This season we are talking about library programs – giving you some ideas about different ideas you can try in your own library. It is always good to share ideas across libraries, and we are all better! Each week we will look at a different theme of programs.

This week we are discussing the tasty program of cooking in the library! This is another set of programs that you can easily do either in person or virtually. (It is, of course, best to make all of your programs available virtually; this week just lends itself to that pretty well.)

Check out our show notes page here, with links to all the programs.

We will insert a blanket disclaimer here that food sensitivities, allergies, and religious restrictions are important to people. So be sure you are sharing ingredients and preparation methods with people as freely as possible; and to the extent possible, offer some flexibility in the program to accommodate these issues.

In general, food is a great way to entice people to come to your programs. This week’s programs, all about food, will be a great way to encourage participation. And there are so many different ways to talk about and share food in the library!

From our colleagues at Minitex:

“Quick Summary

The next installment of Minitex Conversations: Project Management is Wednesday, February 15 at 10 a.m. In this session we will have a brief introduction to time management tools then open the session for a broader conversation about current work.

There have been several project management software tools created in recent years. While there are few that provide a full spectrum of tools and models to work with many of the tools focus on specific aspects of project management. One aspect that is seeing a lot of new software tools related to it is time management. This session will highlight some useful and free tools related to time management followed by an open conversation of current work. 

Each project management conversation will provide a short overview of a specific concept, method, skill, or technique that can be applied to a variety of projects followed by time for an interactive discussion of current work. These open office hours are designed to be a space for learning opportunities, community discussion, and sharing of ideas and practices in how to manage any library project. You can join at any time during the hour, but registration is required. Click here to register for the February 15th session.”

That’s right: every week we are going to celebrate some small holiday! We want you to join us in celebrating every week – because really, everyone needs a little more happiness in their lives.

Join us in celebrating the holiday just yourself, and take some small quiet time to enjoy it. Or, take our book and program ideas, and celebrate in a larger way in your library. Take a small, goofy opportunity to have a little more fun today! (We celebrate you in doing this!)

This would be a good day to practice those handwriting skills you looked at a couple of weeks ago. If you are anything like me, you stand over the garbage when opening your mail – because it’s mostly just junk. But every so often, you get a real letter; and that is always so fun! Make someone’s day this week by sending a letter (or two).

Of course, there are a few books you might want to read (and display!):

• The Willie Lynch Letter and the Making of a Slave, by Willie Lynch
• The Letters Of J.R.R. Tolkien, by J.R.R. Tolkien
• Letters of Note: Correspondence Deserving of a Wider Audience, by Shaun Usher
• A Private Spy: The Letters of John le Carré, by John le Carré (Author), Tim Cornwell (Editor)
• Letters from Lima, by Shaun Randall
• Letters of Great Women: Extraordinary Correspondence from History’s Remarkable Women, by Lucinda Hawksley
• Math Letters: Discover a different side of mathematics, by W.B. Schaefman

And this is an easy holiday to build some programs around for your library:

• obviously, writing letters to family and loved ones would be nice
• reach out to local organizations to see if nursing home residents are available to receive letters
• there are a lot of organizations that will help you organize sending letters to military troops and families – a great way to be supportive of their hard work
• get some postcards printed from your library (it’s easy and cheap to make cute ones!), and send them to your local politicians. Have a postcard event, so your patrons can handwrite messages of support for your library!

The main thing today: just take a few minutes to enjoy yourself and to have a happy minute. We are here for you, and your year-long celebrations!

This season we continue to travel around Minnesota but this time we’re learning about all the fascinating historical sites our state has to offer and giving you a book prompt inspired by each site.  

We will share six book suggestions to meet that prompt, to get you started on reading new books. You can also take that prompt and find any other book to meet the challenge!

This week we encourage you to explore the Comstock House. “A true Moorhead landmark, the house was home to the Comstocks, a family who worked tirelessly to bring business and educational opportunities to this Red River Valley community.” We suggest that you celebrate these opportunities by reading a book about schools.

We give you links to each of these books on our show notes page, taking you to Amazon.com. If you click on any of them, and buy anything at all – including a nice book – Amazon will send us a small percent of the profits they made on these sales. Thank you for supporting CMLE!

It’s a tough time for libraries, and people in customer service. And while we don’t want to veer into any toxic positivity, it is good to spend a little time focused on building your happiness level. We are not going to solve people’s serious mental issues here. But bringing some happiness skills to your week can be helpful to everyone!

Mondays can be a little hard, even when things are going fine. Use this small injection of a happiness skill to your week. We are here to support you, and to help you to be a little happier in the library.

We have talked about hygge before, and you have probably seen books and articles about it. ““Hygge is a mindset — an attitude and approach to living that prioritizes togetherness, affection, slow living, gratitude and contentment,” said Natalie Dattilo, a clinical health psychologist at Harvard Medical School.”

It’s pretty cold and dark outside a lot of the time right now; but hygge is always appropriate for you!

Check out a few tips from this article excerpt from Practicing hygge can help you beat the ‘winter blues’: Here’s how:

“One way to practice hygge is through social connection.

“Social connectedness and gratitude are probably the most important factors that have been proven to be correlated with happiness,” said clinical psychologist Pauline Wallin.

Sharing and enjoying meals together can increase social bonding, feelings of well-being and contentment.

“Eating, drinking and taking in comforting aromas can evoke memories of family and friends at various times of one’s life,” said Wallin. “Smell is strongly connected with memory and emotion. So is music.”

Good smells and music also help create a cozy ambiance, another important component of hygge. Opt for nostalgic scents when possible.

The right lighting in a room can also improve the ambience. People tend to perceive warmer lights as more relaxing, research shows.

“Using candles or a fireplace has advantages in that the visual of the flames themselves are naturally relaxing,” said Augustin. If that’s not an option, swapping bright fluorescents for warm lightbulbs in lamps can work too.

For one last element of comfort, consider texture.

“Soft textures make sense because they are relaxing for us to feel,” said Augustin. Think cozy pajamas, soft blankets, or fuzzy socks.”

You can read the whole article here!

CMLE can be part of your support network; we are here for you, and support you in your library work. Take a nice deep breath in, and whoosh it out; it’s going to be okay today.