Help us imagine the future of the Library Field Project. Get involved today! This summer the Metropolitan New York Library Council (METRO), alongside our consulting team BKS Studio, is hosting a series of community gatherings aimed at bringing together a diverse and creative group of cultural institution workers from New York City and Westchester County. We began with the meet and greet Social Happenings in June (more info here) where participants explored key relationship skills, reflecting on their histories with spaces, and began to identify needs and challenges of working outdoors. These meet and greet social happenings set the groundwork for building new or renewing existing relationships with each other and our surrounding environments. Now as we shift to full summer mode, it is time to find inspiration and envision ideas for the future outdoor Library Field project! We invite all current and future METRO members to the following community envisioning sessions - THE IMAGININGS! Help us keep the momentum going this August! Imaginings are in-depth nature learning, interagency demonstrations, and brainstorming sessions in outdoor spaces. We will focus on bringing together METRO’s current members and potential partners to explore the benefits of place-based programming, learning, and sharing. Participants are invited to attend 1 of 2 sessions held at various sites in Westchester County. During the Imaginings attendees will share and relive memories of New York City and Westchester County using native-to-space/native-to-place based techniques that center the past, present, and future of the Library Field initiative. New and returning participants welcomed! For these Imaginings we invite all current and prospective METRO members, leaders and workers at cultural heritage institutions to meet and share with each other their vision for the Library Field. This would include not only your expertise in the fields of galleries, archives, libraries, and museums but also your insights as inhabitants and enjoyers of the local environments, land, and resources found in New York City and Westchester County. Your views will help craft the future of the project! As a token of our appreciation, we would like to offer participants an honorarium of $25 for sharing their time, expertise, and engagement with our Imaginings. Are you ready to join the fun? Registration is open through August 1st, 2024 on a first-come, first-served basis. What to expect at Ward Pound Ridge Reservation ABOUT THE SITE: 4,700 acres of rolling countryside and is Westchester County’s largest park. The terrain is extremely varied, ranging from deep hollows to ridges 800 feet high. There are hemlock gorges, dry uplands, wetlands, ponds, and two rivers, meadows, marshes and vernal pools, all connected by 35 miles of trails. Want to preview some of the interesting sights to see when you visit the park? Check out this cool story map! After registering through the Eventbrite link, an email will be sent out with further details about transportation and access details Transportation and environmental information about Ward Pound Ridge Reservation Food will be provided (lunch, dinner, and breakfast) BONUS SOCIAL HAPPENING: Family-Friendly Overnight Camp-Out at Ward Pound Ridge Reservation Join us for an all-ages Library Field camping opportunity to be held shortly after the Imagining event with an official start of 6:00pm. Attendees are welcome to stay overnight at Ward Pound Ridge Reservation with us as we continue to imagine and learn about the future of the project. Alongside optional activities, attendees will be provided camping support and advice, supplies, dinner and breakfast, as well as an open air structure for shade and protection. NOTE: Site is both tent and car camping friendly. Prior to the event, METRO will send more information on camping tips and a walkthrough of provided supplies. Activities will be held outdoors with adequate shade, hydration, and sitting breaks Are you a beginner to outdoor programming? Nervous about extreme climate such as heat, rain, or other inclement weather? Worried about being outside unprepared? Not a problem! With the guidance of METRO staff and BKS, we aim to provide all necessary supplies to help soothe some outdoor frustrations or concerns. BUT we also emphasize that as we plan for the Outdoor Library, there will be many lessons to learn on how humans can re-adapt to our constantly changing environments. What METRO will provide Meal ingredients, cooking and eating supplies, and fire pit Cool and icy treats Canopy for shade Tents (limited supply; please confirm if you need one) Bug repellent Sunscreen Lighting Coolers and ice Potable and drinking water Chairs Emergency first aid supplies Backup toiletries Trash bag and containers Ventilation and reflectors Flashlights Multi-tools Hand sanitizer and basic cleaning supplies Emergency electricity Experience and advice on various camping and outdoor activities What YOU should bring to make the event more enjoyable Water bottle Hat Sun screen Bug repellent Fans (anything to help with heat and potentially rain) Closed-toe shoes (optional back up sandals) Change of clothes, light colors preferred (optional) In case of inclement weather, METRO staff will Notify registered participants day-of if weather prohibits event attendance Confirm a backup rainy-day alternative date once after registration If you have questions or issues when registering please contact libraryfield@metro.org for more information. If you can’t make these events, sign up for the monthly newsletter for future opportunities (details below). But what exactly is the Library Field project? The Library Field is a new project for METRO. We are looking for a nonurban, semi-rural outdoor location that our network of libraries, archives, museums, and other organizations can use as a shared programming space. During the COVID-19 pandemic, METRO took part in a nationwide initiative that revealed some of the implications of moving library programs and services outside of buildings. Cultural institutions all over the country refocused their efforts on safe outdoor programming through environmental education, storywalks, community gardening, nature connectedness work, citizen science projects, and more. Based on what we learned during that difficult time, METRO plans to open a permanent facility that will serve our region and become a prototype for a new service model for libraries, their partners, and their communities. With activities situated somewhere between those of a park, a preserve, a museum, and a library, the Library Field will be a shared environment that will deepen the community’s understanding of the natural world and the way that we study it, find inspiration in it, and are responsible for its protection. For more information about our ideas and our progress, sign up for our newsletter via this form or peek at our journal entries here.

Join METRO and Zine Educator Emma Karin Eriksson for an afternoon of zine-making and snacking in the sunshine. Emma Karin will teach you the basic one-page fold technique to create a mini-zine from a single sheet of 8.5" x 11" piece of paper. There will be prompts and supplies on hand for you to use to create your own unique zine. Emma Karin will also provide tips and tricks you can use to teach zine-making to your patrons and colleagues. There will also be supplies for you to contribute to the new collaborative zine From the Stacks: Stories and Snippets of Wisdom from NYC Information Workers. We will provide all zine making materials, but feel free to bring any stickers, stamps, washi tape, bits of wrapping paper, old magazines, discarded books, and anything else you might like to use in your zine. The workshop will take place outdoors in Prospect Park, near the Prospect Park/Parkside Avenue B/Q subway stations. While there may be some benches, we cannot guarantee a seat to everyone, so please bring something to sit on if you would like (picnic blanket, portable chair, etc.). We will have some surfaces to lean on but encourage you to bring a clipboard, sketch book, or other hard surface to work on. METRO will provide some light snacks and beverages, but please feel free to bring your own. NOTE: In case of inclement weather, we will meet on the rain date, Sunday, August 4th from 11:00am to 1:00pm.

