How can librarians integrate discussions on digital citizenship, even without the benefit of a designated technology class, with tweens and teens? Manuela Aronofsky is a middle school technology integrator who engages with 10- to 14-year-olds on a daily basis. She will share some of the things she's learned from discussing online habits, trends, and activities with this age group. For those who want to start these conversations in their own library spaces, she'll share prompts and lessons that have been implemented successfully in the classroom. Attendees can expect to: Learn where and how tweens and teens are spending their time online, as well as a few prevailing online habits Discover where collaboration opportunities exist for information professionals to discuss digital wellness with tweens and tweens Better understand the middle school tech spectrum, including what changes from 5th to 8th grade, and what differences exist even within a single age group Receive prompts and talking points for starting communication with tweens about their online habits. Learn what works to get the conversation started, and what doesn't Manuela Aronofsky is the Middle School Technology Integrator and Digital Essentials teacher at The Berkeley Carroll School in Brooklyn, where she previously worked as Middle School Library Assistant. She serves on the ALSC Children + Technology committee, and is interested in youth data and digital literacy; expanding inclusivity and cultural competency in the school library environment; coordinating volunteer work with the Prison Library Support Network; art librarianship; and teaching the act of reading as a community-building experience. She earned her MSLIS from Pratt Institute, with a concentration in Youth, Literacy, and Outreach.

Library workers can make great use of NYC Open Data to both answer questions from library visitors and conduct their own research. For anyone who doesn’t know about it yet, NYC Open Data is a treasure trove of free information that can be tapped into easily, whatever your experience with data thus far. Through this class you will gain a deep, conceptual understanding of open data and practical experience using digital tools to find, filter, and visualize thousands of datasets about New York. Attendees can expect to: Learn to search and find relevant NYC Open Data datasets Learn to perform basic analyses Contextualize NYC open data to anyone seeking municipal information themselves This webinar will be led by Małgosia Rejniak, Project Manager, NYC Mayor’s Office of Data Analytics (MODA) and Onedeige James, Civic Innovation Apprentice, BetaNYC.

Join the code4lib NYC for a code & coffee Zoom the first Friday of each month this fall. Attendees will have the option of joining breakout rooms to socialize and talk about current projects or to quietly work together in a virtual space. Are you interested in joining code4lib NYC as an organizer? Stop by one of these events to chat with current organizers and share your ideas.

Videotape (and audiotape) preservation is all about equipment: sourcing equipment, getting the right equipment for the formats you’re digitizing, paying attention to how your equipment is functioning, repairing or finding experts to repair equipment for you, and putting all of these pieces together. In this hour-long webinar, Ben Turkus, audiovisual preservationists and members of the XFR Collective, will offer a tour of videotape/audiotape preservation gear, focusing on strategies for creating high quality but super streamlined digitization set-ups. Topics will include: Gathering the right gear for your needs Overcoming institutional bureaucratic procurement issues Determining what gear is essential and what gear would be preferred but optional Interoperability issues, particularly between computers and capture cards Format-specific considerations This workshop is designed for librarians, archivists, and community members with some experience with tape-based digitization and access workflows. The instructors will focus on the most prolific formats (VHS, audiocassette, MiniDV) and will cover other formats as well. Benjamin Turkus (he/him) is the Assistant Manager of Audio and Moving Image Preservation at the New York Public Library. He's also an adjunct professor at New York University, where he holds an MA in Moving Image Archiving and Preservation. Previously, he was the Preservation Project Manager at the Bay Area Video Coalition. He is a member of XFR Collective.

The goal of this three-part series is to help people manage difficult conversations in spaces with school-aged children in relation to the current cultural moment (e.g. conversations about race and equity in schools and Covid protocols). Led by Jessica Hochman and Tonya Leslie of We Need 2 Talk, each session will introduce Epoch Education’s RIR Protocol (Recognize, Interrupt, Repair): a tool for managing difficult conversations. Time will be spent considering relevant scenarios and practicing the protocol. Each session will cover the RIR protocol within a different context. Participants can sign up for one session or all three. Drawing from examples in current events as well as the concerns expressed by the METRO community in session 1, we will do a deep dive into the “Interrupt” part of the RIR protocol in this third and final session of the series. As library folks ourselves, We Need 2 Talk often approaches interruption through inquiry. In this session, participants will practice asking questions that help build understanding and uncover what’s below the surface in moments of conflict, toward potential repair. Find more information about the other sessions in this series at these links: Part 1: Discussing Equity With Your Community and Why It Matters Part 2: CRT in K-12 Is Not a Thing, So Why Are We Talking About It?

