You want stuff? We’ve got stuff! And we are giving it away just for you! Yep: we are here to help you with an assortment of library-related stuff. Do you need other library stuff? Send an email to admin@cmle.org, and let’s see if we can make it happen for you!

VR Kits

We have VR kits! Members can try a virtual reality kit, filled with over 700 prepackaged lessons for your students and patrons. We don’t loan them to teachers – we loan to the school’s library/media center and you can share them with your teachers.

Each kit comes with eight headsets for you to share around the room. You can borrow two kits, sometimes three if we don’t have a big wait list. Usually your library will be able to keep your kits for a month. We will do some quick training for you, and for your teachers, if you haven’t already had the training program.

You can find some general information here. And if are interested, send me an email at mary@cmle.org to get on our reservation list.

Podcasts

We have two podcasts for you, filled with information. Right now, we are sharing new episodes of our reader’s advisory podcast: Reading With Libraries. Each week we look at new genres, or new book prompts – like a book group! We share beverages that match the theme of the week’s books. And we share a variety of different resources to be sure you feel confident in finding good books for yourself, or for your patrons.

Our second podcast is Linking Our Libraries. We talk about a different library skill each week. A lot of our members do not have much, if any, training in working in libraries; and we want to make this easier. So we break down important topics and help you to feel confident in your library skills.

And when one podcast is on hiatus, in that feed on Tuesdays we drop a short book podcast: Browsing Books. We have looked at every state park in Minnesota – coming up with an interesting fact about each one, and suggesting six books to go along with that fact. We are currently working our way through every county in Minnesota, and again suggesting six books.

Newsletter

We collect library news to share with you, as well as links to our two podcast every week. There are occasionally some fun surprises in the newsletter. And it’s just an easy way to quickly keep up on some news in the library world. You can go here to sign up!