Join us for a behind-the-scenes tour of The Explorers Club, a multidisciplinary, professional society dedicated to the advancement of field research, scientific exploration, and resource conservation. Its Research Collections contain approximately 14,000 volumes, 550 linear feet of archives and manuscripts, 1,000 artifacts, 3,500 maps, and 500 films and videos housed throughout Club Headquarters. Items in the collection include Matthew Henson’s mittens worn on his 1909 North Pole Expedition, expedition manuscripts and journals, the globe where Thor Heyerdahl planned the Kon-Tiki expedition, flags from pioneering expeditions including the Apollo 11 Mission, photos, films, maps, and more! Following the tour, join us for a social hour at a nearby location to connect with fellow local library and archives workers. Please note: Space is limited, so if you’ve secured a spot but then find you’re unable to join, please let us know so we can open your spot to someone on the waitlist.

Indebted to the work of Black women writers Audre Lorde, Angela Davis, and Tricia Hersey, and the continued efforts of library workers from Sandy Berman to Emily Drabinski, this session from Bailey Hoffner explores why slowing down is not only a viable approach to metadata justice work, but the only sustainable approach allowing us the restful space necessary to: see, understand, and subvert the structural discrimination built into our information systems; imagine and create new systems; truly trust ourselves. Viewers can expect to:  - Understand the necessary steps toward creating an individual and/or group framework for metadata justice, including the essential place of a non-punitive grievance process.  - Identify how the persistent fear of scrutiny can contribute to our inability to slow down, if we don’t take the essential first steps of grounding ourselves in our principles - Assess if they have taken the time and the care to truly consider the impacts of their work About our presenter: Bailey Hoffner is an artist, writer, mother, partner, and PDA autistic, white woman. She currently serves as the Metadata Librarian for Digital Resources and Discovery Services at Oklahoma State's Edmon Low Library. In her own research and creative work, she is interested in investigating ways in which metadata and descriptive practices have the power to uphold or dismantle the structural racism, sexism, ableism, and discrimination inherent in their creation and use, with a particular interest in the representation of autistic experience in library work and library metadata.

Please join us for this special event where Executive Director Nate Hill will provide an overview of the work METRO has done for our membership and the field at large in 2023-2024. You’ll hear stories about our programs and events, grant programs, software services, research, and more. Nate will also speak about METRO’s new Library Field project and the related workshops taking place this summer. Finally, we’ll also be joined by an amazing panel of library leaders whose work explores the connections between library work and nature connectedness through gardening and food production, environmental awareness and kinship, and global goals and coordination. Our panelists will include Sue Buswell of Library Farm, Maria Mayo-Peaseley of Anythink Nature Library, Helene Schvartzman of Aarhus Public Libraries, and Acacia Thompson of the Greenpoint Library and Environmental Center. About our panelists: Susan (Sue) Buswell is the Library Farm Manager at the Library Farm at the Northern Onondaga Public Library (NOPL), Cicero branch. As a mother of three, Sue started maintaining a garden plot at the Library Farm when it began in 2011. She was offered the position to manage the garden in 2019 based on various community involvements. Becoming a Master Gardener Volunteer in 2022 increased her passion for gardening and community engagements. She is starting her fifth season as the Library Farm Manager, which still brings joy to her days. Maria Mayo-Peaseley has been with Anythink Libraries for eight years, and in that time has worked in library customer service, adult programming, branch management, and most recently, as manager to the yet-to-be-opened Anythink Nature Library. In this role, Maria is part of the Anythink Nature Library’s design team, while also serving as interim manager of Anythink's central branch, Anythink Wright Farms. Maria earned a Master’s in Library and Information Science at the University of South Carolina in 2017, and prior to her time at Anythink worked in the Interpretation and Education Division of Rocky Mountain National Park.   Helene Schvartzman has been a Library Transformer at Aarhus Public Libraries in Denmark since 2011. Helene’s greatest professional passion is making the complex sustainability crisis tangible, accessible and shareable. The library aims at connecting Culture and Nature through systemic, planetary design approaches, and she gets to do just that every day as head of the SDG-Library. That is expressed sometimes in the form of outdoor reading sessions, seagull-yoga, seed library, or walking library, and sometimes through textile, woodwork, or plant-workshops. The goal is to transform Libraries into DreamLabs for a sustainable future. Acacia Thompson's role as the Environmental Justice Coordinator for Brooklyn Public Library centers around creating environmental education programming, promoting sustainability, and keeping patrons abreast of environmental justice issues in New York City and around the world. As a librarian, Acacia helps connect patrons to environmental resources, aides in research, and shares activism opportunities in her community. You may follow her work at #bklyn_geec.