See a recording of the webinar Managing the Conversations of the Moment, Part 2: CRT in K-12 Is Not a Thing, So Why Are We Talking About It? here. The goal of this three-part series is to help people manage difficult conversations in spaces with school-aged children in relation to the current cultural moment (e.g. conversations about race and equity in schools and Covid protocols). Led by Jessica Hochman and Tonya Leslie of We Need 2 Talk, each webinar introduces Epoch Education’s RIR Protocol (Recognize, Interrupt, Repair): a tool for managing difficult conversations. In this session, the second in the three-part series, the presenters set a historical context for conversations around equity. America has always had to fight for racial equity, but today’s battle has a different tone. In this webinar they discuss how conversations about equity and Critical Race Theory have made their way into mainstream conversations. Using the RIR protocol, they demonstrate ways for participants to manage these conversations.

See a recording of the webinar Feel the Need to Weed, Part 2: Communicating with Staff and the Public here. The optics of weeding is an often-overlooked part of the weeding process. No one wants to have to lock their dumpsters or appear on the news accused of book burning! In this webinar with Rebecca Vnuk, author of The Weeding Handbook: A Shelf-by-Shelf Guide, viewers will: Learn how to get your staff (or administration) thinking positively about the weeding process Learn how to best communicate with the public on the topic of weeding Discuss weeding as overall ongoing collection management, helping avoid the need for intimidating projects that can be misconstrued Rebecca Vnuk is the Executive Director of LibraryReads. She has an MLIS from Dominican University and worked as a public librarian for a decade before becoming the editor for Collection Management and Library Outreach at Booklist magazine. Rebecca is the author of three reference books on the topic of Women’s Fiction, as well as a best-selling book on weeding library collections. She was named a Library Journal Mover and Shaker in 2010 and was the 2010 PLA Allie Beth Martin Award Winner for distinguished Readers Advisory Service. She lives in the Chicago suburbs with her husband and two tween sons (both of whom still love to read, whew!).

See a recording of the webinar Managing the Conversations of the Moment, Part 1: Discussing Equity With Your Community and Why It Matters here. The goal of this three-part series is to help people manage difficult conversations in spaces with school-aged children in relation to the current cultural moment (e.g. conversations about race and equity in schools and Covid protocols). Led by Jessica Hochman and Tonya Leslie of We Need 2 Talk, each session introduces Epoch Education’s RIR Protocol (Recognize, Interrupt, Repair): a tool for managing difficult conversations. Time is spent considering relevant scenarios and practicing the protocol. In this session, the first in the series, we introduce our framework for discussing equity. School librarians and stakeholders in school communities  share their concerns and discuss some of the incidents that are occurring in these spaces. This conversation helps provide nuance and relevance to the later sessions.

Join the code4lib NYC for a code & coffee Zoom the first Friday of each month this fall. Attendees will have the option of joining breakout rooms to socialize and talk about current projects or to quietly work together in a virtual space. Are you interested in joining code4lib NYC as an organizer? Stop by one of these events to chat with current organizers and share your ideas.

See a recording of the webinar Feel the Need to Weed, Part 1: Why and How here. Weeding library collections can be hard work, with lots of small details that come into play. This general overview of the weeding process, based on Rebecca Vnuk's book The Weeding Handbook: A Shelf-by-Shelf Guide, is suitable for anyone who has questions on weeding projects of all kinds. This webinar presents information on current best practices for weeding specific areas of the collection. Learn tips and tricks to make weeding easier, and gain confidence to approach any kind of weeding job, from emergency projects to year-round collection management.  About the presenter: Rebecca Vnuk is the Executive Director of LibraryReads. She has an MLIS from Dominican University and worked as a public librarian for a decade before becoming the editor for Collection Management and Library Outreach at Booklist magazine. Rebecca is the author of three reference books on the topic of Women’s Fiction, as well as a best-selling book on weeding library collections. She was named a Library Journal Mover and Shaker in 2010 and was the 2010 PLA Allie Beth Martin Award Winner for distinguished Readers Advisory Service. She lives in the Chicago suburbs with her husband and two tween sons (both of whom still love to read, whew!).

