Southeastern NY, Library Resources Council, offers ongoing professional development opportunities. These come in the form of in-person classes, workshops, lectures, and webinars. These classes help to enrich our members’ professional experience and can be used to fulfill some requirements needed to maintain public librarian certificates.
Are you looking for information about a past event? Click here for an archive of recent Southeastern events.
Are you looking for similar events? Click here for a calendar of all Empire State Library Network events.
Southeastern welcomes people of all abilities to programs. If ASL interpreter services, captioning or audio description are needed, contact Carolyn Bennett Glauda – carolyn@senylrc.org or leave a message in the notes field to request those services when you register. Please register as soon as you know you will be attending. Requesting accommodations as early as possible is critical. Requests made at least one week in advance will help to ensure availability.
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The Topic for this meeting is Archivematica, a powerful, standards-based Digital Preservation tool Southeastern uses as part of our Digital Dark Archive service. Following a brief overview of the software, Zack Spalding (Southeastern’s Systems Manager) will demonstrate how he uses Archivematica to process and package files before sending them to long-term storage.
Webinar: We Have Always Been At War With Computers
Date: Thursday, August 21
Time: 12:30 pm - 1:30 pm
Online via Zoom
The event will be recorded
Join Jessamyn West and Ale Ruiz for a conversation about computers: what they are, how we use them, and why we use them wrong. Also, why it's not our fault. The values supposedly imbued into technology are not the ones actually reflected back at technology users. We'll talk about how various dark patterns serve the goals of capitalism not community and what we can do about it.
About the speakers:
Jessamyn West has been speaking on the intersection of libraries, technology and politics since 2003. You may have seen her talk about topics such as the digital divide and its effects on library services, Legislation that affects library services (such as CIPA, the USA PATRIOT Act and copyright laws), or rural libraries using new technologies to make the most of their small budgets, spaces, and staff. She has given talks to organizations all over the world, and her main work is at home in Orange County Vermont, helping libraries and librarians make sense of technology and teaching adult education classes in basic technology topics.
About Alejandro Ruiz: After 14 years writing software in the tech industry, Ale is now a PhD student at UVM in complex systems and data science. He writes about the intersection of computers and power at theluddite.org. He's interested in trying to understand what horrors he's helped unleash upon the world in his time in tech, and what we can do about it.
Leadership and Management Skills SIG
Date: Thursday, September 18, 2025
Time: 10:00 am – 12:00 pm
Facilitator: Laura Wolven, Finkelstein Memorial Library
Location: Southeastern NY Library Resources Council
Topic: Leadership and Trauma Recovery
In a new iteration of this group, we will talk about working in post-traumatic situations. Whether a traumatic situation was experienced by the collected staff or individually, on the job, or after hours, we can learn ways to adapt our management style to lead. At a time of turmoil and threats to libraries, leadership can feel lonelier than ever. This meeting is an opportunity to share collective experiences and brainstorm about solutions.
This group is for library workers of all library types who handle administrative tasks and are becoming leaders in the field. If you aspire to or are currently working as, a: director, assistant director, manager, program manager, trustee, or serve in a leadership role within a professional organization, this meeting is for you! Topics we will cover in this meeting may include:
- Supervising other staff, volunteers, and/or interns
- Introducing and running programs and services at the library
- Onboarding new employees
- Getting professional development for management skills
- Doing advocacy work on behalf of the library
- Creating and maintaining a budget
- Work/life balance in the light of growing work responsibilities
- Networking with other library workers who may become future colleagues
- Staying committed to social justice issues
- Working within union structures
- Influencing the culture of the library from within
- Deciding when and if to apply for different positions
The nature of the conversation will be based on the interests of the people who attend and may change from meeting to meeting. You can view the notes from previous meetings here.
Join us for the next Resource Sharing SIG, in-person at the Town of Ulster Library. In addition to a tour of the library, the agenda will be determined by the attendees. We will have plenty of time for open discussion on any and all resource sharing topics.
This SIG provides a friendly space for resource sharing professionals to meet, discuss workflows, and share resources. The Resource Sharing Special Interest Group (SIG) meets to discuss issues of Interlibrary Loan, delivery, union catalogs, and other related topics. The members of the group are a mix of full-time and part-time, degreed and non-degreed librarians, and come from all library types. Registration for this event is free and open to all.