This summer has been a time of fast change and activity for CMLE!

During the past 35+ years, St. Cloud State University and CMLE have cooperatively succeeded in accomplishing many things which have benefited both organizations. In fact, CMLE members lobbied strongly with the Minnesota Legislature to secure the funding for the building of the university library back in the late 90’s! It was portrayed to be the information hub for Central Minnesota. With 265 K-12 schools benefiting from the interlibrary loan service, SCSU and CMLE lived up to that promise. Books and other materials were shared by both organizations to the benefit of students at SCSU as well as at other colleges, prisons, schools, and hospitals within the CMLE service area.

It has been a great partnership, but like many relationships there comes a time when the needs of each partner change. It was the decision of the staff and Governing Board in June that it was time for a separation. CMLE needed more flexibility in providing staff and expertise than the SCSU union environment could provide. The 2013 sunsetting of the CMLE interlibrary loan  service also changed previous reasons for physical proximity too.

CMLE has moved into the offices of cmERDC in East St. Cloud, and we are on a fast track to become 100% operational. At the time of this writing, we are still working out of boxes, but our laptops don’t care! Please change our contact information as soon as possible….you can find it here on our website. See pictures on our Facebook page of our space progress thus far; stay tuned for updates!

ERDC staff have welcomed us, and have been nothing but gracious, friendly and helpful. We are open and optimistic about the future!

Patricia Post
CMLE Executive Director

Image credit: http://gratisography.com/ (Ryan McGuire), licensed under CC0 1.0