Prisons Want to Use Tech to End In-Person Visits — These Librarians Have a Different Plan

By Jack Smith IV June 23, 2016

 

 

Across the country, jails are replacing in-person visits with a glitchy, expensive system called "video visitation" — think of it like Skyping in to see your incarcerated loved one, if Skype was low-resolution, difficult to install and cost as much as $1.50 a minute.

But the librarians of Brooklyn are racing to roll out a more humane solution.

The Brooklyn Public Library is planning to build its own video visitations in 12 of its locations in neighborhoods with high rates of incarceration. Unlike visitation centers at country jails, the libraries will build visitation centers that are comfortable, humane and don't charge families exorbitant fees for connecting with loved ones.

"It's an intentionally human experience," Nick Higgins, Director of Outreach Services at Brooklyn Public Library, said in a phone call. "Anything that we do in jails or marginalized communities, we want to create a sense of belonging and inclusion. How life should be."

Read more...

 

At this library, story time doesn’t end because a parent is in prison

Courtesy of Brooklyn Public Library

TeleStory, a two-year-old program run at a branch of the Brooklyn Public Library, increases childhood literacy by using free live video conferencing to connect children to incarcerated parents.

By Liz Dwyer, TakePart June 24, 2016 

Snuggling up next to each other on the couch to read a book aloud is one of the special bonding rituals between parents and children – and one that research shows helps make a kid more successful in school. When a parent gets locked up, it brings an abrupt end to sitting on the sofa and turning the pages of "The Cat in the Hat" together.

But children and incarcerated parents in New York City can still connect and read a book together thanks to TeleStory, a two-year-old program run at a branch of the Brooklyn Public Library. The initiative increases childhood literacy by using free live video conferencing to connect children to incarcerated parents at Rikers Island and borough-based Department of Corrections Jails. Read more...

What Went Right: A Case Study of a Successful Hiring (Part 1) by Ellen Mehling, Career Development Consultant, METRO

When the right person is hired, there is a story...
Well, actually, two stories: the employer’s story of the search for the best applicant, and the new employee’s story of his or her job search.
These stories begin apart and can cover weeks or even months with multiple steps and behind-the-scenes activities before converging in the new hire’s first day, when a new story begins.
This month we’re interviewing Krissa Corbett Cavouras, a recent hire at the Brooklyn Public Library, about her experience applying for the position of Engagement Manager in Marketing & Communications.

Ellen Mehling: Where did you go to school? What degrees and/or certificates do you hold?
Krissa Corbett Cavouras: I attended Sarah Lawrence for my undergraduate degree and earned my masters from Pratt School of Information and Library Science (SILS) in 2011.

EM: Were you employed elsewhere when you applied for this job? For how long had you been job hunting?
KCC: I was working for a small e-commerce company, as a knowledge manager on their marketing team, for two years prior to starting at Brooklyn Public Library. I had probably been actively looking for about three months when I had my first interview here.

EM: How did you learn about the position? Did you have any connections via your network to that workplace?
KCC: I heard about the position on a couple of fronts -- first, because I’ve had Brooklyn Public Library’s job page bookmarked for years, ever since I graduated from library school! Second, my manager Robin and I have several mutual friends from our early days as bloggers, so I saw the job shared around that mutual circle on Facebook. (I do think that’s how I knew it was in serious recruitment, because sometimes you don’t know from a website job posting if it’s a really open position.) I also have several library school colleagues who now work in the system, although I don’t think I saw this specific posting on my library school listserv.  read more...

MAS Presents the Art Forum: Libraries as Cultural Hubs

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Mark Abramson for The Wall Street Journal

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NYLM--We Will Not Be Shushed (24 Hour Read-In)

The three public library systems in New York City serve the 8 million residents that live in the boroughs from various locations. The use of the public library has drastically increased after the effects of the economic crisis. The public are now looking towards their local library for access to information, resources, and programs that are necessary to carry out important tasks set out in front of them—job searching, education, Internet access, and most importantly a reserve of books. In the coming budget for the year 2011, the public libraries face very destructive cuts. Facts show that "Mayor Bloomberg’s Executive Budget for FY’11 calls for a reduction in funding of $16.9 million for Queens Library, $20.6 million for Brooklyn Public Library, and $37 million for New York Public Library". With these cuts, not only will the libraries suffer in terms of available resources, but staffing the libraries will become an important issue as well. With this budget cut, around 40 libraries citywide will be in danger of closure and 30% of the staff will be laid off. Programs that New Yorkers use daily will also be eliminated with this budget cut. These programs include assistance with job searching, tutoring, computer access, and instruction. Clearly this cannot happen. We ask you—New Yorkers, librarians, avid readers, students, and lovers of the libraries—join us in this 24 hour event of continuous public reading to support the New York Public Library System. We will not be shushed!

