All posts by Angie

School Media Specialist, Visits

Visit to the Albany High School Library!

We were so excited to get a tour of the newly redone library and learning commons at the Albany High School! Construction is still taking place around other parts of the school, but the library was bright and inviting, with lots of exciting things happening there! Thank you to media specialist Aileen Swenson for a fantastic tour!

Before you enter the media center is a large space called the Learning Commons. There are several different layouts of tables, chairs, and space to study, collaborate, or just hang out for a few minutes with a good book! We saw lots of students taking advantage of this useful space.

 

In one of the rooms right off of the Learning Commons is a classroom that media specialist Aileen uses to teach important information literacy and digital citizenship skills.

 

 

 

To your right when you enter the media center are some cool benches strategically placed near the periodicals. Aileen shared that the art department students are working on some special installations that will soon decorate this part of the library! We love to see art, especially student art, in libraries, so we are excited to see what is created.

Also placed right in the middle of the action is this display of New Releases! They have a great selection, and I recognized several titles from my own TBR list! Aileen said they purposefully place this display in the busier part of the library so that if students are just passing through the library heading someplace else, maybe a book will catch their eye and they’ll check it out!

You may notice those enclosed work areas with glass windows. Students who are doing group work can use those spaces to really focus on their projects without disturbing other library users.

We loved finding the festive art installations scattered around the library. This guy is doing some holiday reading outside the group work areas!

 

 

 

 

In the front of the library is the always important reference desk! You can see there is lots going on here, and it was great to meet some of the other library workers.

We love seeing libraries with a sense of humor, so these book return bins made us happy. Plus, cats and libraries just go together!

The school recently made a switch to include the 6th grade in their facility, so the library is working to accommodate the new students and their reading interests.

One way the library is making an effort to be welcoming to their younger students is by placing their book options in an easy to find spot. This row of shelves (easy to rearrange, thanks to the wheels!) is targeted  towards the middle school readers. We love the holiday decorations too!

And of course books are wonderful to see, but it’s also really exciting to hear about the programs happening in school libraries! Albany High School has a Tech Club, led by another library worker, where kids learn to fix Chromebooks and do other technology – oriented activities. We also learned about the Come Alive book groups and got to admire shirts from past years. There is a middle school group and a high school group, and it’s great to hear about all the kids that gather to share their enjoyment of books!

A few more cool aspects of this library include this puzzle table, where students can come work on the puzzle in the morning before school, or during some free time. On the back wall of the room you’ll notice a screen that shows school news, like activity schedules and more! There’s also a room where students or teachers can communicate with other school locations, which is pretty cool.

As library fans, we were so pleased to see all the books available for students. This gentleman is browsing the nonfiction section.

 

 

 

 

We also were excited to see their growing selection of graphic novels! If you need some suggestions for great graphic novels, check out our podcast episode about the genre.

We had such a great time visiting the Albany High School Library! It’s really encouraging to hear about the students that enjoy using the library’s resources, or who come to high school already knowing about the importance of using proper citations. Have we been to visit your library yet? We want to come admire your space!

School Media Specialist, Tech

AASL Recommended Apps: STEM: Desmos Graphing Calculator

The app Desmos Graphing Calculator is made to help students understand advanced math concepts. The app does this by putting them onto a graph with an x-axis and y-axis, also called a coordinate plane. “The built-in examples cover subjects such as lines, parabolas, trigonometry, conic sections, parametric equations, transformations, statistics, lists, and calculus.” Students can change variables manually, graph several functions at once, and save/share their work.

Level: High School +
Platform: iOS | Android
Cost: FREE

Common Sense Media has this post about the ways the app can be used, as well as suggestions for ways to use the app with students. This quick post from App Ed Review features instructional ideas to incorporate the app into the classroom.

This video (under 5 min) shows a quick tutorial on how to use Desmos Graphic Calculator:

Advocacy, CMLE

Successful Advocacy Postcard Party!

As you can see, our table was packed! We had members coming and going, and it was a great way to introduce people from different types of libraries to each other!

Thank you to the many members who braved the cold on Tuesday, December 19th to join us at the Local Blend to write out some postcards to legislators, telling them all about the incredible impact libraries have on their communities!

We had a blast! Between seeing both new and familiar faces and the yummy warm beverages (and of course, exciting library conversation) we were able to write out nearly 75 postcards! Our goal was to encourage our legislators to support funding for libraries, and also to support net neutrality (for more on net neutrality and why it’s important for libraries, check out this article).

Of course, we are already thinking ahead to our next postcard party, which will likely take place in the spring. In the meantime, if you’d like to send some postcards of your own, along with some library facts or just a positive story about something that happened at your library, stop in to CMLE HQ to pick up a postcard or two. We’ll even mail it for you! 🙂

 

CMLE, Communication

Plan to visit CMLE HQ during our 2018 Office Hours!

A vital part of being a multitype library system like CMLE is that we want to be easily available to our members! You can always email us at admin@cmle.org or call our office, but sometimes it’s nice to be able to have a face-to-face conversation, especially if you need shared excitement for a new project, or sympathy for a challenge you’re experiencing.

That’s why we have Office Hours!! During our Office Hours at CMLE HQ, Mary and Angie will be available to discuss any library ideas or challenges that you are encountering. Usually the Official Office Dog Lady Grey will be onsite also, offering soothing support and accepting attention. 

So, we’re excited to announce our schedule for the first few months of 2018. We’re changing the schedule slightly to make it more possible for members to stop in.

  • January: Mondays from 11am to 1pm
  • February: Tuesdays from 11am to 1pm
  • March: Wednesdays from 11am to 1pm

CMLE HQ is located at: 570 1st St. SE St. Cloud MN 56304. We are in the cmERDC building right next to East Side Target.
We hope to see you soon! Of course, if you need to setup a time to chat (or if you’d like us to visit you) definitely email us at admin@cmle.org and we’ll work something out!

Books

Book Suggestions: Everything, Everything

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!

I recently finished Nicola Yoon’s book The Sun is Also a Star and really enjoyed it, so I thought I’d read her first book, Everything, Everything. I’m about halfway through and enjoying this one, too! YA romance can be tricky and this one is definitely dramatic, but it’s hard not to admire Madeline’s need to experience life, no matter the risks! Plus, she loves books, so we know she’s a good one. :)The book has fun little illustrations throughout too, which add to the world of the story. It’s a quick read and I think I know how the story will end, but I’m excited to see if I’m right!

“My disease is as rare as it is famous. Basically, I’m allergic to the world. I don’t leave my house, have not left my house in seventeen years. The only people I ever see are my mom and my nurse, Carla.

But then one day, a moving truck arrives next door. I look out my window, and I see him. He’s tall, lean and wearing all black—black T-shirt, black jeans, black sneakers, and a black knit cap that covers his hair completely. He catches me looking and stares at me. I stare right back. His name is Olly.

Maybe we can’t predict the future, but we can predict some things. For example, I am certainly going to fall in love with Olly. It’s almost certainly going to be a disaster.”