All posts by Angie

Advocacy

CMLE’s Virtual Library Legislative Day

Earlier this month at CMLE HQ we celebrated Virtual Library Legislative Day on Tuesday, March 6th. That was the same day that many librarians also attended Legislative Day at the MN Capitol! Virtual Library Legislative Week was happening at the same time, so our advocating for libraries didn’t stop after one day! (Didn’t get a chance to contact your legislator? No problem – scroll down the page for more info on how to do so today!)

To celebrate Virtual Library Legislative Day, CMLE HQ had snacks, postcards, names and addresses of legislators, and sample text for our members to use, and we had fun seeing the flurry of activity online from excited library advocates! We were extra impressed by those able to make it to the Capitol, and loved seeing their experiences documented on social media.

Didn’t get a chance to advocate on Legislative Day or during Virtual Legislative Week? Don’t worry, it’s always a good time to advocate for libraries!! Thanks to the awesome information on the Minnesota Library Advocacy website, you can (and should) take a few minutes to contact your legislators. Find your MN legislators here.

Then use these resources to let them know which bill numbers to support! This is very important and makes it easier for your legislators to take action! Keep in mind that the bills with “HF” are for the House of Representatives and “SF” is for the Senate. Just in case, here is the list of bills from the website:

Bill numbers

RLBSS & Multi-type Funding Bill

HF 1382 Rep. Bud Nornes (R, 8A) [Bill details]

SF 1033 Sen. Gary Dahms (R, 16 ) [Bill details]

Bonding

HF 1484 Rep. Jeff Howe, (R, 13A) [Bill details]

SF 2218 Sen. Bill Ingebrigtson) (R, 8) [Bill details]

School Librarians Grant Pool

HF 2698 Rep Mary Kunesh-Podein (DFL, 41B) [Bill details]

Need some help with what to say when you contact your legislator? Check out these letter/email writing templates and tips, or if you want to make a phone call, read through this page that has a call script template and other tips for making calls to your legislators.

You can do it! Your Minnesota libraries need you! 

Communication, General

Learning About Library Associations: Mountain Plains Library Association

Library science is an enormous field, home to every interest you could imagine! This means that there are many organizations out there for you to join, in order to connect with other people who share your professional interests.

So even if you work alone in your library, there are other people out there doing work similar to yours! Each week we will highlight a different library association for you to learn more about, and depending on your work, potentially join! You can also check out our page dedicated to Library Associations.

This week we’ll learn about the Mountain Plains Library Association (MPLA). MPLA is a twelve state organization of libraries, librarians, and friends of libraries in the states of Arizona, Colorado, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Utah and Wyoming. The main goal of MPLA is to “improve present and future library services in the Mountain Plains region through development of librarians, trustees and library employees.”

MPLA is an impressive library association with a ton to offer their members. One of the first things we noticed about this association is that they have a library podcast!! It’s called the Library Leadership Podcast and you can listen to their episodes on their podcast page. We love to see libraries podcasting!

MPLA has an annual conference, taking place this year in Wichita, KS from October 23 – 26th. They offer professional development grants to members, with the categories of mini-grants and regular grants. Their Continuing Education page is full of great resources, including links to free training, relevant state library associations, and vendors.

Their 2018 Leadership Institute is coming up in Estes Park, CO from April 29th – May 4th and will feature nationally known organizational development consultant Maureen Sullivan.  “Ms. Sullivan has over 25 years of experience in leadership development and is the Past President of the American Library Association.  She helped establish the ACRL/Harvard Leadership Institute and is a faculty member for its annual program.” Check out testimonials from past conference attendees here.

Stay on top of MPLA happenings with their newsletter, explore their posted jobs, or find out more about becoming a member of their organization! Keep up the great work, MPLA!

Books

Book Suggestion: Red Sparrow by Jason Matthews

We love to read books, and to talk about books. Check out our entire series here! Need more book chatting and suggestions in your life? Listen to our Books and Beverages podcast!

