Our day began with the LILRC business meeting, followed by a dynamic keynote address from the team from nextLI.

Our speakers included Sam Guzik, Editor for Strategy and Platforms, Newsday Opinion; Amanda Fiscina,  Research and Digital Production Manager, Newsday Opinion; and Coralie Saint-Louis; nextLI’s Outreach and Engagement Manager. Our speakers explained that nextLI will serve as a “forum for Long Islanders to discuss the future and foster consensus around ways to make the region competitive, affordable and welcoming.”

nextLI is managed by Newsday’s Opinion department and is funded by a charitable project grant from The Rauch Foundation. More information is available at next.newsday.com or on Twitter @nextLI.

Following our keynote, we had five Lightning Round Presentations from local Long Island librarians.
Our first presentation was called CoderDojo at Long Beach Public Library. Bianca Rivera presented on her CoderDojo program at Long Beach Public Library that mentors youth ages 7-17. She discussed coding with a non-technical background, finding and evaluating resources, the best free coding curriculum and clubs, and the most useful programming languages.

Presentation PDF Available Here

The second presentation, Reaching Out to Bring Them In, was presented by Jill Cloonan of Longwood Public Library. Jill introduced a program called SmileAwhile, which is geared towards adults with special needs. SmileAwhile has proven to be extraordinarily popular with individuals with caregivers, group homes, and folks who volunteer to help at the programs. Jill encouraged our audience to reach out to create similar programs at their libraries.

Dr. Gregory Hunter of the Palmer School of Library and Information Science presented the next lightning round: Digitizing Local History Sources: A Report from the Palmer School. The digitization project started February 1, 2017 with a generous five-year grant from the Robert David Lion Gardiner Foundation. Dr. Greg Hunter, the Project Director, discussed the process and the progress made toward the ultimate goal: to digitize and preserve materials found in 80 local historical societies across Long Island.

Edna Susman, from the Half Hollow Hills Community Library, presented the topic Veterans and Libraries: Networking, Outreach and Mission. The Veterans Testimonial Project records and preserves local veterans’ military experiences as part of the Library’s local history collection. Edna explained the importance of libraries capturing the history of veterans that would otherwise be lost. She provided our audience with resources to begin similar projects.

Presentation PDF available here.

Our final presentation came from Lisa Zuena, of the Massapequa Public Library. Lisa presented Podcasting With Your Teens: How a Teen-Centered Podcast Began and Grew. Lisa started the “Pequa Podcast” with the teens at her library, empowering them to share their ideas and voices. She gave tips and ideas on starting a podcast at any library, with no technical experience required.

Presentation PDF available here.

Thank you to everyone who attended the 2018 LILRC Annual Membership Meeting!

Thank you to our speakers, Dr. David Jank, Irina Kandarasheva, and Megan Margino.

Five years after RDA (Resource Description and Access) implementation: Are the users better off? by Irina Kandarasheva

Five Years After RDA (Presentation PDF)

Student Research Day: Fostering Student Scholarship Through Library-Faculty Collaboration by Megan Margino

Student Research Day (Presentation PDF)

Click image above for PDF version of presentation

This year’s conference theme, Design the Experience: Risk & Reward, showcased speakers with a vast array of experience, each with a passion for sharing their knowledge.

On Thursday night, our speaker Paulette Brinka gave a talk titled: “Fake News – the often fraught relationship between politicians and the Fourth Estate.” Paulette Brinka currently teaches at Suffolk County Community College, and previously had a career in radio and in local government. Paulette highlighted the current fascination with “fake news,” and how she teaches her students to be intelligent consumers of media. Attendees enjoyed Paulette’s anecdotes from the news world and the classroom, and appreciated her insights into the current schism between news and government officials.

After dinner, LILRC’s director, Mr. Herbert Biblo, was honored by the library community with a cake commemorating his retirement from LILRC.