Want to learn more about prison abolition? Looking to explore the role of information in the prison industrial complex? Excited to discuss ways we can collectively offer resources to address violence caused by mass incarceration? Join the club (literally!). The Prison Library Support Network is collaborating with METRO to host Abolitionist Futures: A PLSN Discussion Group, which will meet quarterly on the second Monday of the month at 7:30pm. In 2024, we will continue to curate a rotating calendar of media resources for discussion, including: books, podcasts, videos, zines, and more! We’re also re-committing to the “futures” part of our discussion group by intentionally building in time during each meeting to share actionable steps for practicing everyday abolition. Also new in 2024! We’re aiming to be joined by special guest facilitators (authors, librarians, and more) with a range of experiences relating to prison abolition. More details to come! If you’re on our PLSN listserv, you’ll receive information throughout the year on how to join each discussion group, who our featured guest will be, and which materials we’d like you to engage with before joining. As a reminder, both upcoming discussion content and past years of discussion materials can be found on this doc. In June, join Abolitionist Futures for a conversation with Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and producer Maggie Freleng. Dive into her reporting on wrongful convictions, the criminal legal system, and other social issues via podcast episodes, articles, and more. Together, we will discuss the evolution of Maggie’s work, the important yet challenging task of highlighting the lived experiences of incarcerated individuals from the outside, and how journalism is a key component of abolition. As always, our discussion materials are free to access and contain a variety of media formats. Before joining the meeting please read, listen to, and explore these materials: LISTEN Buried Abuse (38 min) READ Shackled: The Devastating Reality of Childbirth Behind Bars Optional: LISTEN Suave (7-episode podcast series) READ In Search of Safety: An Investigation of Abuse at an Immigration Facility (Rewire.News article accompanying Buried Abuse podcast) EXPLORE More of Maggie's reporting and podcast work About our guest: Maggie Freleng is a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and producer based in New York City reporting on wrongful convictions, the criminal legal system and social issues. She is the host and producer of the Signal and Anthem award winning podcast “Wrongful Conviction with Maggie Freleng”, as well as “Murder in Alliance” and “Unjust & Unsolved.” She is also the host and producer of the Pulitzer Prize winning podcast “Suave” on PRX. “Suave” also won the 2022 International Documentary Award and Maggie was nominated for the 2022 Livingston Award for National Reporting on “Suave”. Maggie is an Adjunct Professor at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY and formerly the Producer-at-Large for NPR’s Latino USA. She was an NPR Next Generation Radio fellow and 2019 Ford Foundation “50 Women Can Change the World in Journalism” fellow. In 2023 she was honored during “World Woman Hour” by the World Woman Foundation for “breaking the role” as a female change-maker. Maggie is also a Webby and iHeart nominee for “Wrongful Conviction with Maggie Freleng.” Maggie graduated with an M.A in Journalism focusing on Health & Sciences and Radio Broadcast from the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY in December 2015. She earned a B.A in Journalism and English from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst in 2011. Her work has been featured in Rolling Stone, The LA Times, The Atlantic, Spin, The Observer, Democracy Now!, MSNBC, NPR, Vulture, People, HLN, WNYC, NPR’s Code Switch, NBC New York, WHYY, Dr. Phil, Dr. OZ, Boston Globe, The Huffington Post, and Voices of New York.

Join the Archivists Round Table of Metropolitan New York, Inc. (ART) in collaboration with the Metropolitan New York Library Council (METRO) and the Feminist Institute (TFI) for a workshop on ethical considerations surrounding digitization and oral history. As our world becomes increasingly digital, so do archives. Bringing materials online presents a unique set of challenges. The Feminist Institute shapes our archival practices within feminist ethics of care. This means we prioritize building relationships with our record holders, view ourselves as caretakers of their materials, and utilize a collaborative cataloging model to create a participatory archiving environment. An extension of this form of care work, called reciprocal ethnography, asks questions like, “how do we give agency to our narrators to be advocates of their own stories.” By looking at projects like the NYC Trans Oral History Project, we learn how grassroots and volunteer-led collective work can model this by placing an emphasis on accessible materials and community engagement. This workshop will allow participants to learn and discuss the ethics surrounding digitizing personal cultural material and oral histories. What kinds of releases are needed? What role does relationship building play in digital archiving? How might we de-professionalize institutional roles so that marginalized communities have more access to the recording and preservation of their histories? Participants will get hands-on experience in wrestling with digitization ethical considerations, oral history exercises, and compassionate listening. Goals Understanding of feminist ethics of care Understanding of digitizing implications and begin building an ethical framework Understanding of ethical and care-focused oral history techniques This is an in-person workshop limited to 30 people (ART + METRO members only). Box Lunch catered by Lenwich will be provided (water bottle and snack included). Workshop Fee ART Member member rate: $25 per person METRO member rate: $25 per person. Check here to see if your institution is a METRO member. No refunds for cancellations, and registration is non-transferable. Please note that you MUST pay in advance online in order to attend this workshop. In the occasion that the event is sold out, we highly recommend joining the waitlist. An ART staff member will reach out to you if a spot becomes available. Unless you've been given permission, please do not show up at the event without registering. This workshop will be led by Allison Elliott and Aviva Silverman. About Our Instructors Allison Elliott is an archivist interested in queer and counter histories, community archives, autonomous memory sites, feminist networks, and information activism. She is currently the Manager of Archives and Programs at The Feminist Institute, where she develops content partnerships, curates digital collections, and produces TFI’s annual Pop-Up Memory Lab. She’s recently earned her MA in Media Studies + Social Justice from CUNY Queens College and Interactive Technology + Pedagogy Certificate at the Graduate Center. Her praxis focuses on using archival materials in creative works to activate the present and as a tool for liberatory education. Aviva Silverman is an artist and activist working in sculpture and performance. Their practice utilizes religion, gender-nonconformity, miniatures, and nonhuman actors to investigate technologies of spiritual and political surveillance. Silverman has exhibited at numerous galleries and museums including MoMA P.S.1, the Swiss Institute and Marta Herford. Their work has appeared in Artforum, The New Yorker, BBC Radio, and Art in America. They do organizing work with prison-abolition and Palestinian-solidarity groups in NYC and are broadly interested in community-based healing through oral history, earth-based diasporic Judaism and transformative justice initiatives. As the former project coordinator of the NYC Trans Oral History Project (NYC TOHP), they have co-developed one of the largest repositories of trans oral history in the world. They have organized and led community conversations with leading trans activists and artists including Cecilia Gentili, Sandy Stone, Ceyenne Doroshow and others and have independently contributed over 30 interviews to the archive. They believe orality is a powerful tool for building a legal and historical record of one’s community. Location Pen and Brush, 29 E 22nd St, New York, NY 10010

