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The Central Minnesota Libraries Exchange (CMLE) is one of seven regional multitype library systems established to meet the needs of and share the resources of all types of libraries. We love libraries, and are here to support them!
Academic, General, Public, School Media Specialist, Special

Library Legislative Update for MN

Capital SunsetThe following 2 legislative updates were written by Elaine Keefe, library lobbyist for the Minnesota Library Association (MLA) and Information Technology Educators of MN (ITEM).

Received Tuesday, April 14, 2015 at 6:40 pm

Today the House and Senate omnibus education and higher education bills were released.  Most library appropriations remained at current levels.  Here are the items where changes were proposed:

Regional Library Basic System Support (RLBSS):  The Senate education bill increases RLBSS to $14.92 million in FY 2016 (an increase of $1.35 million) and to $15.070 million in FY 2017 and future years (an increase of $1.5 million). The total increase for the biennium is $2.85 million.  The RLBSS formula is modified by increasing the base from 5% to 13% and by decreasing the equalization component from 25% to 17%.  The House makes no change in RLBSS, so this will be an item of difference in the conference committee.

Telecommunications Equity Aid (TEA):  The Senate education bill increases funding for TEA to $5.25 million per year, an increase of $1.5 million per year.  The House provides no increase for TEA, so this will be an item of difference in the conference committee.

General Education Formula:  The House provides an increase of 0.6% in each year of the biennium, while the Senate provides an increase of 1% per year.  The general education formula is the primary source of funding for school library media programs.

MnSCU and the University of Minnesota:  There are no general operating increases proposed for either MnSCU or the U of M.  The Senate higher education bill includes funding for student tuition relief for both systems, while the House bill provides such funding only for MnSCU.

The committees will take testimony and consider amendments to their omnibus bills this week.  The bills will be passed out of their respective committees no later than Thursday evening.

Received Thursday, April 9, 2015 at 2:24 pm

Legislative Calendar:  On Tuesday legislators returned from their Passover/Easter break.  Next week many budget committees will be releasing their omnibus budget bills.  The Senate E-12 Education Budget Division will release its omnibus budget bill online next Tuesday.  They will take public testimony on Wednesday and then will consider amendments and pass the bill out of committee on Thursday.  The House Education Finance Committee has not yet announced when its omnibus bill will be released.  There is a great deal of work to be done before the May 18 adjournment deadline.

Budget Targets:   Before leaving for the Passover/Easter break, House and Senate leaders announced their budget targets.  The education community was shocked and deeply disappointed at the very low targets for education, particularly in the context of a state budget surplus of nearly $1.9 billion.  The House has allocated just $157 million in new funding for education over the next two years.  The Senate has allocated $350 million.  This is in contrast to Governor Dayton’s proposal to spend an additional $694 million on education.  The House and Senate targets will make it very difficult to obtain funding increases for libraries, despite the positive reception our bills received when they were heard in committee.

Senate Legacy Hearing:  On Monday, April 13 at 6pm the Senate Legacy Subcommittee will be taking testimony on the Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund.  Ann Hutton and Melinda Ludwiczak will present our request for regional public libraries.  The hearing will take place in Room 15 of the Capitol.

Governor’s Bonding Proposal:  This week Governor Dayton released his bonding proposal, which totals $842 million.  It includes $2 million for Library Construction Grants.  This is the first time funding for this program has been included in a governor’s proposal.  The likelihood of a bonding bill of that size is very slim.  Traditionally the Legislature passes a fairly small bonding bill in the odd-numbered year session and a much larger bill in the even-numbered year.  House Republicans have said they have no interest in passing any bonding bill this year.  However, they have left open the possibility that they could agree to a small bill as part of the end-of-session negotiations.

Regional Library Telecommunications Aid (RLTA):  The governor’s supplemental education budget bill was made public on Tuesday.  It includes some changes to the eligible uses of RLTA to more closely align it with the federal e-rate program.  The CRPLSA RLTA Committee reviewed the language and suggested two clarifying changes.  MDE has agreed to one of them and is considering the other.  Last night the House Education Finance Committee took testimony on the governor’s supplemental budget.  I testified about that we support the new language on RLTA but were working with MDE on a couple of tweaks to it.  I also expressed disappointment that there is no new money for libraries in the governor’s budget and urged the committee to consider including Rep. Nornes’ bill to increase funding for RLBSS and multi-type funding and Rep. Kresha’s bill to increase funding for TEA and RLTA as they put together their omnibus education funding bill.

State of the State:  Governor Dayton will deliver his state of the state address tonight at 7pm before a joint session of the Legislature.  The address will be live-streamed on many websites, including the House of Representatives website, the StarTribune, the Pioneer Press and MPR and affiliates.  The address will also be broadcast live on MPR.

Elaine Keefe
Capitol Hill Associates
525 Park Street, Suite 310
St. Paul, MN 55103
(office)651-293-0229
(cell) 612-590-1244
elaine@capitolhillassoc.com

 

Academic, General, Public, School Media Specialist, Special

Win Great Prizes at the Edible Book Festival

ediblebooks_button (1)Time is running out if you want to register an entry!