See a recording of the webinar Equity in Action Recipient Presentation: Bronx Community College and Mutual Aid NYC here. The Organizing Resource Library (ORL) is a free and fully accessible digital library and archive of mutual aid organizing tools and oral histories—created for, by, and in collaboration with mutual aid organizers in New York City. It exists to preserve, and make openly available, materials from mutual aid work in marginalized communities across NYC that were devastated during the COVID-19 crisis. In this presentation representatives from the ORL share what they’ve accomplished during the grant period, successes that were made possible through the support of the grant, and challenges the collective encountered. Learn more about the project here.

See a recording of the webinar Equity in Action Recipient Presentation: Mina Rees Library (CUNY) here. The CUNY Digital History Archive (CDHA) used its 2020-2021 METRO Equity in Action grant to support the digitization and curation of historical materials documenting three movements that aimed to make access to public higher education more equitable toward and inclusive of New York City’s diverse residents. Based at the American Social History Project/Center for Media and Learning at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York (CUNY), the CDHA, established in 2011, is a community-curated digital public archive and portal that provides scholars, students, and the broader public online access to archival materials related to the rich history of CUNY, the nation’s largest urban public university system. Working under the direction of Professor Stephen Brier (CDHA Co-Director and Chief Historian) and Chloe Smolarski (CDHA Collections Manager), the CDHA hired three Urban Education doctoral students to select documents, create metadata, and add descriptive materials to make accessible collections related to: The efforts in the late 1960s of African American residents in Brooklyn’s Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood to push CUNY to found a new public college in their community (Juliet Young) The movement to found a Puerto Rican Studies Program at Brooklyn College in the early 1970s (Gisely Cólon López) The activities of SLAM! (Student Liberation Action Movement), a group of CUNY activists in the 1990s that fought for increased public funding for CUNY (Lucien Baskin) The new materials are accessible via the CDHA website.

Designing and building out websites with their "archivability" in mind from the early planning stages will ensure that the content being produced is more readily preservable and will remain accessible to users and cultural heritage researchers well into the future. Sumitra Duncan, Head of the Web Archiving Program at the New York Art Resources Consortium (NYARC) and Web Archive Lead at the Frick Art Reference Library, presented from her perspective as a web archivist on recommended practices for developing more easily archivable websites. Recordings of the presentation, divided into three parts, can be found below. Viewers can expect to: Gain insights on the significance of the practice of web archiving Identify known challenges to archiving certain types of born-digital content Get practical guidance and recommendations for producing web-based content that is more likely to be successfully web archived and preserved in the long term Sumitra Duncan is the Head of the Web Archiving Program for the New York Art Resources Consortium (NYARC), which consists of the Frick Art Reference Library and the libraries and archives of the Brooklyn Museum and the Museum of Modern Art. She co-founded and co-coordinates the Web Archiving Special Interest Group of the Art Libraries Society of North America (ARLIS/NA) and the Archive-It New York Users Group. Sumitra has previously led web archiving workshops for the Digital Preservation Outreach and Education Network (DPOE-N), the Metropolitan New York Library Council (METRO), ARLIS/NA, the Frick Art Reference Library's Digital Art History Lab, and The New School’s Parsons School of Design. She holds an MSLIS from Pratt Institute with Advanced Certificates in Archives and Museum Libraries.

Join the Prison Library Support Network (PLSN) for the first volunteer orientation for the new and entirely volunteer-powered Reference Project. After attending this orientation, you will be able to remotely answer reference questions mailed to PLSN from people incarcerated in correctional facilities. What is this project about? Controlling and restricting information access is a powerful form of violence used by the prison industrial complex. PLSN is committed to helping incarcerated people access information and do research on their own terms. PLSN has created a structure for volunteers (that's you!) to remotely answer research questions mailed to us by people in facilities around the country with care and expertise. PLSN does this work as volunteers to ensure our professional and institutional safety is never prioritized over the people who need our solidarity. Please email plsn_nyc@protonmail.com with any questions and visit the in-progress Reference Project site for more info.