In late 2023, Brooklyn Public Library debuted a podcast series entitled Borrowed and Banned that told the story of America’s ideological war with its bookshelves. The series followed the teachers and librarians whose livelihoods were endangered when they spoke up, the writers whose work has become a political battleground, and the young people caught in the middle.  Over ten episodes, Borrowed and Banned examined the past and the present of censorship in America, beginning with the Library’s impact on one school district in Oklahoma and a teacher’s protest that captured the nation’s attention. Co-hosts Adwoa Adusei and Virginia Marshall talked  to the young activists making a difference in their communities, and shared accurate, up-to-date information about the role of school boards and local government in advocating for or obstructing intellectual freedom. This webinar focuses on the process of creating the podcast and applying for METRO's Equity in Action Grant.  About Our Presenters: Virginia Marshall is the writer, producer, and co-host of Borrowed and Banned. She has been producing audio at Brooklyn Public Library since 2018, including launching the Library’s flagship podcast Borrowed, producing BPL’s podcast for kids, making audio walking tours, assisting BPL staff in creating audio with patrons, and helping out with BPL’s oral history archive. Adwoa Adusei is co-host and writer of Borrowed and Banned. She is the manager of BPL’s new Library for Arts & Culture, set to open in downtown Brooklyn later this year. She has been a librarian at BPL since 2015, producing 3 short seasons of a community teen podcast series called Brownsville Excerpts, and has been a co-host of Borrowed since the Fall of 2019.  Noella Scott is the Director of Institutional Giving at BPL.   

The Afro-Argentine Diaspora oral history project is designed to uncover the history of the Afro-Argentine diaspora community in Argentina and NYC. A common narrative promoted within Argentina and globally is that there are no Black people in Argentina. This narrative of erasure around the African roots of many elements of Argentine culture, including cuisine, music, dance, language, and lineage was historically reinforced through the education system, media, and official public history institutions.  This webinar focuses on the process of developing the project, collecting the oral histories and applying for the Equity in Action grant. The Afro-Argentine Diaspora oral history project is led by Julia Cohen Ribeiro and Tatiana Bryant.  About Our Presenters: Julia Cohen Ribeiro is an Argentine and Brazilian Afro-descendant Jewish Queer independent historian and filmmaker based in Buenos Aires. Tatiana Bryant is the Director of Teaching, Learning, and Research Services at Barnard College.  Destiny Arias is a freshman at Barnard studying History and Human Rights. She is Dominican, born and raised in Miami, and plans to use her background to become a federal court judge and work in the non-profit sector!! Manuela Moreyra is currently a First-Year at Barnard studying Political Science and Economics. She is Peruvian, born and raised in Lima, and plans to be a journalist in the future, hopefully an international correspondent. Mila Lin Tabach is a rising junior majoring in Computer Science and Film at Barnard College. She was born and raised in São Paulo, Brazil.

Founded in 1974, the Lesbian Herstory Archives is an all-volunteer run organization dedicated to the collection of materials by and about lesbians. Join us for a behind-the-scenes tour of this wonderful space with a vast collection of print and non-print materials, giving a thoughtful and meaningful exploration of lesbian herstory. Following the tour, join us for a social hour at a nearby location to connect with fellow local library and archives workers. Please note: Space is limited, so if you’ve secured a spot but then find you’re unable to join, please let us know so we can open your spot to someone on the waitlist.

Join us for a behind-the-scenes tour of the Center for Brooklyn History’s incredible space and current exhibition entitled “Brooklyn Is…” The Center for Brooklyn History was founded in 1863 as the Long Island Historical Society and continues to maintain a robust collection of materials, including books, photographs, oral histories, audio visual material, maps, and more. Join us in the lovely Brooklyn Heights neighborhood to explore a space that truly encapsulates the deep and rich history of the Brooklyn community. Following the tour, join us for a social hour at a nearby location to connect with fellow local library and archives workers. Please note: Space is limited, so if you’ve secured a spot but then find you’re unable to join, please let us know so we can open your spot to someone on the waitlist.

As a form of conversation, reference interviews are uniquely positioned to facilitate relationship building, collaboration, and community care. This can be especially salient in academic settings where productivity, efficiency, and achievements are built into the community’s expectations. In this webinar, Tricia Clarke, PhD, explores the relevance of personal narratives as part of the academic reference interview. By embracing practices that view academic reference interviews and research appointments as more than mere transactions, librarians can create spaces for patrons to share personal narratives, which fosters a sense of belonging and well-being among students, faculty, and staff and helps to encourage healthy interpersonal relationships among librarians and patrons. Viewers will gain: Insight into the power of personal narratives An understanding of the transformative potential of encouraging personal narratives during reference interviews and research appointments A look at best practices which can contribute to building a more inclusive and supportive learning environment in the academic landscape About our presenter: Tricia Clarke is the Community College Engagement Librarian at the University of the District of Columbia, a historically Black land-grant university and the only public university in Washington, DC. She has loved libraries throughout her entire adulthood and much of her childhood, which was spent growing up on the English-speaking Caribbean islands of Trinidad and Tobago. She has a doctorate in Folklore and her research and professional interests include cultural heritage, community engagement, and supporting and contributing to diverse and inclusive communities. She is passionate about fostering literacy and cultivating a rich cultural learning environment.

The METRO-ILL Spring 2024 meeting welcomes everyone interested in resource sharing and interlibrary loan topics. Bring any resource sharing topics/questions/ideas that you would like to discuss. Or, we may take on some topics such as learning/enhancing best practices when dealing with tough requests, resources for searching difficult to fill requests, tips/suggestions for system cleanups (maintenance), e-book chapter lending, etc.

When it comes to teaching information literacy to patrons, librarians offer a variety of instructional techniques to help them optimize and enrich their research activities. These include various teaching strategies and multiple instructional tools, from collaborative learning to utilizing audiovisual aids to story reenactments. This interactive workshop will introduce a wide range of teaching strategies, providing examples of lesson plans that work with each one. Participants are encouraged to bring their own lesson plans or topics they are planning to cover to discuss what teaching strategies might work best for them. By the end of this session, participants will be able to: Identify multiple types of teaching strategies Understand which strategies work best for different topics Utilize these instructional tools in their lesson plans This two-hour, in-person workshop will take place at the Brooklyn Public Library's Central branch in the Info Commons lab. About our presenter: Selenay Aytac, PhD., MA, MBA, MS is Professor of University Libraries at Long Island University, New York. She received a Senior Fulbright Scholarship to conduct research at the Bogazici University Telecommunication and Information Technologies Research Center in Istanbul. She was a library research fellow at the Princeton University Library for the AY 2019-2020. She was the recipient of 2007 ALISE/Bohdan S. Wynar Research Paper Award with the paper Recent Library Practitioner Research: A Methodological Analysis and Critique. Please review our Code of Conduct, our Statement on Viewpoints, and details on Interpreter Services.

