Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Sibling Workshop at Brooklyn Public Library

Following a very successful two-day Sibshop training workshop conducted by Don Meyer last Spring at the Brooklyn Heights Library, The Child's Place for Children with Special Needs at Brooklyn Public Library is hosting a panel presentation Meeting the Needs of Brothers & Sisters of People with Disabilities on Friday, April 23 at 10am-1pm at the Central Library. See the event flier (PDF) for more information.

HealthCampNYC - A Regional Health Unconference

HealthCampNYC: Using Collective Knowledge to Improve Health Literacy and Community Health

Friday, May 14
9am - 5pm
Brooklyn Public Library, Central Library

HealthCampNYC is a regional health unconference for librarians, literacy professionals, public health professionals, medical professionals, community-based organizations and people interested in sharing with and learning from each other.

Participants at HealthCampNYC will be expected to share their work, skills and knowledge as active participants. In the rich tradition of unconferences, attendees will determine and manage program topics and sessions. Sessions may include (but are not limited to): how-to workshops, debates, or problem-solving sessions. This collaborative environment presents unique opportunities for learning, sharing, and relationship-building.

For more information and to register: http://healthcampnyc.wetpaint.com/

HealthCampNYC is hosted by Brooklyn Public Library with support from The Health Education and Literacy for Parents (HELP) Project and New York Academy of Medicine Library. This project has been funded in whole or in part with Federal funds from the National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services, under Contract No. NO1-LM-6-3501 with New York University.

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

PLA 2010 Recap

Highlights of PLA 2010 in Portland, OR

Experimenting with Unconferences
Mel Gooch, Gretchen Caserotti and I presented a program titled Revitalizing Communication and Professional Development Through Unconferences where we talked about BPL ThinkTank, a staff development unconference at Brooklyn Public Library and KidLib Camp, a children's librarianship unconference at Darien Public Library. Our presentation is up on Slideshare.


Fly-on-the-wall, Behavioral Archaeology, Five Whys and Character Profiles/Personas
Sandra Sajonas and I facilitated a talk table program titled DIY Usability: Is Your Library People Focused? where we talked about people-centered usability and the project that we did in library school which focused on the evaluation of a library's new service model that promotes library patron self-sufficiency through the use of technology. It was an amazing group that generated some great ideas using people-centered design methods. More info on our People-Centered Design Thinking site.


Marshmallows, Gum Drops and Twizzlers
I co-facilitated a talk table program where we discussed how libraries can work to promote genetic literacy in the community. Find out more about the Human Genome Project Community Conversations Initiative.


Board Games, Arts & Craft, Food and Drinks
I attended a very interesting panel program (organized by my colleague Sandra Sajonas) titled If You Didn't Work Here, Would You Come Here? showcasing some great examples of library outreach and programming for people in their 20s and 30s. Check out the write up of this program in Library Journal.

Thursday, March 11, 2010

Are you going to PLA?

As I'm preparing for PLA, I realized that the conference is not a month away anymore, it's in a week. I'm looking forward to my first in-person PLA conference. I attended the virtual PLA conference two years ago. Are you going to PLA? If so, be sure to check out some of the programs mentioned in my last blog post about PLA?