See a recording of the webinar Equity in Action Recipient Presentation: New York Public Library and Brooklyn Public Library here. With the support of METRO’s Equity in Action grant program, the Brooklyn Public Library and The New York Public Library worked in partnership with BookOps, which serves the cataloging needs of both institutions, to begin aligning their public catalogs with their values by identifying and replacing the subject headings “illegal aliens” and “aliens” with more inclusive terminology. An investigation by the project team determined that controlled vocabulary at the local level would be the most effective route for changing these headings. The project also included a number of public-facing initiatives to educate library professionals and the general public about the larger context of these cataloging efforts, resulting in workflow documentation for the library profession as well as curricular materials for educators. The project team partnered with THE CITY newsroom to convene a series of focus groups with staff and patrons to better understand the impact of language choice on library access for immigrant communities in New York City. At the same time, both libraries developed a robust programming series including panel discussions, film screenings and youth conversation groups to bring the themes raised by the project to a larger audience. This presentation addresses all three components of the project: cataloging, programs, and community engagement. Panelists give an overview of the metadata work, which focused on the creation of new subject authority records to replace the Library of Congress headings in the public catalogs of both libraries, as well as detailing how the project team approached the community-focused programming series and engagement efforts, and the outcomes of those activities.

Join our Economics & Business METRO community for our fall event at Bryant Park. Meet at the Josephine Shaw Lowell Memorial Fountain. We will share updates while social distancing: BYO coffee and mask! After catching up, we will advance to SNFL for an informal walkthrough of the 5th floor Business Center and rooftop terrace. (Masks are currently required at all times in NYPL buildings, so we will save an official tour for a later date.) In the event of rain, we will cancel. Please register for contact tracing purposes.

See a recording of the webinar Equity in Action Recipient Presentation: Pratt Institute and Weeksville Heritage Center here. Linking Lost Jazz Shrines (LLJS) is an ongoing collaboration between the Weeksville Heritage Center and the Semantic Lab at Pratt Institute to investigate the application of linked open data technologies to the Weeksville Lost Jazz Shrines of Brooklyn (WLJSB) oral history collection. This rich collection documents Central Brooklyn’s cultural legacy of jazz history between the 1930s and 1960s. The primary aim of the project is to make the WLJSB archival collection more discoverable and accessible to researchers and the general public alike. The project also enriches and expands the existing network of jazz musicians developed by the Linked Jazz Project with an infusion of influential, yet lesser-known artists and the venues where they performed. This presentation discussed the workflows, Sélavy tool development, data modeling, and ethical decision-making involved in the transformation of textual archival documents into linked data. Find more information about the grant at the Equity in Action website.

Join the code4lib NYC for a code & coffee Zoom the first Friday of each month this fall. Attendees will have the option of joining breakout rooms to socialize and talk about current projects or to quietly work together in a virtual space. Are you interested in joining code4lib NYC as an organizer? Stop by one of these events to chat with current organizers and share your ideas.

See a recording of the webinar Equity in Action Grant: Information Session here. This webinar is facilitated by METRO’s Equity in Action Grant Program Manager Traci Mark. Traci reviews the main components of the grant process, including: The program’s information sheet The grant application form The selection rubric used by the program’s advisory council For more information please see the Equity in Action Grant website.

