All posts by Mary Jordan

Check this out:, General, Resources, Training

Let's just take a minute to breathe…

stress
breathe….blow out the stress, breathe in the relaxation!

This month we are talking about ways to handle stress in your workplace. While working in a library is wonderful in a lot of ways; we all know that it also brings us some stressful moments.

You need to take less than five minutes, right now, and just have some time to breathe and let your mind wander in happy directions. Take a nice deep breath in, hold for a second, and then breath out with gusto. Do this another time or two, and just let your worries fade to the background for a while. (They will be there later; so you can just forget about them for right now!)

Stress reduction can be enhanced by watching nature. So if you are somewhere you can look at fish, stare out the window at some green space, or pat your dog or cat – do that. And if you want to just relax and let nature come to you, we have a nice video of the Acadia National Park in Maine. Let it inspire you to go out after work or over the weekend and do your own walking around in nature, for the best relaxation!

Check this out:, CMLE, General, Resources, Training

STRESS! Let's listen to podcasts to help!

stress
podcasts of happiness await you!

Stress affects everyone, and end-of-year stress can be particularly difficult. Many of us are struggling to finish up all our work for the end of the semester, or celebrating holidays and all that comes with it, in addition to dealing with every single other thing that was already driving us crazy all year long! Patrons have less patience, money is suddenly tighter, and all kinds of extra programs can just cause even the best-balanced library person to hit a breaking point.

CMLE is here to help you. This month we will provide all kinds of information about stress, to help you learn more about it, and learn some strategies for managing stress. You cannot stop stress from happening, but we can all learn better ways to increase our resilience so stress does not knock us out!

One easy way to help is to listen to podcasts.

Of course, there are all kinds of librarian podcasts out there, and we recommend those as nice way to keep up with interesting things happening in the profession!

And there are podcasts you can listen to that will help you address your stress in a productive way. Continue reading STRESS! Let's listen to podcasts to help! →

Academic, Check this out:, CMLE, General, Public, Resources, School Media Specialist, Special

Start planning now: Library Legislative Day is coming soon!

ala

At CMLE Headquarters, we want you to be informed about all the great things happening across the profession. And advocacy is ALWAYS an important topic!!

If there is sufficient interest in this, CMLE HQ can help to make arrangements for members to travel to Washington DC, so we can directly tell our federal politicians how valuable we are to our communities. Funding is going to be tight, and priorities for resources are shifting – and libraries are not at the top of the list for support.

The profession needs YOU!

  • If you can not make it to Washington, then attend our Minnesota legislative day!
  • If you can not do that, then give your legislator a call and tell them (briefly, politely) about something great your library did today, or this week, or this month.
  • And if you need to practice your phone call before you make it, talk to us first! We can help you organize ideas, and to feel confident that you have a great story to share!!

This is not just for “other” library people, or just people with a degree, or just ALA members, or just ANYTHING!

YOU are in a library, YOU know about the service you provide, the materials your patrons would not have without you, the help you give every single day. YOU are exactly the right person to do some advocacy for your library, for your community, and for your profession. GO TELL SOMEONE!!

(There we go – that’s library advocacy! You nailed it!!) Continue reading Start planning now: Library Legislative Day is coming soon! →

Academic, Check this out:, Research

Academic Librarians: What Do You Think About Change??

survey
help your profession – give your opinion!

As you know, at CMLE Headquarters, we want to help you stay connected with not only the community of our system, but also the wider library community. So this is another piece of information we pass on for you!

From the Request:

You are invited to participate in a survey designed to provide insight into academic librarians’ perception of change. You will be asked to express your degree of agreement or disagreement with statements or scenarios related to change.

We ask that only academic librarians participate in this survey. We will use this data as part of our research paper to be presented at the 2017 Association for College & Research Libraries (ACRL) Conference.

The survey will take approximately 5-8 minutes to complete, and you will be able to exit the survey at any time by closing your browser window or tab.

We do not anticipate any risks with this survey and would be grateful for your input. You may access the survey at http://uofmississippi.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_0e0xo51FpcPOg9T

If you have any questions, you may contact either investigator:

Brian Young, bwyoung@olemiss.edu

Ashley Dees, aesorey@olemiss.edu

IRB Approval                     

This study has been reviewed by The University of Mississippi’s Institutional Review Board (IRB).  If you have any questions, concerns, or reports regarding your rights as a participant of research, please contact the IRB at (662) 915-7482 or irb@olemiss.edu.

Thank you for your consideration,

Brian and Ashley

 

—

Brian Young

Engineering Reference Librarian

Assistant Professor

The University of Mississippi

J. D. Williams Library

P.O. Box 1848

1 Library Loop

University, MS 38677

bwyoung@olemiss.edu

 

 

 

Academic, Check this out:, CMLE, Communication, Public, School Media Specialist, Special

Updates from State Library Services

state-library-services

CMLE Headquarters will continue to bring you all the library news from around the state. You can sign up for these updates from the State Library Services yourself, or just get them forwarded to you here from CMLE. When you are part of a big and wonderful profession like libraries – you want to know all the things happening here!

Early Childhood Screening Informational Video and Webinar
Early Childhood Screening, offered by all school districts, is a way to determine if young children are on track for meeting developmental milestones. Some families do not take advantage of Early Childhood Screening because they don’t know about it or they have concerns about it. If parents knew more about what screening is and is not, they may be more likely to have their child screened and identify areas for additional focus before kindergarten.

Public librarians can help increase participation in screening by encouraging families to get their children screened between the ages of 3 and the start of kindergarten. The Minnesota Department of Education and community partners teamed up to create a five-minute informational video with basic information about screening for parents and caregivers, thanks to funding from The McKnight Foundation.

To learn how you can help increase families’ awareness of screening and comfort with the process, please join us for a lunch break webinar presented by MDE’s Early Childhood Screening Coordinator, Margo Chresand on Thursday, December 8, noon-12:30 p.m. (Add to your calendar.) Please contact Jen Verbrugge (651-582-8356) with questions or to request a reasonable accommodation to participate in this event. Note: MDE requires a two-weekadvance notice in order to provide the requested accommodation and requires a 48-hour notice in order to cancel a requested accommodation.

Continue reading Updates from State Library Services →