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.
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From now until the end of the school year, each week we will be including a post called A Mindful Moment. Mindfulness is an emerging topic in libraries as it relates to our own personal wellness, but also as it affects good customer service. If you are at all like me, if you get a list of 12 things to consider at one time, it is just too overwhelming. Therefore, in these weekly posts, we will be providing small bits of information to assist you in moving toward a more mindful life. All credit for the content goes to Leo Babauta at Fast Company, who believes “a mindful life is worth the effort.” I really, really love the introduction Leo gave to his 12 piece tool set and his explanation of a mindful life. This week, we feature his second tool …..
Tool 3: Watch Urges
“When I quit smoking in 2005, the most useful tool I learned was watching my urges to smoke. I would sit there and watch the urge rise and fall, until it was gone, without acting on it. It taught me that I am not my urges, that I don’t have to act on my urges, and this helped me change all my other habits. Watch your urge to check email or social media, to eat something sweet or fried, to drink alcohol, to watch TV, to be distracted, to procrastinate. These urges will come and go, and you don’t have to act on them.”
What is this business about a mindful life? Read Leo’s introduction, it will take like one minute and is well worth your time to frame this subject!
Interested in other posts CMLE has done on mindfulness recently?
This post is a part of an original series created by librarians/media specialists across Central Minnesota featuring books. Please share your take on books you have read recently. If you have a book you would like to showcase, please send your review to our offices
Title: Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, by Jesse Andrews
Review by Maria Burnham, Sauk Rapids-Rice High School Library Media Specialist
This book was on the YALSA 2013 Top Ten Best Young Adult Books, and I will keep the book on my shelves, but it’s not one I’d recommend to just anyone.
I’m going to start by saying that this is the perfect book for a certain type of reader. That reader was not me, so I only gave the book 3 stars out of 5. I originally picked up this book because the summary reminded me a bit of The Fault in Our Stars, a very popular book in my library right now. I’m always looking for those “If you liked this book, then you should read…” kind of novels, and since the storyline is about high school senior, Greg, who befriends an acquaintance from his past, Rachel, as she is battling leukemia, I thought there might be a connection between the way the reader experiences teen friendships throughout illnesses. I was wrong. Me and Earl and the Dying Girl ‘s plotline is, in fact, about a friendship formed thanks to Rachel’s leukemia and Greg’s obligation to make her feel better through laughter while she’s battling her terminal disease. However, this book reads in short, simple sentences, the characters are quite flat, making it hard for me to feel connected to the story, and the language in this book makes me cautious in getting the book in the hands of the right reader. The Fault in Our Stars read nothing like what I just described. In Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, there is much swearing from both the narrator and his crude, immature friend, Earl. Many times in the book, sex is referenced and derogatory remarks about female body parts are frequent conversations, mainly from the direction of Earl. I have no doubt that some teen boys think and talk this way; however, I do think that this book greatly increases the chances of students and/or parents feeling offended by this book. After all, I was a bit offended and I’m an open-minded reader. At the end of the book, we see another side of Earl; however, his redeemable qualities in the end were not enough to salvage the plotline.
I do believe this book is worth having on my shelves, but I will be sure to be aware of who is picking it up.
**This legislative update was written by Elaine Keefe, library lobbyist for the Minnesota Library Association (MLA) and MEMO/ITEM**
Some rights reserved by Aine D
Received: Sun 3/16/2014 at 6:04PM
The already very hectic pace at the Capitol will accelerate this week. Friday, March 21, is the first committee deadline. By the end of this week, most bills will be dead for the legislative session. In order to remain alive, a bill must have been passed by all of the policy committees it needs to go to and either be referred to a finance committee or awaiting floor action. As a practical matter this means there will be long committee hearing agendas filled with bills racing against the Friday deadline, and hearings will last well into the evening.
