All posts by Angie

CMLE, Communication, Training

Summer is great for Continuing Education!

It can be hard to find the time for growing your professional skills and connections, but CMLE is here to help! We maintain this calendar full of many opportunities for Continuing Education classes, webinars, and conferences.

Remember, we also offer scholarships to make it possible for you to take advantage of these learning opportunities!

Take a look at the calendar which is located on our Continuing Education page and is updated often with new learning opportunities. We include a variety of events like webinars, online courses, in-person conferences, workshops, and yes, even free opportunities!

The page also has links to organizations like Library Juice, TIES, and the AASL’s eAcademy that offer their own training and development opportunities.

Make Continuing Education a priority this summer, and you will have some great new knowledge and skills to bring to your library in the fall! (Of course, if you are a year-round library person, you can put your new skills to work right away! 🙂 )

Books, Children's services

Engineering books for young readers!

Getting students involved and interested in STEM activities from a young age is so important! If you are a library person working with young people, this article from UCL Engineering lists some titles you may find useful to encourage an interest in STEM topics:

The Most Magnificent Thing by Ashley Spires
“For the early grades’ exploration of character education, this funny book offers a perfect example of the rewards of perseverance and creativity.

 

 

Detective Dot by Sophie Deen
“Nine-year-old tech whizz Detective Dot has a dangerous new mission from the Children’s Intelligence Agency – investigate teenage trillionaire Shelly Belly. Dot’s going to have to use all her coding skills, cunning and gadgets to crack the case.”

 

 

Rosie Revere, Engineer by Andrea Beaty
“Rosie may seem quiet during the day, but at night she’s a brilliant inventor of gizmos and gadgets who dreams of becoming a great engineer.”

 

 

The Fourteenth Goldfish by Jennifer L. Holm
“Galileo. Newton. Salk. Oppenheimer.
Science can change the world . . . but can it go too far?”

Books

Stories where women save the day – Wonder Woman included!

Feeling inspired after seeing the new Wonder Woman movie? Or do you just enjoy books featuring strong women? Then check out this article from the Book Bub Blog, which gives some reading suggestions for books where women come to the rescue!  (And don’t miss our previous CMLE blog post about women in comics, from guest blogger Carli Spina!)

West With The Night by Beryl Markham
“Beryl Markham’s life was a true epic, complete with shattered societal expectations, torrid love affairs, and desperate crash landings. A rebel from a young age, the British-born Markham was raised in Kenya’s unforgiving farmlands. Hailed by National Geographic as one of the greatest adventure books of all time, West with the Night is the sweeping account of a fearless and dedicated woman”

I Am Malala by  Malala Yousafzai
“I Am Malala is the remarkable tale of a family uprooted by global terrorism, of the fight for girls’ education, of a father who, himself a school owner, championed and encouraged his daughter to write and attend school, and of brave parents who have a fierce love for their daughter in a society that prizes sons.”


The Secret History of Wonder Woman by Jill Lepore
“A cultural history of Wonder Woman traces the character’s creation and enduring popularity, drawing on interviews and archival research to reveal the pivotal role of feminism in shaping her seven-decade story.”

 

CMLE, Communication, Resources

Don’t miss our latest podcast, featuring some special CMLE guests!

We were lucky enough to have two guests on our podcast this week: Jessie Storlien, Stearns History Center; and Susan Schleper, St. Cloud Hospital Library.

(You can download all our podcasts at iTunes or the podcast app of your choice; or you can listen to this episode here!)

Topic of the Week: Special Libraries

From Wikipedia:
“A special library is a library that provides specialized information resources on a particular subject, serves a specialized and limited clientele, and delivers specialized services to that clientele.[1] Special libraries include corporate libraries, government libraries, law libraries, medical libraries, museum libraries, news libraries, and nonprofit libraries. Special libraries also exist within academic institutions, including law school libraries and medical school libraries. These libraries are included as special libraries because they are often funded separately from the rest of the university and they serve a targeted group of users.[2]”

Learn more about special libraries and listen to our episode here.

Academic, Programs, Resources

“Human Libraries” work to confront stereotypes

You may remember in our very first episode of our CMLE podcast we discussed how Penn State is using the concept of “Human books” to build connections between people with diverse backgrounds, perspectives, and experiences. (Find that article here).

Since we think this idea is so interesting and smart, we were excited to see it back in the news again with this article from American Libraries Magazine. The article shares some history about the concept of Human Libraries and also describes how Williams College in Massachusetts is implementing it as a program in their academic library in order to “confront prejudice and stereotypes.”

From the article:
“Globally, Human Libraries have taken off in a big way. More than 2,000 Human Library events have been hosted in 84 countries since the project first started 17 years ago, according to Ronni Abergel, founder of the international Human Library network, who cohosted the first Human Library in Copenhagen.  Once the four-day gathering ended, Abergel says he couldn’t let go of the vital conversations that arose between his living “books” and “readers,” especially one between a police officer and a group of antifascist youth, a pairing whose relationship grew from antagonistic to productive within an hour.”

Read more about how to apply to be a Human Library and tips for “developing” your collection!