Join METRO's Economics & Business Librarians group and SLA New York at the Baruch College Subotnick Financial Services Center for a tour of the simulated trading floor. Learn about the structure and use case for a simulated trading floor from a Professor and Librarian who uses the space for instruction, Michele Costello. Baruch alumnus and Bloomberg Equity Analyst Daniela Machado will join us to discuss Bloomberg Professional, academic subscriptions for college campuses, and answer any questions from librarians thinking about setting up their own simulated trading floor.

This webinar will be facilitated by METRO’s Digitization Project Grant Program Managers, Allison Sherrick and Traci Mark. Allison and Traci will review the main components of the grant process, including: The program’s information sheet Eligibility The application process There will be a Q & A period at the end of the session. Please be sure to review our grant documentation before you arrive and bring any questions you might have. This session will be recorded.

Join us to tour the Grolier Club and learn about its current exhibition, Judging a Book by Its Cover. The Grolier Club’s international membership has its home at 47 East 60th Street, where book collectors, booksellers, librarians, and other book professionals have converged to research books and revel in bibliophily since the building's opening in 1918. The Clubhouse holds various rooms for members' use, a library, two exhibition galleries, and walls covered in bookshelves, prints, and works of art celebrating the history of books and collecting. During her "Books and Crannies" tour, Grolier Club member Eve Kahn will guide us through the warren of charming idiosyncrasies on every floor. Judging a Book by Its Cover highlights selections from seven centuries of the Grolier Club's collection of bindings, largely donated and built by the Club’s members over the course of its 140-year history. The exhibition explores the history of decorated bindings, book bindings as three-dimensional art objects, what makes a binding collectible, and the Club's investment in commissioning fine bindings through the present day. Highlights from the 15th century to the present are on view, including a silver filigreed and jeweled miniature Book of Hours (1673); a gilt maroon goatskin binding from a Vatican bindery, presented to Cardinal Basadonna (1674); and a bright green silk and floral embroidered binding created by May Morris, daughter of William Morris (ca. 1888). Judging a Book by Its Cover is curated by Grolier Club member H. George Fletcher, the former Astor Director for Special Collections at The New York Public Library and former curator at The Morgan Library & Museum. Following the tour, we will gather at a nearby space to connect with colleagues. Please note: Space is limited, so if you’ve secured a spot but then find you’re unable to join, please let us know so we can open your spot to someone on the waitlist.

Bibliometrics, also known as an analysis of scientific literature, is one of the most popular data analysis techniques used among librarians. Although it originated in the library and information science field, these days it is commonly used among many others to assess and evaluate certain literature or trends within a specific context, helping researchers measure the impact a work has on academic literature as a whole. The proliferation of web-based indexes, particularly Scopus and Web of Science, has made it easy to retrieve and analyze large volumes of bibliometric data. This webinar introduces major bibliometric techniques that make use of such indexes, and showcases some examples of published work that demonstrates its use in LIS.  By the end of this webinar, participants will be able to: Evaluate individual author's, institutions’, or countries’ scientific productivity Examine the scientific growth or trend of any given research field Investigate the scientific impact of any given publication About our presenter: Selenay Aytac, PhD., MA, MBA, MS is Professor of University Libraries at Long Island University, New York. She received a Senior Fulbright Scholarship to conduct research at the Bogazici University Telecommunication and Information Technologies Research Center in Istanbul. She was a library research fellow at the Princeton University Library for the AY 2019-2020. She was the recipient of 2007 ALISE/Bohdan S. Wynar Research Paper Award with the paper Recent Library Practitioner Research: A Methodological Analysis and Critique.

In the second webinar of a two-part series, Eira Tansey (Memory Rising) discusses a recent study carried out for METRO to contextualize and understand climate change exposure for the region. New York City and the state of New York have some of the most ambitious climate action plans in the country. See examples of actual strategies libraries are already using to reduce their environmental impact and adapt to climate change, as well as emerging areas of climate action collaboration between librarianship and other sectors. Viewers will: Learn how to locate existing climate change policy resources in their sector/geographic area Understand ways of embedding climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies into library work Be able to identify areas of potential collaboration with professionals from other fields Find more info about Part 1 here. About our presenter: Eira Tansey is an archivist, researcher, and consultant based in her hometown of Cincinnati/the Ohio River watershed. She is the founder of Memory Rising, which provides research, consulting, and archival services with expertise in climate change, environmental and labor movements, and Ohio Valley regional history. She previously worked as an archivist at the University of Cincinnati and Tulane University. Eira’s research on archives and climate change has been profiled by Yale Climate Connections, VICE, and Pacific Standard, and has been honored by the Society of American Archivists. Her most recent publication is A Green New Deal for Archives.

Let’s simulate summer break with creative learning! In this workshop, we’ll explore the mind-body connection and create a wearable (that may not yet exist) to express, communicate, and track your summer aspirations. You’ll learn about the creative learning spiral, and how to celebrate your patrons’ process AND product. In creative learning, there’s no “one right way.” Just like how we’ll encourage you to explore and tinker, we hope that you’ll do the same for your patrons. Participants will: Experience a hands-on creative learning activity that emphasizes the mind-body connection Explore the creative learning spiral, and recognize yourself and your patrons in it Learn strategies for celebrating the process of creative learning, not just the product This workshop comes with a mini activity kit that gets shipped to you via snail mail, so we’ll need your mailing address. Space is limited to 20. If you register but then know you will no longer be able to attend, please let us know by February 22nd so we may open your spot to someone on the waitlist. This is the second of two workshops on creative learning with the Public Library Innovation Exchange (PLIX) at the MIT Media Lab. You can attend this workshop without attending the first. About our presenter: Ada Ren-Mitchell loves playful learning. As the Learning Programs Designer of the Public Library Innovation Exchange (PLIX) at the MIT Media Lab, she can't believe her job involves hanging out with amazing librarians around the world! Over the past 13 years, she juggled professional development in STEM education, STEM education research, multi-modal gesture research, and web and graphic design. Ada likes to wrap her brain around complex systems, and tries to make sense of it all through community co-creation, visual information design, and prudent science communication. In her spare time, she enjoys sending snail mail, carving stamps, sewing clothes, and crafting interactive finger-foods for her friends and family.