House Budget Targets: House leaders released their budget targets on Friday, and the House Ways and Means Committee is scheduled to adopt them on Monday. The targets call for $550 million in tax cuts, $488 million in new spending and leaving $195 million on the bottom line. Of the $488 million in new spending, $17 million will go to to higher education and $75 million will go to E-12 education, where the priorities are listed as funding for teacher evaluations, expanded access to high quality early learning opportunities and making reduced-price lunches free. The targets also include debt service for a bonding bill of $850 million plus another $125 million in cash for capital projects, bringing the total for capital investment to $975 million.
Omnibus Policy and Budget Bills: Committees will begin rolling out their omnibus bills and taking action on them this week, which is well ahead of the usual schedule. Both the House Education Policy Committee and its counterpart, the Senate Education Committee, plan to unveil their omnibus education policy bills, mark them up and pass them out of committee this week. The House Tax Committee will unveil its omnibus tax bill on Thursday. Senator Rod Skoe, chair of the Senate Tax Committee, told MPR that this week he plans to unveil the omnibus tax bill, pass it out of committee and pass it on the Senate floor on Friday. The other omnibus budget bills, including the Senate E-12 Education Budget bill and the House Education Finance bill, are expected to be unveiled and passed out of committee the following week.
Telecommunications Equity Aid (HF 2696 / SF 2167): Last Tuesday our bill was heard in the House Education Finance Committee. Mary Mehsikomer and Marc Johnson did a great job of testifying. The Senate companion will be heard in the Senate E-12 Education Budget Division this Thursday, March 20 at 8:30am.
Data Privacy: Last week I reported that HF 2138, Rep. Mary Liz Holberg’s bill requiring government databases to be able to track the identities of users accessing confidential data and the date, time and purpose for which the access occurred, was scheduled to be heard on Wednesday, March 12. I spoke with Rep. Holberg about the library communities’ concerns and followed up with a more detailed e-mail. The night before the hearing she sent me a message that she was going to pull the bill from the agenda. A big thanks to Mark Ranum, who was prepared to testify on the bill and who also provided the information that went into my detailed message to Rep. Holberg. Rep. Holberg is retiring from the Legislature this year, so I am hopeful we will not need to confront this particular bill in the future.
The other data privacy bill is one that we support, and it is making excellent progress. I am referring to HF 2167 / SF 1770, the bill requiring vendors handling confidential data to abide by the data practices act as if it were a government entity, regardless of whether the contract includes notice of this requirement. SF 1770 passed the Senate State and Local Government Committee on Wednesday afternoon and was sent to the floor. Its House companion is already on the House floor.
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
Image by Celestine Chua. Retrieved from Flickr. Used under Creative Commons’ licensing.
Are things changing quickly at your school, maybe with talk of a 1:1 initiative or BYOD? Are you searching for clarity about the role of the media specialist in the face of change? Are you feeling a need to talk with your peers face-to-face in order to solve problems or get new ideas? CMLE serves 265 schools in twelve counties, so the needs are varied and sometimes hard for our staff to gauge.
Some of you feel quite taken care of with online learning opportunities, but others are expressing a need for some face-to-face contact with peers in our region. If you are school media staff in Aitkin, Benton, Chisago, Isanti, Kanabec, Mille Lacs, Morrison, Pine, Sherburne, Stearns, Todd or Wright counties of Minnesota, please participate in this poll. It is quick, and will help CMLE staff determine interest in future work around chances for face-to-face networking.
I would bet we will see librarians at the ALA Conference wearing Google Glass this year, in fact, I know some are practicing at home, so they will look like cool cats when they get there!
But, are you skeptical about the practical use of Glass? Wonder no more! Our friends at Edudemic came through for us, and as usual, they like to take on current technologies, and see how they fit into education. With that in mind, they have created a useful Teacher’s Guide to Google Glass for your review. The guide includes the basics of the device, application tips for using it, but also directs you to Twitter hashtags and more for deeper exploration. Check out what Glass Ed Explorers are doing with Glass in education. Check it all out at http://tinyurl.com/myjz9da
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