You’ve probably seen the previews for the Red Sparrow movie, and may be as surprised as I was to learn that it was a book first (and part of a trilogy, which is always a nice discovery)! I was able to borrow the book from a friend, with the promise that we’d go to the movie together and complain about all the parts they messed up 🙂

I’ve read a decent amount of the mystery and thriller genre, but this book (written by a former CIA officer) is incredibly detailed with historical case names, methods of communication, and a ton of CIA jargon and acronyms. I didn’t enjoy all that quite as much as the actual story, which was about two agents supposed to “recruit” the other into betraying their country but of course, they end up falling for each other. There’s A LOT more involved, with lots of action, travel, resisting interrogation techniques, and a creepy “executioner” guy with a milky white blind eye. If you are a fan of spy novels, check this one out!

From Goodreads:
“In the grand spy-tale tradition of John le Carré comes this shocking thriller written with insider detail known only to a veteran CIA officer.

In present-day Russia, ruled by blue-eyed, unblinking President Vladimir Putin, Russian intelligence officer Dominika Egorova struggles to survive in the post-Soviet intelligence jungle. Ordered against her will to become a “Sparrow,” a trained seductress, Dominika is assigned to operate against Nathaniel Nash, a young CIA officer who handles the Agency’s most important Russian mole.

Packed with insider detail and written with brio, this tour-de-force novel brims with Matthews’s life experience, including his knowledge of espionage, counterintelligence, surveillance tradecraft, spy recruitment, cyber-warfare, the Russian use of “spy dust,” and covert communications.”

School Media Specialist, Visits

Visit to Cathedral High School’s Library!

 

We were definitely excited to visit this high school library, and a big thank you to Media Specialist Julie Notsch for a fantastic tour! Side note: I actually graduated from Cathedral years ago, so I was extra excited to see how things had improved and changed! 

During our visit we definitely got a feel for how well-used the library is.  We had to time our photo-taking in between classes to avoid accidentally including any students!

 

The blue color of the wall doesn’t just look nice, it tells the students that those bookshelves contain the fiction collection.

There were all sorts of different seating options available for solitary or group work: regular tables and chairs, high tables with charging stations, and a great arrangement of chairs near the magazines. Plus, notice the helpful “No Sleeping” sign next to what looks like a very cozy studying spot!

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The student art in this library was really impressive. We love hearing about the collaborations between the library and other departments, plus we noticed several book-related pieces of art were on display!

 

 

 

The layout of the library had definitely changed since I’d attended school here, but the reference desk was easily found and accessible to students who needed assistance!

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We always like to see the creativity that comes from collaboration with other teachers. The Instagram picture is from the CHS summer reading program last year, where students got to post pictures and book reviews to get ice cream treats! What could be better?

We appreciated Julie sharing her experience with ordering and organizing materials, as well as encouraging other teachers to hold their classes in the library. It’s clear that students and faculty alike appreciate the library and the awesome work happening there!

Thanks for an awesome visit! 🙂

 

Communication

Learning About Library Associations: Major Orchestra Librarians’ Association

Library science is an enormous field, home to every interest you could imagine! This means that there are many organizations out there for you to join, in order to connect with other people who share your professional interests.

So even if you work alone in your library, there are other people out there doing work similar to yours! Each week we will highlight a different library association for you to learn more about, and depending on your work, potentially join! You can also check out our page dedicated to Library Associations.

This week we are learning about the Major Orchestra Librarians’ Association (MOLA). Their mission is to  “facilitate communication between professional performance librarians, educate and assist them in providing service to their organizations, provide support and resources to the performing arts, and work with publishers  to achieve the highest standards in music performance materials.”

MOLA was founded in 1983 and is made up of more than 270 performance organizations around the world, with more than 450 librarians. Librarians are able to share information and connect through MOLA to help with their library work.

Their annual conference is right around the corner, taking place March 16th – 19th and hosted by the Kansas City Symphony!

Their website offers plenty of resources for members. MOLA members can stay current with news through the quarterly newsletter, interact with other members through their online Discussion Forum, or browse current job openings and internships.

Interested in joining MOLA? Explore their detailed list of member organizations and librarians! Then visit their membership page to learn about the application process.