I am always excited to attend the annual METRO conference in January. The event started three years ago, when a new executive director, Jason Kucsma, took office. Jason has left METRO for an exciting new position in another state. We appreciate all that he has done for the library community in New York City, and he will be missed. Anyone whose institution is a member of METRO can attend the conference for free. Also, METRO solicits proposals for project briefings to be presented in the conference each fall.

We started the day with a business meeting, in which it was announced that Kucsma will be stepping down from his role at METRO. The search is on for a new executive director.

The keynote session was presented by Siva Vaidhyanathan, author of The Googlization of Everything. 

Promoting Digital Archives

The first project briefing session that I attended was "Selling a Free Resource: Connecting the Digital Archives to a Broader Audience". Mitchell Brodsky of the NY Philharmonic Archives presented the session. The NY Philharmonic is the oldest symphony orchestra in the United States. It commenced operations in 1842. Their materials include marked music scores, programs, and photographs. Unfortunately, there existed a paucity of page clicks on their web site. There was no web traffic from library or research sites. In addition, the fact that their digital resources are free was hurting them. There is a perception that freely available resources on the Internet are not high quality. In order to change this perception and inform librarians of the utility of the web site, staff from the Philharmonic have exhibited at conferences and participated on social media platforms.

Digital Radio Health Broadcasts

The second project briefing was "Broadcasts for Health: the NYPR/NYAM Project to Digitize Health Radio Broadcasts from the 1950s." Paul Therman of the New York Academy of Medicine and Andy Lanset of the New York Public Radio presented about the NYAM lectures. The METRO-supported project includes lectures by radio for doctors, including topics such as public health, professional development, and the history of medicine. They are one-hour lectures, and some are done by famous people. Broadcasts to digitize were chosen based on their appeal to the public's historical interest. The lectures were also transcribed and cataloged. Challenges included enhancing sound and removing stray noise. At times, the speakers were either too close or too far from the microphone. The presenters played a sample broadcast by Margaret Mead, cultural anthropologist.

Lunch was a great opportunity to learn from other library professionals. It was neat to talk to library directors about leadership and managing people.

Exploring Public Libraries With High School Students

The third project briefing was "History at Your Fingertips: 21st Century Research on the Go for High School and College Students." This session was presented by Danielle Lewis of Yeshiva University High School for Boys. She teaches at the high school and college level, and she is fantastic. She discussed the importance of bridging the gap between high school and college. She informs her students about the resources that NYPL offers, and the importance of primary sources. She stressed that the quality of the source material trumps the exact correctness of the citations. She tells her students that they are not Google's clients. Teaching skills takes time, but it is completely worth it. Her students find it hard to get off campus, so they enjoy exploring online databases. She encouraged her students to explore the history of the Aguilar Library by walking around the neighborhood. The library was named after Grace Aguilar, who never actually set foot on United States soil. The kids took photos and posted them on Google maps. The boys were assigned to write fictitious memoirs. 

Chinese Librarianship

The fourth project briefing was "Outreach Strategy, Financial Literacy, and Embedded Librarianship with the Career Development Center at NYU Shanghai." The session was presented by Raymond Pun. He discussed that the most popular majors are business and economics. He works to perform collection development on entrepreneurial works. He discusses the work of librarians with students. Librarians can teach classes on lynda.com, which has online courses, and they create library guides to promote saving and budgeting to students. All materials in the Chinese university are in English. It was interesting to get an international perspective on librarianship.

METRO: Past, Present and Future

The fifth session was "Member-Driven, Community Focused: METRO Services," which was presented by Jason Kucsma, President of METRO. He discussed innovative internships, how the Special Interest Groups (SIGs) have evolved over the years, myMETRO, and the Management Institution training courses. METRO cards are used to look at books in member libraries in the New York City. I learned that METRO has a delivery service that is similar to interlibrary loan. METRO is somewhat unique in that there are not similar organizations in many other cities in the United States. I love the METRO conferences, and I have presented at Special Interest Group meetings.

The closing session featured evaluation forms on which I wrote my suggestions, and I mentioned what I found helpful about the conference. I am totally looking forward to the METRO Conference in 2016!

• ACRL/NY
• Books about libraries