All posts by Kate

Academic, General, Public, School Media Specialist, Special

Gentleman (and ladies) … Start your READING!

One Book, One Twitter is officially underway! American Gods by Neil Gaiman was selected as the first book that the “club” will read. I’ve already picked up my copy from the library, and if all goes according to plan… will start devouring tonight!

The One Book, One Twitter book club opened for discussion starting on May 5th. If you’re interested, you may wish to review the following for a system of hashmarks for tweeting and commentary…

#1b1t: General Discussion

#1b1t_1c: Discussion of Chapter 1 (and prologue material)

#1b1t_2c: Discussion of Chapter 2

… and on until the final chapter.

For additional information, and a One Book, One Twitter reading schedule, take a look at Jeff Howe’s Crowdsourcing blog – he’s the guy that started the whole thing!

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Report for the DrupalCon Conference: A CMLE Scholarship

The following report was submitted by a recipient of our new CMLE scholarship program.

Submitted by Alex Jarvis

 With the generous support of the CMLE, I was able to attend the DrupalCon conference in San Francisco from April 17-22. Drupal is a free, open source content management system and framework that allows for the rapid development of websites and web services. The conference was an excellent opportunity that will have a direct impact on my work on Great Riverʼs web presence. The sessions were highly informative, giving me insights into new technologies Great River should consider adopting (such as Solr search), as well as optimizations and best practices for the online services we already provide. It also gave me the opportunity to meet with other libraries from across the country and talk with them about innovative ways of implement Drupal-based library products and services. These invaluable interactions have opened up exciting collaboration opportunities; some of the libraries I talked to have worked more extensively with Drupal than Great River has to date, and can help us improve our offerings, while others are still evaluating their options and would like to talk to us about our experience migrating a legacy site.

 Attendance at the conference will also help further Great Riverʼs goal of eventually hosting a Central Minnesota Drupal conference for libraries. At DrupalCon I spoke to several conference organizers who were kind enough to share their invaluable insights and suggestions for organizing a successful Drupal-oriented gathering.

 Overall the conference was a fantastic learning and networking experience, and I would like to thank the CMLE for sponsoring my attendance. I would also recommend Drupal to any library that is considering revamping their online presence. More information about Drupal can be found at www.drupal.org.

Check this out:, Public, School Media Specialist

Maud Hart Lovelace Book Award Winners Announced

On April 25th, winners of the Maud Hart Lovelace Book Award were announced at the Red Balloon Bookshop in St. Paul. The 2009-2010 Maud Hart Lovelace award is a children’s choice book award presented by The Minnesota Youth Reading Association (MYRA).

The winner for division 1 (grades 3-5) was Champ by Marcia Thornton Jones.

The winner for division 2 (grades 6-8) was I’d Tell You I Love You, But then I’d Have to Kill You by Ally Carter.

The award, established in 1980, honors Maud Hart Lovelace (1892-1980), the author of the popular Betsy-Tacy series about growing up in Mankato at the turn of the twentieth century.  The goal of the award is to encourage recreational reading among school age children.  Each year winners are announced on Maud Hart Lovelace’s birthday, April 25. More information is available at:  http://maudhartlovelace.org.