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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

State Library Updates

MDE logo retrieved online 12/17/13..

TO: Minnesota Libraries
FROM: State Library Services
DATE: March 27, 2015
SUBJECT: Updates from State Library Services: Position opening, Meetup, webinar, LSTA grants

Libraries Serving Youth Meetup – Last Call to Register
Registration closes next week for State Library Services’ first ever Libraries Serving Youth Meetup. The event is a chance for school and public library staff to meet, network and share ideas. Learn about successful public library and school collaborations and get creative ideas. Scheduled presenters from across the state include Brianna Belanger, Mike Evavold, Chad Lubbers, Ellen Morehouse, Donna Ohlgren, Nina Shimmin, and Erin Smith.

The Meetup is on Saturday, April 18, 2015 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Minnesota Department of Education in Roseville. A working lunch will be provided and there is no charge for the event. Registration for the Meetup closes Wednesday, April 1, so register today. A certificate of attendance for CEUs will be available. For more information, please contact Jennifer Verbrugge at jennifer.verbrugge@state.mn.us or 651-582-8356.

Community Literacy Initiatives and Partnerships Webinar
Minnesota Reading Corps and Minnesota Math Corps (MRC/MMC) are helping more than 30,000 students in over 700 Minnesota schools succeed in reading and math. Join Anne Demotts (MRC/MMC Outreach Coordinator), Barb McKenzie (Hennepin County Library Volunteer and Internship Coordinator), and a Minnesota Reading Corps Master Coach for a webinar on Thursday, April 2, 2015 from 1-2 pm to learn more about how connecting with MRC and MMC can benefit your library and your community. Pre-register here.

Please contact Jennifer Verbrugge at jennifer.verbrugge@state.mn.us with questions or to request a reasonable accommodation to participate in this event. Note: MDE requires a two-week advance notice in order to provide the requested accommodation and requires a 48-hour notice in order to cancel a requested accommodation.

Join our award-winning team
State Library Services, a division of the Minnesota Department of Education, is now recruiting candidates for a Library Development Specialist – State Data Coordinator.
State Library Services aligns its mission with the department’s vision of educational equity for all and the Governor’s Seven Point Plan for Excellence in Education. We work collaboratively with the Minnesota library community to create and deliver resources that address the educational, social and cultural needs of Minnesotans to accomplish our mission. Based in Roseville, this is a unique professional employment opportunity for librarians interested in working in a leadership role in the state. Primary position responsibilities include coordinating the annual collection of public library data and providing expertise on program design, implementation and measurement to improve the ability of Minnesota’s libraries to articulate the impact of library services. We are looking for candidates with a background in library services, program design, statistical analysis and evaluation that also have excellent communication skills. Applications will be accepted online through April 15, 2015.
Questions? Please contact Jennifer Nelson at 651-582-8791 or jennifer.r.nelson@state.mn.us.

LSTA Grant Application Process
Join State Library Services on April 8, 2015 at 10:00 a.m. Project Planning with Logic Models, a webinar that will introduce a logic model approach to project planning. Logic models offer a tested framework for developing grant proposals and ensure that your proposals describe the resources you need to achieve the outcomes you propose. The session will also review project activities and budgeting and connect you with resources that can help you create stronger grant proposals. Pre-registration is not necessary; simply click here to log into the webinar. Please contact Jen Nelson at jennifer.r.nelson@state.mn.us with questions or to request a reasonable accommodation to participate in this event. Note: MDE requires a two-week advance notice in order to provide the requested accommodation and requires a 48-hour notice in order to cancel a requested accommodation.

Because we’re interested in making sure that as many eligible applicants as possible benefit from LSTA grants, applicants/benefitting public libraries that did not receive a competitive LSTA award with federal fiscal year 2013 or 2014 funds and since July 1, 2013 will receive an additional 10 priority points during the proposal review process. Contact Jackie Blagsvedt at 651-582-8805 or jacqueline.blagsvedt@state.mn.us for more information.

 

Academic, General, Public, School Media Specialist, Special

Are You Coming to the Edible Book Festival?

ediblebooks_button (1)We hope so! This is the first year that CMLE is co-sponsoring and helping to offer this Edible Book event out beyond the St. Cloud State University (SCSU) campus, and we really hope that some staff and/or end users from area libraries and school media centers join us!

Have you always wondered about doing your own Edible Book event in your setting? Participate in ours to get the lay of the land! Looking for an activity to do in your makerspace? Do an edible book entry for April 14th and register as a group; win a group prize!

Prize categories are shown below.  Which category do you think you might have the best chance in winning?

  • Individuals entries will compete for: 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place; based on the popular vote of attendees at the event. Individual prizes will be valued at $100, $80, and $65 respectively!
  • SCSU Student Groups ($50 cash; total value of $85) (2nd place, $75 value)
  • Other Group outside of SCSU Student Groups ($85 value)

You only need to register if you are entering an edible creation in the contest. Spectators are encouraged and welcome, bring your friends and family! Everyone will have two hours to vote for favorites on April 14th.

Activities! Wondering what to do during the judging period?  Come to the Miller Center coffee shop (library lobby) and enjoy book-themed music by the campus radio station, KVSC.  There will also be Creation Station table activities to keep those jitters at bay while we wait for the judging results. Just for fun, try your hands-on-skills in several areas, or deduce book titles in a visual edible book trivia activity. But wait, there is more! View the professional entries from five local bakeries too and enjoy refreshments!