See two recordings of the webinar Equity in Action Grant: What We’ve Learned So Far here. During Part One of this webinar, Traci Mark, Program Manager - Equity, Archives and Media Preservation at METRO, details what we’re looking for in potential grantees, outlines the types of projects we funded last year, and shares lessons learned during the first cycle of the Equity in Action grant program. Part Two is a Q&A with former Equity in Action grant recipient Melissa Gasparotto from New York Public Library, who shares her tips from the grant cycle experience. You can find more information about the grant below: Equity in Action website Program Information Sheet Application form

Join New School faculty member and METRO board president Shannon Mattern for this conversation with Ever Bussey, Trevor Owens, Everest Pipkin, and Jasmine McNealy, inspired by Shannon's new book, A City Is Not a Computer: Other Urban Intelligences (Princeton University Press): A City Is Not a Computer reveals how cities encompass myriad forms of local and indigenous intelligences and knowledge institutions, arguing that these resources are a vital supplement and corrective to increasingly prevalent algorithmic models...Incorporating insights from urban studies, data science, and media and information studies, [Mattern] offers a visionary new approach to urban planning and design. Shannon Mattern is a Professor of Anthropology at The New School for Social Research. Her writing and teaching focus on archives, libraries, and other media spaces; media infrastructures; spatial epistemologies; and mediated sensation and exhibition, themes explored in her latest book, A City Is Not a Computer: Other Urban Intelligences (Princeton University Press). She is also the author of The New Downtown Library: Designing with Communities, Deep Mapping the Media City, and Code and Clay, Data and Dirt: Five Thousand Years of Urban Media, published by University of Minnesota Press. In addition to writing dozens of articles and book chapters, she contributes a regular long-form column about urban data and mediated infrastructures to Places, a journal focusing on architecture, urbanism, and landscape, and she collaborates on public design and interactive projects and exhibitions. You can find her at wordsinspace.net. Ever Bussey is a social researcher and media maker from Detroit. Their interests concern digital technologies and the role they play in shifting or maintaining power dynamics in human relationships. Ever’s talents include using research and digital media to construct and combat narratives through data visualization, archives, or film. They hold a BA in Media Arts and Studies from Wayne State University and an MA in Media Studies from The New School. Jasmine McNealy is associate director of the Marian B. Brechner First Amendment Project and an associate professor in the Department of Media Production, Management & Technology in the College of Journalism and Communications at the University of Florida, where she studies information, communication, and technology with a view toward influencing law and policy. Her research focuses on privacy, data governance, surveillance, and communities. A 2018-2019 Fellow and current Data & Society Affiliate, she holds a PhD in Mass Communication with an emphasis in Media Law and a J.D. from the University of Florida, and a Bachelor of Science degree in both Journalism and Afro-American studies from the University of Wisconsin. Trevor Owens is a librarian, researcher, policy maker, and educator advancing digital infrastructure and programs for libraries, archives, museums, and related cultural institutions. Owens serves as the first Head of Digital Content Management at the Library of Congress. He is also a Public Historian in Residence at American University, and a lecturer for the University of Maryland’s College of Information, where he is also a Research Affiliate with the Center for Archival Futures. Owens is the author of three books, the most recent of which, The Theory and Craft of Digital Preservation, was published by Johns Hopkins University Press in 2018 and has won outstanding publication awards from both the American Library Association and the Society of American Archivists. Everest Pipkin is a drawing, game, and software artist from Central Texas who produces small work with large data sets. They hold a BFA from University of Texas at Austin, an MFA from Carnegie Mellon University, and have shown nationally and internationally at The Design Museum of London, The Texas Biennial, The XXI Triennale of Milan, The Photographers Gallery of London, Center for Land Use Interpretation, and others. This event is co-hosted by Code As Liberal Art at The New School and the Metropolitan New York Library Council.

