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, Check this out:, General, Public, School Media Specialist, Special

"Mindfulness in the Library" Webinar

I attended  this breakout session at the MLA Conference, and it was standing room only; the content was excellent. Extreme multitasking is falling out of vogue, but how do we pull ourselves back to a mindful state? Hear more about what it means to be mindful, and hear about tips and tricks to help you get your zen back in the new year. Read our earlier post about mindfulness.

Image by bibigeek. Retrieved from Flickr. Used under Creative Commons' licensing.
Image by bibigeek. Retrieved from Flickr. Used under Creative Commons’ licensing.

Mindfulness in the Library (View Recording Now)

Thursday, January 30, 2014
12:00 PM–1:00 PM (Central Time)

A simple definition of mindfulness is, “paying attention to the present moment, observing thoughts and feelings without judgment and letting them go with ease.” Mindfulness practice strengthens our emotional resilience and leads to greater awareness of ourselves and each other, which can ultimately improve working relationships and public service relations. This webinar presentation will introduce you to ways in which library staff can use mindfulness in their jobs to help with stress and conflict.

Presenters:

  • Jenny Sippel, Faculty Librarian, Minneapolis Community & Technical College Library
  • John Daniels, Computer Systems Manager, Minneapolis Community & Technical College Library

If you didn’t get a chance to catch earlier offerings in this Minitex webinar series, be sure to check out the recordings and handouts below.

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

Register Now for 23 Mobile Things

icon_23_100px1Profiles of 23 Mobile Things Participants

The Daredevil: Are you the daring sort that never reads the directions?  And, if so, do you feel ready to dive right into the 23 Mobile Things program? If so, go to http://tinyurl.com/llmktn4 to get started. You can create a whole new blog, or, you can use an existing blog as long as we can tell when you are blogging about your progress in the program! Note: If you really get derailed, we may have trouble helping you out of the ditch, but daredevils often don’t ask for help anyway, right?

The Rules Person: Do you just feel much better if you read all of the instructions first? No shame in that, and it is possible you may not end up “in the ditch” along the way. Go to the Welcome page at http://23mobilethingsmn.org/. While you are there, click on the Frequently Asked Questions  too, just for good measure!

The In-Betweener: And then we have the group that starts to read the FAQ’s, gets distracted by  a link, and they are off! That is ok too, just be sure to bookmark the site so you can easily find your way back to the general program information when you need it!

We will send out blog posts during the program to keep everyone on track! Thanks in advance for participating….am hoping to see good participation in Central Minnesota. No pressure, but yes, there is a wee bit of competition across multitype regions, so make me look good!  🙂

The 23 Mobile Things Program is sponsored by the  Minnesota Multitype Library Systems

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

A Calendar of Events (Online & F2F)

Whether you want online learning opportunities or face-to-face learning events, there are many exciting professional development possibilities for library staff. Short of funds to attend an upcoming  conference? Library staff in Central Minnesota can apply for a CMLE scholarship to assist with costs. Get more detail at www.cmle.org by clicking on scholarships.

Registration opens on January 15th for this free, online, self-paced program!

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Other January & February Free Online Learning (WebJunction)

Check out WebJunction’s Training page for information about these sessions, which are free and available to staff of libraries throughout the Minitex region. Pre-registration is required.

Archived versions of earlier WebJunction webinars are also available on the webpage.

The WebJunction website also contains a monthly list of other freely available training opportunities that are available to the library community.

Also, remember, WebJunction Minnesota, which provides access to online, self-paced courses and other features, is available to all members of the Minnesota library community. See the WebJunction Minnesota website for more information

Save These Dates in March through July (Face 2 Face)

March 19–20, 2014

The 7th Annual Library Technology Conference will be held March 19–20 at Macalester College in St. Paul. The 2014 conference will feature keynotes from Mita Williams, blogger and user experience librarian at the University of Windsor, and Barbara Fister of Gustavus Adolphus College, a Library Journal columnist and blogger on library trends in content creation and more.

May 6, 2014

The 23rd Annual Minitex Interlibrary Loan Conference will take place on Tuesday, May 6, at the Continuing Education & Conference Center on the Saint Paul Campus of the University of Minnesota. Phil Simon, technology expert, frequent speaker, and award-winning author of six management books will be keynote speaker. More information and registration materials will be available in early March.

June 3, 2014

The 12th Annual Meeting of the Minnesota Digital Library (MDL) will be held Tuesday, June 3, at the Continuing Education & Conference Center, University of Minnesota, St. Paul. The keynote speaker will be Dan Cohen, founding Executive Director of the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA). MDL is a service hub for to the DPLA. More information will be posted in early spring on the annual meeting webpage.

July 30–31, 2014

2014 eLearning Summit will be held July 30–31 at the University of Northwestern – St. Paul. The keynotes will be Cable Green, Director of Global Learning for Creative Commons, and Robbie Kendall Melton, Associate Vice Chancellor of eLearning and Emerging Mobilization Technology for the Tennessee Board of Regents.

Videos of the 2013 eLearning Summit keynotes are now available.

Academic, General, Public, School Media Specialist, Special

TIES Conference: CMLE Scholarship Recipient

The following post was submitted by CMLE scholarship recipient Nancy Lorentz,  Media Specialist at Becker High School

TIES2013logo_web400x140TIES 2013 Conference – Fast Forward; Transforming Pedagogy with Technology

The  very first session I attended this year was “Tech Tools for Reading and Writing in Content Areas,” by Laura Gudmundson.  Using a very organized Google Site, Laura shared many ways to use technology to improve instruction.  One of the ideas that jumped out at me immediately was using Animoto for vocabulary–our students could certainly do the same using iMovie trailers.  How exciting for students to have to demonstrate the meaning of a word and not just copy a definition.   I’ve never been very impressed with teaching students to blog — unless they really have something unique and creative to say.  However, teaching students to comment properly on blogs on the New York Times website or CNN.com–now THAT’s a lifelong writing skill that everyone could use!  Laura also has many, many resources on her presentation site that I will use when I have more time to explore them all.

Sally Mays and Dawn Nelson were an awesome presentation team with their session, “Be Essential:  The Role of Librarians and Media Specialists.”   They very energetically gave us tips on how to make ourselves and what we do visible to administrators, students and parents.  They have every student sign in when they enter the media center so that they can keep statistics for their weekly report to the administrators.  Sally reminded me of several tools that I know are great to use, but are great to hear about again.  We all joined their class in Today’s Meet–a great tool that I can use when doing staff development.  They talked about collaborating with our staff, offering resources, making literature connections, teaching research skills and having outside connections so that we are best able to support our staff.   These are things that I do all of the time, but they emphasize how important it is to make sure our administrators KNOW that we’re doing it.  I can definitely do a better job of that.

Academic, General, Public, School Media Specialist, Special

Lessons Learned About Self Publishing

red bookAre you thinking you might want to self-publish a high quality book that everyone wants to read? And, have you heard that by self-publishing, your royalties can run as high as 70 percent? Before you get too excited, it might serve you well to understand cwhat truly goes into self-publishing.

Huff Post Books wrote a great piece on this subject and a group who self-published an anthology, go into detail about marketing, publicity, cover design, copy editors, and even the role of their editorial board. This piece also includes options for self-publishing and even includes a list of established authors who are now self-publishing. Pay very close attention to the numerous links within the article, as they will lead you to a true treasure trove of additional information. Read the full post at http://tinyurl.com/owj3weo