in being able to connect with both youth and adults to address the question of “what do I want to be when I grow up or what is my next career move?”; and to date, she has successfully coached thousands of people in developing a career plan, writing/reviewing resumes, and conducted a number of workforce development training on various topics. Louisa enjoys her work immensely, takes pride in helping individuals develop a sense of confidence - because everyone deserves to achieve their desired career goal(s). This event is part of a series programmed and planned by METRO's Library Assistants and Support Staff Association (LASSA). Many thanks to Anthony Wyche, Val Colon, Cheryl Marriott, and the rest of the LASSA board for their hard work in planning this series. Please review our Code of Conduct, our Statement on Viewpoints, and details on Interpreter Services.

About This Session Why did Facebook rename itself for the Metaverse? What is the metaverse & how are people experiencing it? How are artists, nonprofits, even the NBA are racking up seven-figure payouts for otherwise mundane pieces of media called NFTs (non-fungible tokens)? Why are they so despised? In this session, we look at the crazy breakthrough apps and items populating decentralized web. Plus demonstrations of how people are working, trading & creating in the metaverse. Jin is a hacker artist and VR dev exploring the convergence of web, gaming, social networks, and decentralization. After having read Snow Crash, he’s been obsessed with Metaverse engineering. He is currently advising and building the Webaverse. Wendy Hanamura (Moderator) is the Director of Partnerships at the Internet Archive, one of the world’s largest digital libraries. She helps to steward the DWeb community. About This Series The World Wide Web started with so much promise: to connect people across any distance, to allow anyone to become a publisher, and to democratize access to knowledge. However, today the Web seems to be failing us. It’s not private, secure, or unifying. The internet has, in large part, ended up centralizing access and power in the hands of a few dominant platforms. What if we could build something better—what some are calling the decentralized web? In this series of six workshops, we’ll explore the ways in which moving to decentralized technologies may enhance your privacy, empower you to control your own data, and resist censorship. Join us to hear from experts in the leading peer-to-peer technologies, from identity to data storage. We’ll see demonstrations of blockchains, cryptocurrency, NFTs, and decentralized storage projects in action. Learn how the decentralized web might yet create systems that empower individuals by eliminating central points of control. Please review our Code of Conduct, our Statement on Viewpoints, and details on Interpreter Services.