The following is a summary of the event by Mary Bakija, Program Manager, METRO, published September 27, 2021. How can institutions reopen with care, consideration, and empathy for staff and patrons? Susanne Markgren, Assistant Director, Head of Technical Services at Manhattan College, and Linda Miles, Assistant Professor and Librarian at Hostos Community College, shared their experiences and advice in a conversation on Zoom with Traci Mark, METRO's Program Manager - Equity, Archives & Media Preservation, on Wednesday, September 8, 2021.  Classes at Manhattan College were hybrid last year, and the library was open 24/7 with scaled back services, so Susanne has been navigating partially reopened spaces for a while now. Facing budget challenges, the school felt it was best to have students fully return to campus this semester, which meant a complete reopening for the first time since early 2020. "The school decided we have to be fully open, with no distancing but masks required in buildings, and everyone is required to be vaccinated," Susanne said. She's pushing for the ability to continue working from home some days, though the school is requiring staff that's been fully remote to work in person now. Amid the ongoing pandemic, these policies are causing varying levels of anxiety and displeasure for those working at the school. The result has been several retirements, a resignation over the vaccination requirement, and layoffs and reductions in hours over the past year.  Managing Anxiety from the Top Down Of course, none of this is unique to Manhattan College. Libraries of all types have been expanding services, and librarians have to manage the stress that might entail. For Linda, the most important things that help her and those she supervises through the anxiety is a clear path of communication. "Information, information, information," she said, stressing that institutions need to be open and clear about as much as they can, preferably disseminating information straight from senior leadership. "I would appreciate the maximum transparency from the very top, so that I don't have to wait for my supervisor's supervisor to tell them something that my supervisor will eventually tell me. I think that shows a lot of respect for the people who work for you." Transparency can, and perhaps should, come in many shapes. "To get people's individual concerns, have as many open meetings and discussions as you can," Susanne recommended. "But also offer private meetings for those who don't feel comfortable talking in a bigger space." "Managers should be as flexible as possible," Linda agreed. If there's a reason a supervisor can't be flexible, like red tape or policies from higher up, be honest about that. "It's good to be up front with the people you're supervising about the constraints you're working within."  Managers might have an opportunity for flexibility in scheduling staff for public-facing work, which is often also an opportunity to address equity issues. Who has been able to work remotely, and who's been spending more time at the reference desk?  "Managers should think about how roles and workflows and tasks could possibly change," Susanne said. "Ask yourself, 'Do I have the power to give my staff more power to take control of their own schedules, their own time, and their own work?'" "Always advocate for the people you supervise, to the extent that you can within the parameters you've been given by the institution," Linda said. Navigating Tensions Between Coworkers and With Patrons Openness shouldn't stop at the higher ups in an organization. Your coworkers and patrons are dealing with different degrees of anxiety over the return to in-person activities, and it will help if everyone feels comfortable sharing their concerns. "It's good to talk to colleagues about how they're feeling," Linda said. "And if you're feeling uncomfortable with how your colleagues or patrons are behaving, if that is making you more anxious, it might be good to have a conversation about it." If a situation makes you feel uncomfortable or unsafe in any way, and it's not possible to talk directly with the person that's involved, Susanne recommends finding whoever you can to discuss it with.  "Start a conversation with colleagues, supervisors, your director, someone at HR, or your union," she said. "It can be tricky for some people to start conversations with their supervisors or their directors if they don't have a relationship, or they don't have a good relationship, or they don't feel comfortable. But it is very important to reach out to someone. So if you can identify someone that you could talk to confidentially, then try to get advice about how to approach the supervisor."  Susanne concluded by reminding supervisors to be visibly willing to listen to the people they manage. "There are a lot of ways to show empathy," she said. "If your supervisor isn't doing that, then try to seek out other ways for communication to get your voice heard."

