All posts by admincmle

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

Copyright Event a Success!

copyright_SHAs attendees entered the Stearns History Museum, it was clear that the Museum had been transformed into a Winter Wonderland! Amid the sparkly lights, snowmen and evergreens, participants grabbed food and drink rations, their folders of materials, and hunkered down for a rollicking three-hour romp through the “sometimes gray” world of copyright. CMLE was pleased to offer Nancy Sims, Copyright Librarian from the University of MN as the workshop presenter. The event started with basic copyright/fair use information along with good coverage of professional liability and ethics.  Next, Nancy moved to some hands on group work to allow people to flex their newly learned fair use strategies on a number of actual copyright conundrums! The content concluded with a rich list of resources to be freely used with no worries, the “black and white” portion of the day. Watch our weekly blog posts as we highlight some of those resources.

Evaluations show the learning happened, sometimes in a big way, and lots of perks were available to those who participated in this event. Prizes and chocolate are always popular. But this year, CMLE was also able to offer a free, Creative Commons copy of Carrie Russell’s Complete Copyright for K-12 Librarians and Educators eBook to each participant.

Thank you to all attendees and Nancy Sims for a wonderful event. Stay tuned for more “Copyright Continues…” blog posts from CMLE!

Do you have ideas for other events? We invite your suggestions at admin@cmle.org

Academic, General, Public, School Media Specialist, Special

MN Legislative Update

The following legislative update was written by Elaine Keefe, library lobbyist for the Minnesota Library Association (MLA) and Information Technology Educators of MN (ITEM).

Capital SunsetReceived Tuesday, November 18, 2014 at 1:48 pm

Today Speaker-designate Kurt Daudt announced the new House committee structure and chairs. Of greatest interest to MLA and ITEM are the following appointments:

Education Finance: Rep. Jenifer Loon (R – Eden Prairie)

Education Innovation Policy: Rep. Sondra Erickson (R – Princeton)

Higher Education Policy and Finance: Rep. Bud Nornes (R – Fergus Falls)

Legacy Finance: Rep. Dean Urdahl (R – Grove City)

Taxes: Rep. Greg Davids (R – Preston)

Property Tax and Local Government Finance Division: Rep. Steve Drazkowski (R- Mazeppa)

Capital Investment: Rep. Paul Torkelson (R – Hanska)

Here is a link to the complete list of committee chairs:

http://www.house.leg.state.mn.us/members/pressrelease.asp?pressid=7880&party=2&memid=15345

Committee member assignments are typically announced in mid-December.

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

From the Director: A message of gratitude

ThanksgivingHow do you practice gratitude in your personal life and at your work setting? About this time of year, I am always reminded to slow down, be thankful, and even express my gratitude to others! I am thinking about incorporating more deliberate steps for gratitude in my daily life, so I was intrigued by the following blog post.

According to our friends at Edutopia, “our ability to feel gratitude is a muscle of sorts — it’s a habit our minds can develop — we just need practice.” And according to Elena Aguilar, here’s the thing… “Our brains need to feel gratitude in order for us to want to be at work. Our brains are like Teflon for positive experiences and like Velcro with negative experiences. This means the negative comments, interactions, professional development (PD) workshops, and so on, cling to our brains. But if we spend a few minutes in appreciation, recalling those fulfilling moments in a day or encounters with supportive parents, or the segments in workshops when we felt we were learning, our brains create new links between neurons.” There are very deliberate steps we can take to exercise our “gratitude muscle” and they are included in Elena’s blog post .  Please don’t be put off by the title being specific to schools…these strategies would work in any library/worksite.

So, I will go first…..

I appreciate engaged library staff (like you) who continue to use our services and engage in our programming. Whether you are reading and/or commenting on our weekly blog posts, liking our Facebook page, retweeting our Tweets, writing book reviews or other blog posts, suggesting ideas for programming, applying for scholarships, participating in our Quick Question Polls, or attending our events, you are the heart of what we define as resource sharing!

CMLE staff  are thankful for the opportunity to serve your needs, and to work with you to increase the capacity of all types of libraries in Central Minnesota! It is our privilege to work with talented and engaged library staff and we thank you for the opportunity!

Gratitude Programming Tip: We suggested this tip last year, and several libraries really loved it, as it is very easy to do. Use a whiteboard in the library with a “What are you thankful for?” heading, then sit back, and observe a showplace of thanks not just for this week, but consider continuing this through the new year. Please consider taking a close up picture of your whiteboard and sharing it with CMLE! Let the gratitude begin!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Patricia Post, CMLE Director

Image credit: http://tinyurl.com/kdkqc9m, licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
Academic

New version of ACRL scholarly communication toolkit is available!

Image from SumAll - Free Marketing Images
Image from SumAll – Free Marketing Images

The Association of College & Research Libraries (ACRL) recently released a new version of its popular Scholarly Communication Toolkit with updated content. Here are a few key facts about this resource:

  • The  primary purpose of the toolkit is to assist librarians in
    • (1) integrating a scholarly communication perspective into library operations and programs and
    • (2) preparing presentations on scholarly communication issues for administrators, faculty, staff, students, or other librarians.
  • The toolkit provides links to examples of specific tools, including handouts, presentations, and videos for libraries to use on their own campuses, and for library school students seeking to incorporate these issues into their course work.
  • You will also find short overview essays on key aspects of the relationship between libraries and scholarly communication.
General, Public, School Media Specialist

Bibliotherapy for teens: includes awesome booklists

Girl with bag 5Library Journal recently published the coolest, feel-good piece that would make any self-respecting librarian swoon. The heart of the post is that basically, we all want to give the end user the perfect book, the perfect match for their needs. What if the end user is a teen, and they want fiction about characters with mental health issues that match theirs? Welcome to the term bibliotherapy!

Consider that some teens need to hide their mental health issue out of self-protection in a stigma filled world. As the author points out….”kids with mental illness–kids with pills–can be confronted by others trying to buy or steal them. They can also be targets of ridicule.” Therefore, these teens often feel frustrated, alone and afraid to ask for what they need. As librarians, we need to make these books easy to find. Reading is never a replacement for professional therapy, but reading  about fictional characters who share your issue can be comforting to the isolated teen! The right books can help.

Erin E. Moulton is a teen librarian and an author and did a fantastic job writing this post. She includes the research base around bibliotherapy, her sources for her 16 mental health categories, and best yet, includes book lists for each disorder. May is Mental Health Month so you have time to consider your collection now. Do you have enough of these titles for a display?

Erin’s blog post is:  Bibliotherapy for Teens: Helpful Tips and Recommended Fiction
Erin’s display ideas are also available on Tumblr

NEW (Added 12/12/14): Bibliotherapy for Teens: An Expanded Booklist by Ashleigh Williams – written based on reader feedback!

Let CMLE staff know if you decide to do your display, we would love to share it with everyone!

Image credit: http://tinyurl.com/ofmn3md, licensed under CC BY 2.0