It’s Library Card Sign-Up Month! As library people, we probably know most of the wonderful benefits of having a library card, but not everyone is aware of all the great things that become available with a library card!
Library Card Sign Up Month began in 1988. For more about the event’s history, read a thoroughly-detailed accounting in the August 24, 2015 entry at the American Library Association Archives Blog, A Library Card for Every Child: Library Card Sign-Up Month, by Cara Bertram. Then follow this link to view the American Libraries Association Council Resolution that started Library Card Sign Up Month.
ALA has some great resources you can use this month, including this press kit that has resources like this downloadable pdf containing twenty quotable facts about libraries. And I Love Libraries.org has this great list of ways to celebrate Library Card Sign Up Month!
Finally, watch and share this short video from Overdrive that details all the benefits of having a library card:
We hope that you have been enjoying CMLE’s podcasts: Linking Our Libraries and Reading With Libraries! We have so much fun sharing library training information and exploring different book genres with you. We’ve also learned (and continue to learn!) a ton about the process of putting together a podcast.
So we thought we should share some of that knowledge with you! There are several great library podcasts out there in addition to ours; check out this post that lists a few of them. But what if you want to start your own? We’ve compiled a list with photos and affiliate links to Amazon (if you make any purchases through these, a small portion is donated to CMLE!) to help show you the supplies we use for our podcast. When we were first starting, we wished for a list like this to help take some of the guesswork out of it!
(Note: there are definitely alternative ways to podcast, and your taste or need for equipment may be different than ours. We are not experts but felt the need to share what we have learned!)
Download your software. We use Audacity (it’s free!) for recording and editing and winLAME for converting the audio files into mP3 format.
You will need a host for your audio files, and we use LibSyn which works nicely with our WordPress website. LibSyn also allows you to embed audio players into your website and social media platforms.
Below is the way we situate our mics. We updated the mic stands we use and purchased these desktop adjustable models. They are more portable and easier to see over than our old stands. Another component of this picture is the pop filter. We use DragonPad Pop Filters.
Finally, this is the mixer that we use. You may not need one with this many capabilities, but since we want to be able to record from four mics at once, we needed a mixer with space to plug in four mics. Keep in mind that you’ll need a USB cord to connect the mixer to your computer! The mixer we use is the Behringer Xenyx 1204 USB and it contains phantom power which we need to power the mics. We definitely do not know even half of this mixer’s full capabilities but hope to continue learning more!
Please let us know if you have any questions about this process and we will answer them to the best of our ability! We are not podcasting experts but enjoy continuing to learn all the neat capabilities that our equipment can do for us!
We love sharing library and book information and connecting with our awesome community. And a GIANT thank you to all our members who have been Guest Hosts on the show! 🙂
As a multitype library system, one of our main goals is to provide connections between all different types of libraries: schools, history centers, museums, academic libraries, etc! One of our favorite ways to do this is through hosting social events where people from all types of libraries are free to get together and chat about library life.
We’ve had so much fun at our past social events and we’re excited to put together our next one which will take place in the month of October.
In the past, members have been pleased with the choice of Old Chicago in St. Cloud as a dinner destination, so we will be going there again. However, we need your help to decide on a date! Vote below and we’ll send out a notice of the final date.
As in the past, this will be a dinner social event that begins at 5:30pm. We like to keep things very casual with no agenda and the goal of simply meeting new people and talking libraries!
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 going to take a look at the Western Association of Map Libraries. “The Western Association of Map Libraries is an independent association of map librarians and other people with an interest in maps and map librarianship. Membership in WAML is open to any individual interested in furthering the purpose of the Association, which is “to encourage high standards in every phase of the organization and administration of map libraries.”
“Founded in 1967, WAML was the first independent organization centered on map collections and the librarians who oversee them. Academic libraries have always been strongly represented in the membership, but members also hail from public libraries, private collections, and government and commercial entities, or have been simply aficionados of maps and cartographic information. While paper map collections were traditionally the focus of attention, the advent of geographic information systems (GIS) and other digital platforms for geospatial data have led to a change in emphasis.”
WAML’s website includes a Map Librarians’ Toolbox full of resources including links to cataloging and processing tools as well as equipment and supplies.
Read more about WAML through their publications, one of which is open access!
Books are one of our favorite topics both at CMLE Headquarters and on our weekly podcast Linking Our Libraries.
Since this has been so popular with our readers and listeners, we decided to talk about books even more, in additional formats! This includes a second podcast about books coming out later this fall, and also includes some regular book suggestions here on our site.
(Books below have links to Amazon; if you follow them and make a purchase Amazon will donate a small percentage of your sale to CMLE! We appreciate it!!)
I’ve been listening to the YA book Shadowshaper by Daniel José Older and have really been enjoying it. It’s an urban fantasy that takes place in Brooklyn and it’s easy to imagine yourself running around with the main character Sierra, listening to music, painting murals, and dodging zombies. Sierra is piecing together a mystery that involves her grandfather’s connection with the spirit world and a rising threat that is placing her family in danger.
“Cassandra Clare meets Caribbean legend in SHADOWSHAPER, an action-packed urban fantasy from a bold new talent. Sierra Santiago was looking forward to a fun summer of making art, hanging out with her friends, and skating around Brooklyn. But then a weird zombie guy crashes the first party of the season. Sierra’s near-comatose abuelo begins to say “Lo siento” over and over. And when the graffiti murals in Bed-Stuy start to weep…. Well, something stranger than the usual New York mayhem is going on.”
If you are interested in YA urban fantasy, YALSA has this genre guide and Kirkus has this list of books with reviews. Or explore some of the titles below:
As a multitype library system, one of our main goals is to provide connections between all different types of libraries: schools, history centers, museums, academic libraries, etc! One of our favorite ways to do this is through hosting social events where people from all types of libraries are free to get together and chat about library life.
Books are one of our favorite topics both at CMLE Headquarters and on our weekly podcast 
I’ve been listening to the YA book