Registrations for contest entries accepted until noon April 13. Stuck for ideas? Contact CMLE staff we have a folder full of ideas! Our ideas sometimes jump-start your even greater ideas.

Hot tip: None of the entries are ever tasted, so even if you are a terrible cook it doesn’t matter at all. Just use edible materials to create and bind your entry together!

Public viewing and voting of edible book entries is from 4-6 p.m. in the SCSU Library Lobby. No time to create? No problem. Come anyway, bring family and friends to vote for your favorite entries, then view and eat professional entries from local bakeries, listen to book-themed music from Radio Station KVSC, participate in hands on, just-for-fun assorted table activities, and try your luck at edible book visual trivia too!

Back to Prizes! Be strategic, pick the category that may land you the big win!

Individual Entries (Do you want all the glory to yourself?)

1st Place: $100 value, including a new Kindle  E-reader

2nd  Place: $80 value, including a digital photo frame

3rd  Place: $65 value, including a $30 Mexican Village certificate

Group Entries (Shy about doing your own? Get others to work with you; register as a group)
1st place = $85 value, which will include an edible celebration for your group!

Remember! You must enter to win!  Contestants must register by noon on April 13.  Registration information is available at http://scsu.mn/EdibleBooks2015.

Supporting Sponsors:  Central Minnesota Libraries Exchange, HuskyTech, KVSC, the SCSU Bookstore.

 

Academic, General, Public, School Media Specialist, Special

Collaboration 2.0

Collaboration is no longer painful – or precious. Vince Clarke.

Arboretum ParkHave you ever read a blog post, and no matter how hard you tried to put your spin on it, you just kept going back to the post? Like….the author just said it all so perfectly?! That is how I feel about a recent post by Leah Mann, Texas middle school librarian, as she writes about how we all have time to collaborate!

In a recent post I did about the Library Technology Conference, I saw strong evidence that people there understood what Leah is saying about collaboration through social media. But don’t take my word for it, read Leah’s post and make time to expand your world beyond your worksite. Read Leah’s post here.

 

Public, School Media Specialist

Apollo’s Book Talk Program

This shiny little success story was written by Susan Hoffman, media specialist at Apollo High School. Susan is also part of the CMLE Outreach Panel, which meets monthly in a Google Hangout to talk shop. During a recent hangout, this little programming gem sparked the interest of others!

susan14
Susan Hoffman, Apollo H.S.

Drop ‘N Talk

This book talk experience is designed to quickly connect students with books. Here is what I did: I sent an e-mail to the teachers in my school asking if I could “Drop ‘N Talk” for five minutes at the beginning of their classroom hour. I set up a schedule and got assurance from each participating teacher that the agreed upon date and time would work.

Then, I just showed up with three to five works of fiction that, if possible, correlated with the subject matter of the course, or the general reading level of the class. By the time the teacher had attendance taken, my tempting talk was finished.

I created a “Drop ‘N Talk” display in the library. That way, students could easily spot the books I had introduced and check them out.“Drop ‘N Talks” were performed during “I Love to Read Month,” but they would also be fun to do during National Library Week, Banned Book Week, Teen Literature Day, or during any other celebration of reading.

Academic, General, Public, School Media Specialist, Special

What is a librarian?

I have a plan. (187/365)Warning: this post is more than two sentences long…

Librarians are at the most critical time in history to define themselves. Yet there appears to be an ongoing  struggle to find clarity/passion  around  core functions or even a desire to get real about “owning” the fantastic set of skills that librarians possess!

Library users just want help, on their terms. They are not necessarily interested in all of the cool ways that librarians manipulate the world of information, even though we very much want them to care! They just want great service for all of their needs; and one stop works best in their busy lives! But, how well does this work when librarians hold on to traditional models of what an academic, public, and school librarian do for the user? Is it possible that librarians are willing to serve the user as long as the user need fits nicely within the realm they reside in?

In our search for staying relevant and moving towards the library of the future, the library workplace  is becoming much more demanding, requiring broader skill sets. This change in expectations often causes discomfort and some even question whether an MLS is what is needed in the field!

I recently read a great blog post called What is a Librarian? on the LITA blog which examines this topic, and it is worth a read. My favorite quote from the piece is this…. “If you care about information and want to do good with it, that’s enough for me. Others are free to put more rigorous constraints on the profession if they want, but in order for libraries to survive I think we should be more focused on letting people in than on keeping people out.” Amen!  Oh wait, there is more…

In a related  post titled MLS Required, Barbara Fister writes….”… when undergraduates ask about library school I try to be realistic – jobs aren’t plentiful, the pay isn’t great, some organizations are pretty toxic. Getting a foot in the door is really hard. You will have relatives who will repeatedly use the phrase “buggy whips” and laugh. But if you do apply to library school, don’t do it because libraries feel like safe places. Get good advising, try things that you feel ill-prepared to do, challenge yourself. Because those challenges will keep coming and you might as well get the hang of it.”

Patricia-

Image credit: http://tinyurl.com/qc788l4, licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0