Please join us for the first annual science librarian and science information professionals mini conference at Barnard College in New York City, co-sponsored by Barnard College, New York University Libraries, Columbia University Libraries, The Cooper Union Library, and the Metropolitan New York Library Council (METRO). This mini conference aims to bring together STEM librarians, library workers, LIS students, and other STEM-focused information professionals to build community, share ideas, and discuss critical approaches to instruction and research. Our closing keynote speaker will be Peace Ossom, MLS, MS, AHIP, who will present "New Ways to Data Today: The Evolving World and Demands for Research Services in Academic Libraries." Ossom is the Associate Director, NNLM National Center for Data Services at NYU Health Sciences Library and Associate Curator, NYU Grossman School of Medicine. Ossom's expertise includes research data services, scholarly communications, and health sciences information literacy. In recognition of her research, Peace received the 2021 Texas Woman’s University Hallmark Alumni Award as well as the Medical Library Association’s 2020 Ida and George Eliot Prize which recognizes the most effective article in furthering medical librarianship. She has experience in a wide variety of roles, and is an active educator, teaching both “Research Data Services in Libraries” at San Jose State University’s graduate iSchool program and “Public Health Informatics” at The University of Texas at Arlington’s undergraduate public health program. Date: Thursday, March 14 and Friday, March 15, from 9am to 5pm each day Location: The Milstein Center at Barnard College, 3009 Broadway, New York, NY 10027, and online Price: In-person $15 registration fee includes both days of the conference and lunch (for those observing Ramadan, we will have takeaway containers). Please register for the in-person event here. Virtual Option: If you would prefer to attend remotely, we are offering that option at no charge. Please register for the virtual session here. Zoom login instructions for individual tracks will be emailed to registrants closer to the event date. Registration is open through March 1, 2024. Have you got an idea for a session or workshop? Submit your proposal ideas by February 9, 2024, using this form: https://barnard.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_5bvewd2d4K78Nj8

Want to learn more about prison abolition? Looking to explore the role of information in the prison industrial complex? Excited to discuss ways we can collectively offer resources to address violence caused by mass incarceration? Join the club (literally!). The Prison Library Support Network is collaborating with METRO to host Abolitionist Futures: A PLSN Discussion Group, which will meet quarterly on the second Monday of the month at 7:30pm. In 2024, we will continue to curate a rotating calendar of media resources for discussion, including: books, podcasts, videos, zines, and more! We’re also re-committing to the “futures” part of our discussion group by intentionally building in time during each meeting to share actionable steps for practicing everyday abolition. Also new in 2024! We’re aiming to be joined by special guest facilitators (authors, librarians, and more) with a range of experiences relating to prison abolition. More details to come! If you’re on our PLSN listserv, you’ll receive information throughout the year on how to join each discussion group, who our featured guest will be, and which materials we’d like you to engage with before joining. As a reminder, both upcoming discussion content and past years of discussion materials can be found on this doc. Join us for the first Abolitionist Futures meeting of the year: Artistic Expressions From The Inside. Engage with visual, written, and performance art created by incarcerated individuals; and hear from special guest, journalist Emily Nonko, about her work as director of the Writing for Liberation track of Empowerment Avenue, a collective founded in 2020 to support incarcerated writers and artists. Emily will discuss inside-outside organizing strategies, how to support the creative work of incarcerated people while centering their voice and agency, and fairly compensating incarcerated folks. She will be joined in the second half of the discussion with incarcerated journalist Kwaneta Harris. As always, our discussion materials are free to access and contain a variety of media formats. Before joining the meeting please read, listen to, and explore these materials: The Only Door I Can Open, virtual art exhibition - CLOSES MARCH 3RD The Underprivileged Oasis, art exhibit by Alvin Smith Artist statement and gallery of trans incarcerated artist Shelly Levy Kwaneta Harris' writing The Empowerment Avenue Substack compiles the art and writing from the Empowerment Avenue collective once a month "Inside Music" Ear Hustle podcast episode (48 min) Optional: Prison Art: Drawing is an Outlet and and Source of Income for Incarcerated People Free Minds poetry blog About our guests: Emily Nonko is the Director of Writing for Liberation for Empowerment Avenue. She is also a social justice and solutions oriented journalist based in Brooklyn, New York. A visit to San Quentin State Prison in 2018 changed the trajectory of her career and she would go on to work closely with the journalists there to help bring their writing outside prison walls. After co-founding Empowerment Avenue with Rahsaan "New York" Thomas, she has overseen the outside logistics of Writing for Liberation, is the co-editor of the Press in Prison guidebook, and has advised countless publications and journalists on how to meaningfully work with and transfer power to incarcerated writers. Kwaneta Harris is a former nurse, business owner and expat, now incarcerated journalist. She brings experiences from each profession to illuminate how the experience of being incarcerated in the largest state prison in Texas is vastly different for women in ways that directly map onto a culture rooted in misogyny. Her powerful and shocking stories expose how the intersection of gender, race and place contribute to state-sanctioned, gender-based violence. Please review METRO's Code of Conduct, our Statement on Viewpoints, and details on Interpreter Services here.

Infuse Creative Learning into your library programming this summer! Try out the PLIX Beautiful Symmetry activity, exploring and recreating the patterns of your favorite spot in your library. You’ll be introduced to the core concepts of creative learning, the role of the facilitator, and ways to engage patrons’ diverse interests, moving people away from making the same thing. Participants will: Experience a hands-on creative learning activity that highlights symmetries in your library Get to know the 4Ps of creative learning, and the role of the facilitator Learn strategies for curating diverse inspiring example projects, and recognize ways you already engage patrons’ interests This workshop comes with a mini activity kit that gets shipped to you via snail mail, so we’ll need your mailing address. Space is limited to 20. If you register but then know you will no longer be able to attend, please let us know by February 8th so we may open your spot to someone on the waitlist. This is the first of two workshops on creative learning with the Public Library Innovation Exchange (PLIX) at the MIT Media Lab. Learn more about the second workshop here. About our presenter: Ada Ren-Mitchell loves playful learning. As the Learning Programs Designer of the Public Library Innovation Exchange (PLIX) at the MIT Media Lab, she can't believe her job involves hanging out with amazing librarians around the world! Over the past 13 years, she juggled professional development in STEM education, STEM education research, multi-modal gesture research, and web and graphic design. Ada likes to wrap her brain around complex systems, and tries to make sense of it all through community co-creation, visual information design, and prudent science communication. In her spare time, she enjoys sending snail mail, carving stamps, sewing clothes, and crafting interactive finger-foods for her friends and family.