With only a few days away, it's important to remember to sign-up and fill a spot for a BIG LIBRARY EVENT. On June 12-13th we will be gathering around the steps of the Brooklyn Public Library to take part in "a unified libraries effort" to preserve the Public Library System in New York. Come out and support libraries during our 24 hour Read-In. Register as a reader to support this event. There will be a voice reading in front of the library for the full 24 hours, so this means that we need as many people as we can to fill the slots of designated times. After you join, don't stop there. Help us spread the word however you know how—listservs, bulletin boards, social media, word of mouth, and find us on Facebook and Meetup. Tell your friends and family to sign up. To register for a 20-minute slot, e-mail: savenyclibraries@gmail.com. Volunteers are also needed to set up, break down, move tables, and lots of other odd jobs. Late night and early morning people are particularly appreciated! If you can't volunteer, don't fret—there are other ways you can help. We are taking in donations of art supplies (crayons, markers, glitter, etc.), signs and banners, cardstock, and of course—coffee! Apart from our Read-In we will be building a petition for the three library systems, and our goal is to have every attendee of the event sign it, as well as write a postcard to the City Council. We need to make clear to the elected officials that public library funding cuts and layoffs are unacceptable and must be stopped! We need to stick together to keep libraries open!

Tour of the Brooklyn Public Library by Larissa Kyzer, Assistant Organizer NYLM

On June 3, 2009, following the LibCamp ‘unconference’ at Brooklyn College, a dozen intrepid NYMeetup members attended a tour of the Youth Services Division and Multilingual Center in the Brooklyn Public Library’s Central Branch. This was the first Meetup event that I have been responsible for arranging, and perhaps surprisingly, only one of the first events that I have attended as a member. Stephanie has asked me to share my experiences planning this event and a little about the tours itself, and I am happy to do so.

My first NYLibrarians Meetup Event was an extensive tour of several divisions and services within the Center for Jewish History. I was delighted at the opportunity to get a ‘behind-the-scenes’ view of such a vibrant and specialized library--one which I may not have ever found myself visiting had I not been for the tour. Afterwards, Stephanie asked the group for feedback on future events that she was interested in scheduling—in particular, she wanted to know if there was any interest in scheduling events in Brooklyn, such as a tour of the children’s library at the Brooklyn Public Library.

As a fervent Brooklynite and a library school student who has been considering the merits of young adult librarianship, I found both prospects appealing. I contacted Stephanie, who generously offered to allow me to make arrangements for a Brooklyn tour myself. The prospect was initially a bit intimidating, but I was exceptionally pleased with how straight forward the planning process was, and the opportunities that scheduling this tour afforded. For one, I was able to schedule a tour which appealed to my own personal interests—young adult librarianship and multilingual services in a public library setting. Secondly, it compelled me to reach out to active and talented librarians who, as we found during our tour, were exceptionally willing and excited to share their experiences and diverse collections with other librarians and MLIS students.

Our tour started in the youth services wing with David Mowery, the head of Youth Services. The Youth Services Division is composed of both a large children’s library and a recently-renovated Young Adult section. At 6:00 PM, the library was an active, energetic place, with children and parents perusing the stacks, making use of the computers in the youth-dedicated ‘Tech Loft,’ and studying. Highlights included viewing the rotating artwork that is on display in the section, a discussion about limited funding and its effects on youth programming, and information about how to best utilize the most popular, but least resilient items in the YA section—Manga (Japanese comics).

Following our tour of the Youth Division, we met with Frank Xu, the head librarian of BPL’s Multilingual Center. Though operating on a tight budget in a somewhat cramped corner of the adult fiction wing, the Multilingual Center manages to serve an incredibly large and diverse population of recent immigrants and Brooklyn residents for whom English is not a primary language. The center specializes in assisting individuals find practical resources (such as job-finding aids), collects current fiction and literature extensively in five languages (and somewhat less extensively in eight additional languages), and provides ‘conversation-roundtables’ in a variety of languages including English, Spanish, and any other language they can find volunteer teachers for. The staff—a small group of librarians who are exceptionally gifted linguists (one librarian, we were told, speaks over five languages; most speak at least three)—works together to ensure that the largest possible group of patrons is reached. For instance, the staff ensures that all information on the website is translated into as many languages as possible, organizes a popular reading series with international authors, and travels to public libraries and book fairs throughout the world to purchase popular contemporary materials that are being read in their home countries.

As a whole, the tour reinforced for me many of the wonderful qualities of public libraries, and especially of the Brooklyn Public Library. Upon leaving, however, a few things in particular struck me. For one, that the public library system reaches such an incredible variety of patrons—children, teens, recent immigrants, scholars, students. And as such, no vein of librarianship, even within the public library system, is quite the same. Secondly, that at this time, when we need our public libraries more than ever, they are making small miracles with the limited resources at their disposal.
Larissa Kyzer