The following is a summary of the event by Mary Bakija, Program Manager, METRO, published on September 15, 2021. The pandemic didn't create productivity culture, but in many cases it exacerbated situations of overwork. April Hathcock, Director of Scholarly Communications and Information Policy at New York University, and Kimberly Springer, Curator at the Oral History Archives of Columbia, joined us for a conversation on Zoom moderated by Traci Mark, METRO's Program Manager - Equity, Archives & Media Preservation, on Wednesday, September 1 to discuss how our relationship to productivity has changed. Reflecting on how the panelists' own productivity has evolved during the pandemic, Kimberly admitted she has become more productive. That intense pace of work made her worry that hitting the brakes would lead to disaster. "I started to feel that if I stopped, I might completely crumble," she said. "So I did a slow easing up on the throttle instead, and attended to my mental health that way." April said she was able to step back and take a wide view of what she does and how she wants to spend her time. Getting work done is important to earn a paycheck, but she's also focusing on being present in each moment and maintaining important relationships. "If I can get through a day where I stay healthy, and everyone that I love stays healthy," she said, "that is enough, right? That's productive enough." That balance of work life and personal life has grown increasingly challenging, however, when both take place in your home. Kimberly and April shared tips for creating boundaries: - Create a workstation, a space within your space that's only for work. Once the work day is over, leave that space and don't look back - Use music to create separate spaces. Have work playlists and home playlists  - Don't work from bed. Keep that as a space for rest, not for work - Make appointments for yourself to exercise, go for a walk, take a break, etc., and keep those appointments They also advised managers to set a good example of work/life balance for their staff. Their first recommendation is to ensure everyone has a reasonable perspective on the work that's happening in libraries. "The work that we do isn't unimportant, but we act like it's in crisis mode all the time," April said, noting that this has been true well before the pandemic. "But it is not, and it doesn't have to be. As a leader or a manager, being able to model that for your staff makes a huge difference to them down the road, because it allows them to feel more empowered to engage with that as they do their work." Kimberly agreed, reminding everyone that there's not much anyone is doing in this field that is truly urgent. "If somebody marks an email urgent, that's the easiest way to get me to take my time," she said. "I just can't think of anything that's urgent in that respect."  They offered these ideas for managers to model a healthy approach to work: - Tell your staff you're only available during work hours, and that you won't be checking or responding to email outside of work hours - Schedule emails to send so they arrive within other people's work hours - Be honest. If you're having a bad day and can't get to a task, say so, and allow space for others to do the same - Manage up, so the people working under you don't suffer. For example, if a manager from another department has an idea that will create work for your staff, say no - Allow people to take their earned time off, and don't require lengthy explanations for why they need that time off - Do research into what burnout looks like, and what different remedies exist. Offer avenues for help For managers and for their teams, April said, all of this comes down to doing just enough to collect your paycheck, and nothing more.  "Your organization will never love you, will never value you, will never cherish you. It's an organization," she said. "My staff, I think they're fantastic people. But in evaluating them, I'm just looking for them to do the bare minimum. I'm fine with that. And I'm also looking to do the bare minimum, and I've made myself fine with that, too. Because the organization doesn't deserve any more." Figuring out who you are beyond work is the other part of the balancing act. "Connect to who you are outside of your work," April said. "Shift from living to work to working to live." You make time in your day for work, you set goals and plan projects with deadlines. Why not take a similar approach for the other things you do? Kimberly recommended the Passion Planner, which she uses for professional and creative goals. Whatever she's doing, she can refer back to those goals and determine if that activity works toward one of those goals.  "If I want to binge watch something, and my goal is to rest, it fits in," she said. Within capitalism, we've been acculturated to identify strongly with our work. We often reinforce that in conversations with new people, when we ask or are asked about what we "do," and the expectation is that we mean "what we do for work." Kimberly offered two ways to change those expectations. "I try to ask, 'What do you do for enjoyment?'" she said. "Or, if someone asks, 'What do you do?' I respond with what I do for enjoyment instead of what I do for labor." April added that scheduling time for your personal pursuits, and sticking to those appointments, can help you define your answer to that question. "Find time at least once a week, or better, once a day, to do things that remind yourself that you're not just your work," she said. "You're a person who has other activities." Kimberly and April created [this list of resources](https://etherpad.wikimedia.org/p/navigating-productivity-culture-2021) to help regain some balance. We're grateful to them both for the time and guidance they shared. 

See a recording of the webinar Compassionate Career Services, Part Three: When and How to “Teach People to Fish” here. Libraries are uniquely positioned to provide essential services to those who are looking for work. We’ve got the skills, the resources, and the ideals to truly help our communities.  During this time of compassion fatigue, this workshop series presents a call for empathetic job and career services for those who need it most.  Presented by NYPL’s Ricci Yuhico, part three of this series covers: The limits of emotional labor / avoiding burnout on the part of library staff When and how to “push people out of the nest” Knowing your community resources and when to make referrals