On Friday, the day got started with a presentation by Emily Drabinski. Emily is a LIU Brooklyn professor and was honored as a Library Journal Mover & Shaker. She gave a riveting talk titled: “Shifting Shelves: Time, Place, and the Politics of Library Space.” Emily discussed the power structures within library classification systems and shelving patterns.

After, David Favaloro, Director of Curatorial Affairs at The Tenement Museum, gave a talk titled, “Harnessing the Power of History: Connecting Past and Present at the Tenement Museum.” David discussed the work of the Tenement Museum, and how the museum is designed to bridge past immigrant experiences to current immigrant experiences and tell stories. He also talked about the use of technology in The Tenement Museum to help tell those stories.

Our final speaker of the day was Les Bluestone, Blue Sea Development Co-Founder and Recipient of the Center for Active Design Award. Les gave a fascinating talk about designing for active, healthy lifestyles. Les talked about his own buildings, and also gave ideas for libraries to incorporate active design. If you’re interested in active design, visit the Center for Active Design website.

Thank you to all who attended this year’s annual conference! We hope to see you next year!

A Manager’s Guide to Developing a More Collaborative Workplace
November 3 @ 10:00 am – 12:00 pm
Farmingdale Public Library

“Why won’t my employees be more collaborative?” is a question often asked by managers.  This is a critical question because collaboration has been identified as a strong predictor of an organization’s success. Whether it is contributing information and ideas, working together on assignments, being an effective team member, or supporting the organization’s mission and goals, collaboration is essential.

This workshop will help library directors and managers understand the main enablers and deterrents of collaboration among employees, and identify specific approaches to boost the level of collaborative behaviors in the workplace.

Presenter: Radek Nowak, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Center for Human Resource Studies, School of Management, New York Institute of Technology ​

Registration: A copy of the PDF registration form in available here.

Book Repair Workshop

Registration is now open.

Presenting our Thursday evening keynote speaker:

Paulette Brinka, Assistant Professor Suffolk County Community College discussing: “Fake News – the often fraught relationship between politicians and the Fourth Estate.”

And our Friday lineup includes:

​Emily Drabinski, Library Journal Mover & Shaker and LIU Brooklyn professor, presenting: “Shifting Shelves: Time Place, and the Politics of Library Space.”

David Favaloro, Director of Curatorial Affairs at The Tenement Museum and Hebrew Technical Institute Research Fellow, discussing “Harnessing the Power of History”: Connecting Past and Present at the Tenement Museum.

Les Bluestone, Blue Sea Development Co-Founder and Recipient of the Center for Active Design Award, presenting:“Designing for Health”: Exploring How Health is Affected by the Built Environment.

We look forward to seeing you there!

The morning kicked-off with the LILRC business meeting, which was followed by the Keynote Speaker, Rebecca T. Miller, Editorial Director, Library Journal & School Library Journal (pictured to the right) who presented, A Better Ladder: Building the Leaders We Need. In her talk, Rebecca discussed the issues libraries are facing in finding and elevating enough leaders who rise to the challenge of managing the constant social and technological change occurring at ever-escalating rates. She described the changes to organizational culture required to support this evolution, while addressing the persisting diversity challenge in terms of retention and promotion. Rebecca shared numerous examples and challenged attendees to look at their own institutions. Are there leaders at your institutions? Who can help our libraries be as dynamic as they need to be?

After a short networking break, our Lightning Round speakers took to the podium to share their innovative ideas, services and programs with attendees.

Darren Chase, Head of the Center for Scholarly Communication, Stony Brook University Libraries began the session with his presentation, Open Access @ Stony Brook University: The Open Access Policy and Repository. He discussed the University’s Open Access Policy which was adopted on February 6, 2017, more specifically how it leverages Green Open Access. Authors retain copyright, publish in the journals of their choice, share accepted manuscripts in an OA repository and Avoid APC fees. Darren discussed the advantages of the policy, how faculy can deposit materials to the repository and communicating with publishers. Open Access @ SBU is available online at: http://library.stonybrook.edu/openaccess.

