All posts by Kate

Minnesota Book Awards Resources Available!

The Minnesota Book Awards is accepting applications from public libraries and public schools interested in receiving up to $500 in funding reimbursement for hosting an author program featuring a Minnesota Book Award winning or finalist author. Interested parties are encouraged to apply by November 23, but applications will remain open until all funding is allocated (which will probably be at least through the end of November).

For more information, please visit: http://www.thefriends.org/programs/mnbookawards/mba_resources.html#funding.

Bookmarks, posters, and reading guides featuring the 2012 winning authors and their books are available to MEMO members at no charge. To view the items and/or download the reading guides, please visit: http://www.thefriends.org/programs/mnbookawards/mba_resources.html.

To request materials, please email mnbookawards@thefriends.org and provide:

  • Quantity desired of each material
  • Complete address to which the items should be mailed

We’ve Learned: Staffing News and Updates from Around the Region

We’ve Learned… is designed to keep our readers informed about news concerning personnel in CMLE libraries/media centers. Please keep us informed of any “happenings” regarding staff members in your area so that we can include them in the next write-up! Happenings can include: changes in staffing, awards, honors… you get the idea!

  • Mary Waite is the new Media Specialist at Rocori Middle School and High School.
  • Tom Gilgenbach is the new Media Specialist at Maple Lake High School.
  • Be sure to send CMLE updates from your library, school, or district as well! Send us an email or post in the comments area. We’d love to share them!

Superhero 2012 – Tech Camp: A CMLE Scholarship

The following was submitted by a CMLE scholarship recipient.

Submitted by: Debbie Disher, Holdingford Public Schools Media Specialist

I recently had the opportunity to attend my first Superhero conference held over Education Minnesota weekend at Madden’s Resort.  One of my favorite things about the conference was that it was small and relaxing.  There were approximately 65 attendees from Minnesota, North Dakota, Wisconsin and California.  We had time to attend some great mini-sessions as well as opportunities to connect with others and share our technology experiences. 

Some of the great ideas that I left the conference with included:  how to make better presentations, using the iPad for documentation, Chrome extensions and all the possibilities they give us, Reflections vs. Apple TV, and much more.  One thing that we are going to try for our January inservice day is to Flip our technology portion of the inservice.  We are going to create some short screencasts of different things we learned at the conference, send these out to teachers ahead of time and then on inservice day offer an open lab and give teachers time to come down and try some of these things we learned.  We will be there to offer assistance.  Not only will we be demonstrating the “flipped classroom”, but also give teachers an opportunity to expand their technology skills.

This is a great conference and we will be attending next year.  This is a great conference for classroom teachers, integrationists, technology coordinators, etc.  Anyone who wishes to know more checkout their website (https://sites.google.com/site/superherotechcamp/) or feel free to contact me.

Staying Connected with CMLE via Email

CMLE wants to stay connected with you! One of the ways we do this is by sending specific and targeted emails to five distinct listservs. We do our best to keep the messages basic so that the email isn’t blocked or marked as spam by your email service; however, we have found that some of our library personnel struggle with this quite a bit. Below we’ve provided some key information about staying connected with CMLE – feel free to apply some of these techniques to other contacts you wish to stay in touch with as well!

Have you noticed that many important emails are showing up in junk folders or on spam reports?   This problem can easily be fixed in five (maybe more) ways.

  1. The best way of preventing  important emails from going into your spam report or junk folder is to add the sender(s) to your safe senders list. See the section below for CMLE addresses to add to your safe sender list. In Outlook software, go into the junk folder, right click on a spam message, and add the sender to your safe sender list.
  2. Add important senders to your Contacts list. If you use Outlook, each time you add a person to your Contacts list, that person is automatically added to your safe sender list.
  3. The last way is by taking people off of your blocked senders list.  Once a sender ends up in your spam folder, that sender’s emails may (or may not) continue going there. This is because in some email  programs, some contacts in the spam folder are automatically added to the blocked senders list.  You will want to go into your blocked senders list. Remove the important people from this list so you will still get their messages.
  4. Have you tried the three options above and still haven’t gotten anywhere? Or, are you just not sure about this whole process? Print out this blog post, take it to your tech person, and ask for their assistance in putting the addresses in the next section on your Safe Senders list (sometimes also referred to as a whitelist).
  5. Have you tried the options above and aren’t able to work with your tech support? Contact Kate Bessey at kmbessey@stcloudstate.edu for help!

CMLE Addresses to Add to your Safe Sender or Contacts List

Most of our members can easily spot which listserv below that they would be included on. Board members or those not necessarily affiliated directly with a specific library type, may fall into Other. Consider your work setting, then select which of following five selections below as the most probable list you would reside on.  Please add it to your safe senders list (some email services also call it a whitelist).

  1. Academic Library Listserv: cmle-list-academic-bounces@lists.stcloudstate.edu
  2. K-12 Library Media Center Listserv: cmle-list-k-12-bounces@lists.stcloudstate.edu
  3. Public Library Listserv: cmle-list-public-bounces@lists.stcloudstate.edu
  4. Special Library Listserv: cmle-list-special-bounces@lists.stcloudstate.edu
  5. Other Listserv: cmle-list-other-bounces@lists.stcloudstate.edu

In addition, it is important to make sure you can receive email from the following three email addresses by adding these to your Contacts or safe senders list.

papost@stcloudstate.edu (Patricia Post)

kmbessey@stcloudstate.edu (Kate Bessey)

cmle@stcloudstate.edu (This email sends you overdue and cancellation letters on your CMLE interlibrary loan items, and it is also used by our ILL Assistant, Danielle.)

Final Important Tip

Please remember to check your Junk folder or spam report at least once a week. Sometimes, a subject line on a message will send an email to your Junk folder, even if messages from that person don’t typically go there, and even if they are included on your safe senders list and on your Contacts list.

CMLE cannot guarantee that all of our 319 member libraries receive all pertinent emails sent from our office. Your diligence in checking your spam folder and addressing problems as outlined in this communication are very much appreciated and will go a long way towards ensuring that you will receive emails about promotions, discounts, and free offers. Thank you.

Recommended App: Word Lens

Word Lens lets you see the world in your language! Instantly translate printed words from one language to another with your built-in video camera, in real time! No network is required to operate the app; results appear immediately on your screen when you need it. It is best used on clearly printed large texts like signs or menus. Translated languages include: English, Spanish, Italian, and French. This app is available for most iOS devices 4.3 and later, and is optimized for iPhone 5. Additionally, the app is available for Android 2.3.3 (and up). It usually costs around $4.99. Want to learn more? Check out http://questvisual.com/us/ or watch this YouTube video.