Digitization is defined as the process of converting information from a physical format to a computer-readable one. Libraries utilize digitization as a means of preservation and to broaden the dissemination of information beyond their brick and mortar buildings. But how can libraries balance the needs of their patrons in the digital age while still protecting the intellectual property rights of the creators that they collect? This is the second of a two-part series led by Kiowa Hammons that is focused on policies and best practices for libraries and digitization within US copyright law. Following the webinar, viewers will be able to: Understand how digital access strategies such as e-Resources, web archives, and Controlled Digital Lending affect libraries Assess the existence, and need for, a “Global Digital Archive” Identify potential collection strategies in the new normal of born digital archives and audio and moving image materials See more information about Part 1 here. About our presenter: Kiowa Hammons has more than 10 years of experience in intellectual property rights. As the Manager of Rights Clearance at The New York Public Library, he leads a team focused on facilitating digitization projects of library collection materials: including copyright reviews, licensing, metadata implementation, and educating staff on copyright policies. Previously Kiowa worked in rights clearance at Penguin Random House and The Whitney Museum of American Art. Kiowa holds a Masters in Library and Information Sciences from The Pratt Institute, with an emphasis on Information Policy, Art Librarianship, and Archives.

Emily J. M. Knox, associate professor in the School of Information Sciences at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, joined Mary Bakija, Program Manager at METRO Library Council, for a discussion on her book, Book Banning In 21st-Century America, on Thursday,  February 22. Below is a transcript of the conversation, which has been edited for clarity and length. Mary Bakija: To set some stage for our audience today as you did in your work, we'll be referring to people who put in requests for books to be removed, restricted, or relocated from libraries or curricula as challengers. Can you explain why you chose that terminology rather than something to do with banning or censoring? Emily Knox: There are a couple of reasons. Generally in the freedom of expression world, we call them challengers because censor has a very negative connotation. I actually have an article on how being called a censor is similar to being called a racist. Also, when you call someone a censor, it focuses on the outcome as opposed to the process, to their request. The request is that something happens to this material. They have challenged where this material is located in a public institution. Yes, they may want to censor something, but that does not actually mean that that will be the outcome. MB: Why might it be important for librarians, educators, and others facing these challenges to understand the worldviews and motivations of these challenges? EK: What I think is so fascinating about people who challenge books is that they think that books are important. I'm often confronted by people who think these people are ignorant, they don't believe in reading, those sorts of things. But in fact, what I try to get to in my work is that people who challenge books actually truly believe in reading. They believe books will change lives. I think this is important for librarians and library workers to know because if you understand it from that point of view, you are getting a truer idea of what they're saying, which is not so much that, "I don't think that reading is good," but that, "I think that reading is so powerful that I want to remove this work this book from your collection because It will make people the type of person that I don't want them to be."  Most people who work in libraries tend to like books. I have people read books to change their knowledge structures, what they understand about the world. We believe that books can be a democratizing agent. Where we differ is that, in librarianship, we don't know what that outcome will be. So people who challenge books, they worry that they know what will happen if you read this book. But if you think about our ethics and the Library Bill of Rights, I don't know what might happen if you read this book. You might be introduced to all sorts of things, and you may or may not agree with them. That's the difference.  MB: Something you touched on a bit there is how much fear there is for what change might come after reading a book. One of the more interesting fears that you note in your book is this idea of "difficult knowledge," where books or the ideas that are presented in them are things that adults find challenging to grapple with themselves, and so it's even harder to imagine doing that with their kids. Can you talk about how fear plays into book banning? EK: This is Kerry H. Robinson's theory, and I think it really encapsulates what goes on when people think about banning a book, especially for children. There are a lot of topics that are very difficult to discuss. I was just at a public hearing where a woman said, "I don't want my child to learn anything about sex." In any way, heterosexual, homosexual. You could tell that it's the discussion of sex that is difficult. How do you talk to your children about this? Lot of the topics that are being challenged right now are really actually quite difficult to discuss. How do you talk about what gender is? We have a lot of easy ways of saying it like gender and sexuality are not the same thing, but how do you explain that to someone who's 7? In our society we don't have good sex education, we don't have a shared understanding of our history, and that is really what comes up in these book challenges. MB: And we don't have the kind of language to discuss these things in life, in general. You mention that in the book, too, about how providing kids with the language to discuss these things is sometimes of vital importance in their lives. Can you talk about that?  EK: When I work on the new edition, I'm going to extend this to adults, because what these books also do is give adults language to be able to discuss these things. The most impactful anecdote I can think of about this idea is how Robie Harris, the author of It's Perfectly Normal, talked about how a parent came up to her and said, "Your book saved my child's life." There is a discussion of sexual abuse in the book, and the parent said that her child came up to her and said, "This is what my daddy does to me." Would the child have been able to say that without that book, to be able to verbalize the horrific thing that was being done to them? Because of that book, the child was removed from the situation.  But it doesn't even have to be that traumatic. The thing about books like Gender Queer is that they tell you about a person who lives a different life. I read that book, and being non-binary is not something I know much about. That book gave me more language, more understanding. This is really what books can do, they help you think more about other people, whether you agree with them or not. MB: One thing that happens a lot with book challenges is that the discourse around them is all done by adults. You go to a meeting where people are talking about a book challenge, it's adults talking about kids. How much have kids been able to provide their own voices to these conversations? EK: I was at a hearing on Tuesday. There were not many kids there. There were some young people, maybe 16 or 17, but there were no children at all. This was an argument between adults.  