A little late to the game?  Get ideas and details here. Got questions? Email CMLE or call us at 320-308-2950.

Registration must be submitted by 12:00 PM (noon) on April 13, 2015.  Register here

Academic, General, Public, School Media Specialist, Special

What I Learned at the Library Technology Conference

time_alone2_hiresLots of people wanted to go to this year’s conference, but registration closed crazy fast when the 450 seats were full within 30 hours! Macalester College is the conference site, and as is typical, the crowd at this conference is a mix of library types; maybe a bit more of the academics. However, this year I saw an increase in the number of K-12 school media/tech integration people too, which was great!

I could bore you with reporting on sessions I attended, but rather, I include some themes and observations.

Makerspaces

  • One common theme I saw, was that no matter what kind of librarian, maker spaces and 3D printing were far and away most prominent.  However, one thing remained clear in the breakout sessions. While it was acknowledged across library type how much library users enjoy maker spaces, presenters were admittedly a little short on data to support how maker spaces were tied to, or supportive of, curriculum. Everyone was in agreement that more work is needed on that issue. In the K-12 setting, leaps in self confidence were cited as good enough for now, with hopes of deeper integration with curriculum in the future.

Short on space? You don’t necessarily need dedicated space for makerspace activities. What you do need is space for tubs of materials to pull out when it is makerspace time! Seems obvious now!

New Maker Space resources I learned about include:

Theme Two: Social Media and Librarians

For the first time this year, there was no printed conference schedule, but rather the entire conference was on the mobile app, Sched. As attendees had their morning coffee, they created their schedule for the day and mixed it up with  Facebook and Twitter friends at the conference too.

Both in sessions, in hallway conversations, and even  at dinner, I am reminded of how social media has put a fresh new face on how librarians network and stay up to date.  A number of people I talked to said they had never used Twitter until they came to this conference and decided to give it a whirl. Now, they have no idea how they ever “kept up” professionally before Twitter. The people they follow online keep them up to date and sometimes, when they are excited about new discoveries, they share those discoveries too! This is called collaboration.

Breakout session materials are located here and are being added every day as presenters make them available. Videos of all keynote presentations will also be added to this repository site shortly. Please check back often to see what’s new on the site.

Patricia-

 Image credit: http://tinyurl.com/qzmpeb2
Academic, General, Public, School Media Specialist, Special

Featured Book: This is the Story of a Happy Marriage

this is the storyThis post is part of an original series created by librarians/media specialists across Central Minnesota featuring books. Could you review a book for CMLE? Send your book review to CMLE staff and we will be happy to share it!

Title: This is the Story of a Happy Marriage
Written by Maria Burnham, Media Specialist at Sauk Rapids-Rice High School

True to form, Ann Patchett delivers yet another writing masterpiece–this time, a collection of essays.  I have been a long-time fan of Patchett’s writing.  Bel Canto is one of my top ten favorite books of all time.  Other pieces of her work that resonated with me include Truth and Beauty and her most recent novel State of Wonder.  

This is the Story of a Happy Marriage contains essays about writing, family, the LAPD, and marriage and love. I never knew that she wrote so much non-fiction in order to continue to write novels. Ann Patchett is a wonderful writer, both in fiction and in non-fiction.  It’s so easy to read her writing; settling in with one of her books is like meeting an old friend for coffee.

Reading this book inspires me to write more and to spend more time thinking about life.   I love, love, love that I own this book! I highly recommend it!

 

 

Academic, General, Public, School Media Specialist, Special

Rakuten Buys Overdrive!

ReadYou may have seen this news by now, but what is unclear is what does this really mean?

Lets consider the scale and reach of Rakuten Inc., one of the world’s largest Internet services companies. Rakuten has been on a buying spree in recent years to reduce reliance on its home market in Japan and push into the U.S. and other countries.

  • In October 2014 it bought U.S. discount store Ebates.com for about $1 billion.
  • Rakuten bought Kobo Inc, a Canadian eBook company in 2011 for $315 million, in “phase 1” of its eBook business as it allows consumers to buy eBooks.
  • Chat and calling app Viber is another of Rakuten’s most prominent acquisitions; bought for $900 million in 2014.
  • And now, of most interest to Minnesota libraries, Rakuten is purchasing  OverDrive from Insight Venture Partners for $410 million and as part of “phase 2” of its eBook business. The acquisition of OverDrive, which currently offers eBook rental services to U.S. libraries and schools, is expected to be completed in April.
  • Since 2012, Rakuten (http://global.rakuten.com) has been ranked among the world’s “Top 20 Most Innovative Companies” in Forbes magazine.
  • Going forward, Kobo and OverDrive will work together to enhance their abilities to deliver world-class digital content and reading technology services.
  •  Rakuten is also an investor in Pinterest and ride sharing service Lyft. There are many, many more companies Rakuten has acquired recently. Read the full post here.

It is unclear at this time what this acquisition will mean to Minnesota libraries and in some cases, schools too. Will current Overdrive contract terms stay the same? Stay tuned for the constantly evolving world of eBooks!

Image credit: http://tinyurl.com/lw8nkjr, licensed under CC BY 2.0