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2019 Midland/Northern Conference
Dates: April 8 - 10, 2019
Conference Location: The New York Public Library’s flagship research library: the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building at 5th avenue between 40th-42nd streets, New York City
Registration charge: will be $100 for the full conference, or $50 for a one-day pass. If this is prohibitive though contact Jill. Payment can be made by check or credit card. Make checks out to: Midlands Conference of Librarians and mail to Scott Norris, Braille and Talking Book Library, 702 W. Kalamazoo St. P.O. Box 30007 Lansing, MI 48909. Or pay by credit card at this link: https://www.showclix.com/event/nlsconf2019
Be sure to also fill out your information at the Registration link: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSchixUuGf72AVvmM5iXSG0-Z-yZBH0tlHQhM2vtuQzcHSVCvw/viewform?usp=sf_link
Hotel information: We will be booking a small group block at the wonderful Dewey-decimal-themed Library Hotel, which is just one short block away from the conference location. It's a really good price for this kind of hotel and includes a lot of your food and coffee needs.
FREE amenities for our group include: daily continental breakfast buffet, coffee and snacks throughout the day in the lounge, wine and cheese reception in the afternoon-evenings, WiFi, passes to NY Sports Club, use of indoor/outdoor rooftop lounge and reading den until 4pm (when it turns into a cocktail bar), business area with computers and printing. And of course we will work with them on accessibility, braille menus, etc etc.
We will be able to get 10 petit rooms at $260 / night plus taxes, and 5 queen rooms at $306/night plus taxes. The petit rooms are small but lovely – with just enough room to walk around the double bed, plus a closet and mini-fridge and a tub-shower combo in the bathroom.
The queen rooms are slightly bigger and have a chair and a larger bathroom, and are the tier for ADA rooms. You can find photos on the website and you can ask me if you have questions.
RESERVATION PROCEDURE (CALL IN PROCEDURE): Individual guests may contact the hotel to reserve their rooms with a major credit card. Reservations may be made by phone (212) 204 – 5408 or e-mail Joel@LibraryHotel.com. Guests must specify that they wish to reserve a room from the New York Public Library block in order to receive the special discounted group rate. The room block will be held until 12:00PM EST on Saturday, March 09, 2019. After the cutoff date, any rooms not reserved by name with a credit card will be released back to the reservations department for sale to the general public.
OR, option 2 for if the rooms are sold out, is DIY: There are so many hotels around this area. Book online at Booking.com or any hotel consolidator of your choice. Many offer free cancellation and good rates if you book now. Note there will be no shuttle service but we’re a very walkable city and have buses running up 6th avenue and down 5th avenue, and hundreds of Via ride shares. You can search for hotels near Times Square (which is two blocks West of the Library). Blocks between numbers (ie 37th street to 38th street) are very short.
Or Google “hotels near the Stephen A. Schwarzman building” and a map will come up showing prices, and letting you choose dates to search for (currently, the “Americana Inn” (4 blocks away)is showing $197/night and Dylan Hotel (1.5 blocks away) is showing $222/ night, and Marriott Vacation Club Pulse (4 blocks away) is showing $207/night. Note that I don’t know anything about hotels other than the one we’re getting a block at, but you can check ratings and websites)
Rough Draft of Agenda:
Monday April 8th: Trustees Room, 207, South Court, 8:30am - 5:30pm
8:30 Coffee and snacks 9:00 Welcome! 9:30 Roll Call! 10:00 Assistive Technology 11:00 Updates from NLS: Refreshable Braille Display loans, Media and Outreach, MOCA (etc, tbd) 12:00 Lunch on your own 1:30 Tools for Great readers advisory 2:30 Keynote one 3:00 Youth services: new pathways to access 3:45 Break and snack 4:00 Spark talks 4:15 Afternoon think tank choices: Digital Accessibility; Troubleshooting with the USPS; Redistributing staffing - new models, and/or public library/nls hybrids; Working with patrons with multiple disabilities (incl developmental); 5:30 *Evening activity and reception and optional tour of SASB
Tuesday April 9th: Trustees Room, 207, South Court, 8:30am - 5:30pm 8:30 am Coffee and snacks 9:00 Morning Think Tank Topics: Being an accessibility advocate in your larger institution and training staff in disability awareness; Motivating and energizing staff; Diversity and underserved populations; What to do about all those studio-produced analog cassettes? A philosophical and practical talk 10:00 Share-out 10:15 Panel and workshop: Duplication on Demand, models, step-by-steps, and checklists 11:15 Updates from NLS: NextGen machines, simplified interfaces, batteries and stock, MOC/PIMMS updates (etc, tbd) 12:15 - updates from Perkins Braille Display Pilot 12:30 Lunch on your own 2:00 Head down together to visit to the Andrew Heiskell Braille and Talking Book Library 2:30 Workshop on using 2d and 3d tactile for visual and spatial literacies and running accessible arts and cultural programs, 3:30 Afternoon workshop choices: Audio Description training for images, art/illustration, and video; Tour of Heiskell; Starting with Hindenberg from scratch / everything DB creation. (and managing studio volunteers round table); Open lab time for 2d tactiles creation and assistance
Wednesday April 10th: Trustees Room, 207, South Court, 8:30am - 5:30pm 8:30 Coffee and snacks 9:00 Keynote 2 9:45 Morning think tank choices: Creating and running braille study groups; Early and pre-literacy skills and activities for children who are blind or have low vision; Circulation open discussion - amnesty, overdues, increasing circ, etc; Summer Reading and Bookclubs - participation/retention, awards, etc 11:00 Share-out 11:30 Speed networking 12:30 Lunch on your own 2:00 ILS breakout sessions 3:00 Regional Conference meetings 4:00 Closing remarks
NYC Mayor's Office for People with Disabilities Guide to Accessible Recreation and Culture in NYC https://www1.nyc.gov/site/mopd/resources/recreation-culture.page