The following is a summary of the event by Mary Bakija, Program Manager, METRO, published on August 27, 2021. Major data breaches are occurring with increasing frequency, and the current deluge of concerning reports such as the Colonial Pipeline, SolarWinds, and T-Mobile attacks can feel both terrifying and overwhelming. Dan Ayala of Secratic and Gary Price of Library Journal’s INFODocket joined us at METRO for a talk on Zoom on Wednesday, August 18 to help us find actionable steps to avoid having sensitive personal and library system information compromised. Awareness of prevention techniques and education on how to implement them is the first step, which is where Dan and Gary say libraries can be incredibly valuable. But we can’t educate others before we educate ourselves. They advise libraries to hold regular, ongoing data security awareness sessions for internal staff, covering everything from how to spot an email phishing scam to password management. Ideally, this will help create an environment where people will understand it’s okay to admit when a security incident may have occurred. “The last thing you want is people feeling like they can’t come forward and say, ‘I might have clicked on this link, and I might have included my username and password, which now can be used against the library,” Dan said. Specific scams to look out for include: Urgent emails that come from someone in a leadership position at the library. Scammers think you’re less likely to ask those leaders, “Did you really send this??” Anyone asking for iTunes gift cards, or that you print out the attached W2s, for example A message from your email provider that says your mailbox is full, and to click on a link to get more data. They’re preying on your worry about doing your job well Knowing Who to Trust If you have a good IT department or a skilled CIO, having these regular security conversations should hopefully be part of their roles. But if they’re not well versed in all the vendors you use, or they’re stretched too thin to help? Sometimes the best move is to bring in outside expertise. Look for a consultant who can provide advice on your specific needs, so they can help you understand what you can and can’t do to guard against breaches. Consultants can also assist after an incident has occurred. Knowing who to trust with this sensitive information can be intimidating. “A lot of that will come from word-of-mouth,” Dan said, noting that if a consultant has worked with a library before, they’re already ahead of the game. “It’s important that somebody gets to know, for lack of a better term, the business of your library first, and uses that to be able to make recommendations that are appropriate to you appropriate to that business.” The same might be said for your technology vendors. It’s unlikely (but not impossible) that a small library will be targeted by hackers, and the likelihood increases the bigger an organization gets. So if you rely on software that’s developed and maintained by a massive company, and that company’s technology is compromised, that can potentially impact your work. “You have to know the controls that are in place, and what they’re doing not just to secure the data, but also what they’re doing with the data,” he said. Password Safety “Humans are really bad at being random,” Dan said. Unfortunately, the strongest passwords are very random. If you can’t be random, then ensuring you use a unique password for every single thing you need a password is a good first step—except then you have to remember a lot of unique passwords, which in reality means you’ll probably be spending a lot of time resetting passwords. The safest bet, then, is to use a password manager, which will generate unique passwords for each account you need it for, and you only need to remember the password to the manager. “This means good security,” Dan explained. “So that when you get notice that a site has been compromised, then you only have to go back and change one password.” While some free password managers exist, they acknowledged that there are additional risks associated with using a free service and recommended several subscription password managers, which may be an expense that’s untenable for many. Dan and Gary also recommend utilizing multi-factor authentication (MFA) wherever it’s offered. MFA requires a second key to access an account.hat could be text messages sent to your phone, or a key fob that displays numbers you enter for access. MFA is an excellent buffer against bad actors, but, as they emphatically noted, the process is a total drag. “It’s definitely a drag!” Dan said. “And it’s what makes people inclined not to use them, or to turn them off—because it is frustrating! Security has a user experience problem.” Public Safety Working with the public opens up several potential security risks, but Dan and Gary have some tips for staying safe. Ensuring patrons are aware of the same issues that were discussed above is an excellent first step. Are there digital safety courses you can point them toward, or ones you could host yourself? Are there any ways, in your interactions with patrons, that you can provide simple instruction on how to look out for potential phishing scams or why a strong password is important? As for shared public computers, they advise libraries to treat them as if somebody’s done something bad to that computer. They recommend using technologies like Deep Freeze, which protects shared computers by restoring them to a saved configuration every time you restart them. “People who don’t have their own technology are going to come into libraries,” Dan said. “So we owe it to the patrons to return those systems to a safe state after each use.” Ultimately, data security health is about being aware of the risks and the processes required to fix issues, and then determining the best balance for yourself—but one that’s still at a level to keep most people safe. Because you (and your patrons) are constantly exchanging data with other people, so your security can impact theirs. For resources on how to prevent data breaches, please see this handy document created by Gary and Dan: https://bit.ly/preventbreaches