We need to train kids to be leaders on freedom of expression in their communities. I tell people that if something comes up, encourage your kid to go to the meeting. They are welcome to do public comment. The kids actually have the most powerful voices. The other thing about this is that they'll see democracy in action, and all other sorts of really great things. Getting more kids' voices involved in this is vitally important. There are so many examples of how organizing has worked over history. On the one hand, it's a little disheartening that we keep having to do it, but it's also very lovely to see. MB: Something that comes up a lot in your work is the issue of the public's distrust in established experts like librarians and educators, particularly when it comes to "protecting" kids and establishing the "right" development for them. What have you learned about that? EK: One thing is that these are feminized professions. It's difficult to be seen as an expert when you're in a feminized profession. In fact, in our society, we see things like education, learning to read, as things could happen in the home. It also gets reified in this very strange way, because by definition if you are working in a library and you are a woman, then you are not doing your thing at home. So this all gets kind of messed up together.  Also, people have no idea what librarians do. People do not know how the books get on the shelf. When you explain it to them, it doesn't make sense, they don't quite get it. When it seems like your expertise is black boxed, it's difficult to convince people of it in many ways.  The challenge cases are really overdetermined because they're not about libraries or schools at all, they're about all sorts of other things. They're about books, but not about books. They're all of these issues wrapped up.  MB: You mention that you don't see challengers to be political actors exactly, but that it was better for your study to explore their arguments using sociotheoretical frameworks. Can you explain that? And have your feelings changed at all about that since this was published back in 2015? EK: I see my research work as being about book history and print culture. The thing is, some challengers are political actors, and some of them aren't. Some of them are really upset about taxes going to institutions that they don't like. But some of them are much more focused on, "I don't want my child to know about that," which is not quite the same thing as being against the institution itself. What I try to say to people is that I take challengers' arguments seriously, and I try not to group them all together as just one thing. We are seeing more attacks on public institutions. At the end of that board meeting I was at, somebody said, "I don't want my taxes to go to this library anymore." That is pretty much where we are headed. Because the library is in many ways a socialist institution where people share their resources. It becomes an issue of control. By definition, you don't control public institutions. There can be accountability in them. But any given taxpayer does not control the public institution. That makes a lot of people very upset. MB: Your second edition is expected in 2025. What have you been updating? EK: One thing I did not talk about was diverse books, so I will be talking about what they are, why they get challenged. Then I kind of smush together public schools and public libraries in the book. I will talk just a bit about some work I've done, just so people know that I understand that those are all different things. Also, I was a witness for a Senate hearing on book banning and so I'm going to probably add a chapter on that as well. In my article, "Silencing Voices," I talk about how LGBTQI books are always about sex, no matter whether they have sex in them or not, so I'm doing a bit more research on why that is understood that way. But the thing is, the arguments have not changed a lot. MB: Have you ever had any personal or professional ethical challenges as you're doing this research? EK: When I talk about freedom of expression and intellectual freedom, I understand people not wanting to inflict harm on others. We have been talking a lot about diverse books lately, but before this all happened, I was mostly talking about challenges from the left, and thinking about: Why is it important to not engage in some censorship practices for books that you might consider to be harmful? I'm a big believer in separating professional and personal ethics. Also, I think this goes to my issues of understanding, like you have to understand people's arguments to argue against them. I try to think about certain framings. And I realized that my frame is always that, in essence, this is where censorship leads. Because of how power works in our society, it is inevitable that the most marginalized voices will be silenced. So I spent a lot of time arguing with people about whether this is a harmful book, especially about anti-trans books. What I try to get people to understand is that yes, this is a book that could be harmful. We don't know the outcome of that. But when you start arguing, "What will happen when someone reads a particular book?" That always ends up with someone else saying, "Well, I am not going to let this other person, whose voice we rarely hear, speak." You can't learn about social justice without intellectual freedom because by definition the people who do not want a more just society will censor books that have to do with justice. So I try to keep myself grounded in that. MB: An audience question: Are you aware of a best practices outline for book challenge policies? EK: The Intellectual Freedom Manual is being updated. I believe there are updated practices. You can call the Office of Intellectual Freedom and they'll send you the updated practices. Some of them include a finality clause—so if a decision is made on a book, it cannot be revisited within three to five years. When a decision is made, that is it. There are other things about having to read the book. I like the one where someone has to suggest an alternative book, that's always very interesting. I've also heard of libraries charging fees for the request for reconsideration. Please talk to your attorney first, run this by a few people before you institute something like that, but it is something to think about because challenges take time. This is of course somewhat of a gamification, to lessen the amount of forms that come through. Finally, just make sure your policies are up to date. It's not that everybody will follow the policies, but you have to be able to say when someone didn't follow the policies. Someone might come to the board meeting, but you want your board to ask if they followed the policy. That is also enforceable in court. MB: Another audience question: Do you think that the legislation in West Virginia will affect libraries in other states that seek to enact similar legislation allowing prosecution of librarians? Do you expect librarians to leave their positions, or for there to be arrests? EK: I do expect librarians to leave their positions and significant numbers. We're already seeing this. It's also true of teachers. Who wants to be bothered? That's really what it is. There might be arrests. That's very possible given our current climate in the country. They will be in the states that you expect them to be in. I would never say that that would not happen. The actual strategy is about chilling effects. It's not so much about arresting somebody, it's about putting the fear of being arrested in somebody's mind. In fact, that has already been effective. The fear that something could happen is actually all that is needed. MB: A lot of these workers leaving has to do with not just with the pandemic and how that's led to an overtaxed system of workers, but now these issues are added to that. What are some ways this burned out segment of workers can protect ourselves and our colleagues so that we're not facing arrest for the work that we do? EK: You can show up if something happens. That's one big thing to do. The board meeting I went to was overwhelmingly pro-library. People don't actually like people messing with their library. That so many people showed up in support of the library makes a big difference. MB: Is there one takeaway that you'd like to leave people with? EK: Read banned books. There's a list of 850 from Representative Krause that were challenged in Texas. There are lists all over the place. Purchase these books for your libraries. I'm not so worried about the top-list challenges, it's the mid-list challenges that I worry about. Are those mid-list books getting on shelves? I hope so. Read these authors. Have diverse collections. Just do the things that libraries do.