New York Library Association and New York Library Meetup Combined Meeting

New York Library Association and New York Library Meetup Combined Meeting, June 17, 2010 6:00-9:00 p.m.

Tonight was the first combined meeting between New York Library Association and New York Library Meetup. It was at the City University of New York Graduate School for Journalism on 219 West 40th Street, Room 308. This was a chance to do a combined meeting on advocacy for public libraries. It was also the New York Library Association's first allied meeting to increase membership. New York Library Association is interested in increasing its activities in lower New York. Tinamarie Vella hosted the meeting.

Most of the New York Library Associations's activities are held upstate. For example, The Empire State Book Festival held on April 9 & 10 was held in Albany. The next NYLA conference will be held on November 3-6, 2010 in Saratoga Springs New York.

I found it to be quite interesting. We talked about the purpose of New York Librarians Meetup and what we planned to do for the future. Part of this was about future plans for the group. Stephanie L. Gross who is the Organizer for the New York Librarians Meetup mentioned the visit to the Jane Austen Exhibit at the Morgan Library & Museum as well as the visit to MOCCA (the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art) done earlier.

There were discussions on the We Will Not Be Shushed Read-In at Brooklyn Public Library which ran from Saturday June 12, 5 p.m. to Sunday, June 13, 5 p.m. http://www.brooklynpubliclibrary.org/events/notshushed.jsp . Attendees described the different advocacy campaigns for New York city libraries. This included the postcard campaign to support libraries as well as numerous organizations which were associated with advocacy.

Tinamarie Vella provided two excellent handouts. One was a list of advocacy resources on the internet for librarians. A few of them are http://savelibraries.org/ Save Libraries , Geek The Library http://geekthelibrary.org/ and, http://www.ilovelibraries.org/ I Love Libraries . These are all worth looking at. The second handout was a guide to what the New York Library Association can do for you.

I have participated in sending postcards, making phone calls, and contacting my local representatives about libraries. There were a few resources I had not seen before which Tinamarie Vella listed, Metropolitan New York Library Council (METRO) Advocacy Page was one of them. http://www.metro.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=90&Itemid=142 .

The meeting touched on lots of different issues in librarianship. We got a chance to look at the NYLA (New York Library Association) website http://www.nyla.org/ which has job listings as well as a variety of sections on different subjects in librarianship. The NYLA New Members Roundtable has a mentoring section for librarians. http://www.nyla.org/index.php?page_id=214 . All first time members are signed up for the New Members Roundtable. Currently, I am a member of the American Library Association and the Westchester Library Association. I just signed up on June 18, 2010 as first time member of NYLA for $25.

We also examined the New York Librarians Meetup page http://www.meetup.com/NYLibrarians/ . On the New York Librarians Meetup we discussed the need to get people more active. If you are interested in social networking for librarians in the New York metro area, it is an excellent place to join. Participating has been quite enlightening.

People asked how they could use ALA Connect which is the social networking site for the American Library Association http://connect.ala.org/ . I have used it mainly for taking classes online. It is excellent for this. I am going to be taking the Readers Advisory 101 class and will be using ALA Connect to participate in discussions for the class.

I also learned about other organizations that are tied in with libraries in New York. One of them which I heard about for the first time was the Deskset. The Deskset has dance, charity, and reading events. I have never been to their events, but they sound interesting. Their blog touches on reading, libraries, and books. http://thedeskset.org/.

A more traditional group, The New York Library Club was discussed. This group holds formal dinners and events. http://www.nylibraryclub.org/

One of the possible venues which was mentioned for a library meetup was the Poets House http://www.poetshouse.org/ . This would be a fantastic place to go. I very much love poetry. I hope they have the chance to do this. Another member offered to host meetings at Queens College which would be quite interesting.

There was also some mention of the larger professional associations, the ACRL NY chapter (Association of College and Research Libraries), ALA (the American Library Association), and the SLA (the Special Library Association). With budget cuts and layoffs there has been interest in increasing membership in professional associations and advocacy.

Metro New York was discussed as well in the context of professional development. http://www.metro.org/ Metro offers an excellent set of courses for librarians. I took a course on Twitter for librarians there. They are quite formal and professional in their approach. Metro recently introduced a membership for individual librarians called myMetro http://www.metro.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=210&Itemid=98

The atmosphere was very congenial. The room had an overhead projector to display web pages as well as lots of comfortable seating. Coffee and cookies were served to attendees. They had printed badges with our image from the NY Librarian Meetup web page. One of my quirks is that I collect conference attendance badges. This will go into the bag with other conferences attended; Book Expo, Tools of Change for Publishing, PC World, New York Comic Con and others.

This a short, informal summary of my experience at the meeting. I may have some more formal thoughts tomorrow. I learned a lot from attending the meeting. This is a major purpose of social networking; to go out and meet and learn from the people who you interact with on Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, and other places. There are many people who I hope to see from the networks I have joined. People go to Tweetups, Meetups, and other events.