If these past two years have proved anything, it’s that having reliable access to the internet is a necessity. And yet access to the internet is far from assured in many homes across the country. For this and so many other reasons, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act signed last November includes a directive to “ensure that all people of the United States benefit from equal access” to broadband. Under the aegis of the FCC, the real work begins: how do we define digital discrimination? How can we address it in all of its forms, from bias in search engine results to access to the internet in the first place? This online panel discussion seeks to address these questions and more. Please join us to hear from our speakers, Dr. Colin Rhinesmith, Founder and Director of the newly-established Digital Equity Research Center at Metropolitan New York Library Council and Dr. Jon Gant Dean and Professor, North Carolina Central University School of Library and Information Sciences. Davis Erin Anderson, Director of Programs and Partnerships will moderate. Dr. Jon Gant is a leader in higher education who helps to make information and digital technologies accessible for everyone. Jon has published numerous research studies on the disparities in broadband adoption, the future of work and information technology, and advances in digital government. Most recently, Jon’s research and public engagement improves digital equity and inclusion in urban and rural communities worldwide particularly to support human development and achievement, democratic engagement, and the transformation of communities and community anchor institutions. Jon currently serves as professor and dean of the School of Library and Information Sciences at North Carolina Central University. With the critical need for community anchor institutions including libraries to address the digital divide and barriers to information in our society, this 80-year-old school is the only accredited graduate program in the field offered by a historically Black college and university. Jon has helped to double its enrollment to over 330 graduate students. He received his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from Carnegie Mellon University where he trained in public policy, information systems, and strategy. Jon earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan. He has held faculty positions previously at the University of Illinois, Syracuse University, and Indiana University. Jon served as the founding director of the Center for Digital Inclusion (CDI) at the School of Information at the University of Illinois. While leading CDI, Jon served as a senior executive to deploy a broadband network and start up and spin-off UC2B-fiber, an internet service provider (ISP). Jon and his team helped underserved households located in internet deserts in Champaign-Urbana, IL connect to state-of-the-art highspeed internet services and enjoy real-time interactive applications on the newly deployed network for the first time. Jon and his colleagues developed technical assistance models to help community anchor institutions worldwide scale up digital literacy training to over 17,000 people. Jon also served as the Research Director of the evaluation study of the federal Broadband Technology Opportunity Program (BTOP). Working with a team from the University of North Carolina Nutrition Obesity Research Center, Jon is co-principal investigator for a grant related to the All of Us national research program from the National Institutes of Health to develop approaches for precision health and ways to bridge the digital divide to improve participant engagement. Jon has utilized this experience to serve on several advisory boards to make recommendations to the National Science Foundation, Federal Communication Commission, and the Institute of Museum and Library Services to address the digital divide and broadband adoption. He is a member of the 2019-2021 Kettering Foundation Whisenton Fellows class. Jon used his fellowship to study new approaches in democratic engagement to help universities work in their communities to address digital equity disparities. Jon served on the Board of Directors for the Telecommunication Policy Research Conference (TPRC) on communications, information, and internet policy. Governor Cooper appointed Jon to serve on the Public Library Credentialing Commission for the State of North Carolina. In January, Jon was appointed to the Federal Communication Commission Communications Equity and Diversity Council as an independent subject matter expert and co-chairs the Digital Discrimination Working Group. Jon was also appointed in December 2021 to the National Issues Forums Institute as a member of its Board of Directors. Dr. Colin Rhinesmith (he/him) is the Founder and Director of the Digital Equity Research Center at the Metropolitan New York Library Council and a Senior Fellow at the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society. He is also a Co-Editor-In-Chief of The Journal of Community Informatics. Previously, Rhinesmith was an Associate Professor in the School of Library and Information Science and the Provost’s Faculty Fellow for Scholarship and Research at Simmons University. He has been a Google Policy Fellow and an Adjunct Research Fellow with New America’s Open Technology Institute in Washington, D.C. and a Faculty Associate with the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University. Rhinesmith received his Ph.D. in Library and Information Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he was a U.S. Institute of Museum and Library Services Information in Society Fellow, a Researcher with the Center for People and Infrastructures, and a Research Scholar with the Center for Digital Inclusion. Please review our Code of Conduct, our Statement on Viewpoints, and details on Interpreter Services.

In this webinar, Information Literacy Librarian Kelly Delevan discusses the multiple ways in which bias (implicit and explicit) complicates our search practices. Bias can reside in information systems, individual sources, or our personal perspectives. Navigating through this bias requires a dispositional shift – we need to accept that bias is pervasive and apply strategies to circumvent it. Library workers that model these dispositions with their patrons contribute to improving our information society. Viewers will learn to: Uncover biases in sources through the use of evaluative methods Compare multiple information systems to reveal biases Acknowledge the biases that individuals bring to the search process and critically reflect on how they impact search habits Kelly Delevan is the Information Literacy librarian at Syracuse University Libraries. She is responsible for the Information Literacy Program at SU Libraries, working to enable the Syracuse University community to succeed as members of an increasingly complex information society. Kelly has also developed the Information Literacy Scholars program, a unique opportunity for graduate students interested in academic librarianship, reference, and instruction to acquire working experience and mentoring in the SU libraries. Prior to joining Syracuse University, Kelly was the Instructional Services Librarian at Le Moyne College, and a research librarian at the New York Public Library. She received her MSIS in Information Science from the University of Texas at Austin. Iman Powe-Maynard is a librarian at Poly Prep Country Day School, where she teaches middle schoolers the fundamentals of library skills and research. She also recently led a series of activities and discussions for the school's first HBCU (historically Black Colleges and Universities) Week. Prior to joining Poly, Iman served as a children's librarian and as civic engagement manager at Brooklyn Public Library, where she also facilitated workshops and lectured on information literacy and trauma-informed librarianship. She received her MLIS from St. John's University in 2011. This event was presented in partnership with the Brooklyn Public Library. *Please review our [Code of Conduct, our Statement on Viewpoints, and details on Interpreter Services](https://metro.org/code-of-conduct).*