Next up was Nancy Evans, YA Librarian at the Levittown Public Library, who presented, Strong Girl School: Creating and Running a Program Addressing Gender Bias, Inequality and Self-Esteem Building for Girls. Nancy described the Strong Girls School, which is a young adult program that addresses gender bias, inequality and self-esteem-building for girls. Nancy developed the idea after reading YA author Maureen Johnson’s essay, “Whay Do We Photoshop People?” with her writing group, who were, coincidentally, all girls. It sparked so much discussion about beauty, body image, self-esteem and the media that she knew there was a program there. She covered how to run the program, including some of the topics covered as well as the resources you need to get you started.

Denise Fabiszak, Director of the East Hampton Library presented, Authors Night-Development of a Major Fundraiser, which provided attendees with an insightful glimpse into the very successful East Hampton Library’s Authors Night. Authors Night is a lavish fundraiser to benefit the East Hampton Library and all proceeds go directly to the Library. Denise provided a history of the event, which began in 2005 with a handful of dinners and a few hundred attendees, and has grown to be the premier literary event of the Hamptons with 100 authors and more than 2,500 people in attendance. He concluded by sharing some ideas about the future development of the event, including how to get more guests, outreach to corporate sponsors and a possible sister event in New York City.

Shifting from program-focused topics to technology, Ellen Druda, Digital Services Librarian and Charlene Muhr, Assistant Director of the Half Hollow Hills Community Library presented, Podcasting at Your Library, and shared their story of how they got started with podcasting at the library with the creation of the In the Stacks Podcast (inthestackspodcast.wordpress.com). The discussed working together, striking the right tone, and what to discuss. In addition, they shared tips on recording devices to use, free editing software (Audacity), music resources, hosting services, and how to promote. In concluding, Ellen and Charlene shared lessons learned including how to arrange schedules and where (and where not) to record.

Next up was Thomas Tarantowicz, Director of the Brentwood Public Library, who presented, Access to All: WiFi Hotspots in Your Community. Tom discussed the Brentwood Public Library’s free wifi hotspot lending program, which utilizes the T-Mobile ZTE device. This service, which is extremely successful, is being utilized by the community and provides a service that was very much needed.

Jamie Saragossi, Health Sciences Collection Development & Outreach Librarian continued the Lightening Round session with her presentation, A Comparison of Two 3D Printing Programs in Academic Library Settings, which discussed a National Network of Libraries of Medicine (NN/LM) grant-funded project. Jamie discussed how this project allowed for embedded librarians to integrate 3D printing technology into master’s level health sciences courses at Touro College School of Health Sciences. For this project, physical therapy and occupational therapy faculty received training on the Makerbot 3D printer, which was located in the library and took advantage of the Embedded Librarian initiative. Jamie also discussed The Innovation Lab at Stony Brook University, which is an on campus space where students can find the technology and collaborators to turn ideas into prototypes and prototypes into projects. The Innovation Lab has a pop up version that is at the Stony Brook Health Sciences Library. Jamie discussed the challenges, successes and plans for future implications and continuity.

To conclude the Lightning Round presentations, Carol Gilliam, Black Heritage Librarian at Roosevelt Public Library spoke about The Black Heritage Collection of the Roosevelt Public Library, which houses a comprehensive reference and circulating collection of print and non-print materials written about and related to Black Culture. In addition, Carol expressed the importance of preserving the history of the community and sharing its story.

The LILRC Annual Membership meeting provides an opportunity for members and non-members alike to join together and learn more about LILRC happenings, but more importantly, learn from your colleagues success stories! If you would like to get involved and share your success story, please feel free to contact us. Special thanks to the LILRC Board of Trustees, the Farmingdale Public Library for hosting this year’s event, and to everyone who participated! We look forward to seeing you at next year’s event.