No doubt, a number of you received a new iPhone or iPad recently. And, you may be building your skill set in using your device in order to be a rockstar in the upcoming Minnesota 23 Mobile Things Program. Experts at BuzzFeed share 19 tips and tricks to help you bond with your new device, and show off a bit too! Check it out at http://tinyurl.com/mnaqth5
Managing Digital Content Over Time: An Introduction to Digital PreservationWhat Will be Covered? Organizations of all kinds create and use a wide variety of digital resources in the course of business. These resources represent each organization’s intellectual capital and, as such, have value and need to be carefully managed and preserved. While many of the traditional resources found in libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural heritage institutions—books, photographs, objects—can survive for years with no intervention, our digital content is much more fragile. Managing it requires ongoing care and preservation activities to ensure continued access far into the future.
This online training series—based on the Library of Congress Digital Preservation Outreach and Education (DPOE) Program—introduces fundamental concepts for managing your digital content over time through a series of six modules delivered in three sessions. The sessions include: Identify and Select, Store and Protect, and Manage and Provide. Viewers can choose to register for all three sessions, or just one of the three.
Who Should Attend? This introductory series is for staff of any library, archive, museum, or other organization concerned about the long term care of their digital resources. No previous knowledge about the topic of digital preservation is assumed.
To Register Visit: http://tinyurl.com/nalzeeg
Happy holidays to all academic, public, special and K-12 school library staff in the twelve-county Central Minnesota region! We hope that everyone gets at least a little bit of downtime during this season to savor moments of peace and rest.
We have intentionally begun tapering off the “weightiness” of posts this week, as we remind ourselves of the importance of honoring traditions and times with family and friends. With that in mind, we will take a short break from the Weekly Review during the holidays, and will be back in January to shepherd members to the registration link for the 23 Mobile Things Program. It is invigorating to hear the buzz in the air about this free, self-paced, online learning opportunity, and we are looking forward to it!
As the wind begins to howl, and road conditions deteriorate, the face-to-face library events typically slow down if only for a little while! Stay warm, focus on refining your craft, and build big plans and dreams for the new year. We will be doing the same. CMLE staffers remain dedicated to providing quality support services to library staff in 319 libraries in Central Minnesota.
Peace~
Patricia
In a recent post, you may have noticed that Doug Johnson’s Blue Skunk blog was named in the top 50 list of school library blogs. Doug used that platform to his advantage to encourage followers to take his survey on Professional Learning Network (PLN) Tools. Within a week or so, Doug had 513 responses; a good and fast response! Some interesting facts follow, but please read Doug’s full blog post to read more about other highlights or possible limitations of the survey.
What about you, what is your favorite PLN tool?
FROM: State Library Services
DATE: December 4, 2013
SUBJECT: 12 Libraries Awarded LSTA Competitive Grants in 2013
State Library Services is pleased to announce the 2013 LSTA Competitive Grant projects. A total of 15 grant proposals were submitted; 12 received complete or partial funding The projects demonstrate the wonderful variety of ways in which public and school libraries across the state are working to ensure that access to state-of-the-art resources and technology, responsive services that address community needs, and opportunities for lifelong learning are available to Minnesotans.
Austin Public Library – $9,600
“Creative Aging in the Mower County Libraries”
Creative Aging in the Mower County Libraries will provide increased local access to lifelong-learning experiential resources for older adults. The Austin Public Library, in partnership with the Austin Area Commission for the Arts, will offer free professionally-taught creative aging classes to active older adults using techniques developed and taught by the National Center for Creative Aging and ArtSage Minnesota. Participants will engage in a powerful creative and healing process of self-expression as a means to pursuing lifelong learning goals, feeling mentally better, increasing community engagement, and remaining more independent and living more meaningful lives.
Brooklyn Center Schools – $54,786.95
“Brooklyn Center Reading for the 21st Century”
Brooklyn Center Reading for the 21st Century will support Brooklyn Center Secondary in procuring its first library of digital texts (up-to-date fiction, non-fiction, audio-books, and textbooks) and an integrated digital library management system to allow students to check out digital texts from the media center. Staff will implement a school-wide “close reading” strategy to promote critical reading in all subject areas that will make use of the digital texts. The digital collection will consist of high-interest and curriculum-relevant materials designed to increase readership in Brooklyn Center Secondary’s urban learners and improve the ability for staff to differentiate instruction. Access to digital materials will also improve the reading experience for students with disabilities, as the digital format is innately more accessible. This project will help Brooklyn Center Secondary students to graduate with the strengths to read critically and adapt in a global, digital community.
The Friends of the St. Paul Public Library – $11,000
“Minnesota Book Awards Support to Librarians Statewide”
Minnesota Book Awards Support to Librarians Statewide will build capacity of the librarians in the state and awareness of Minnesota’s rich writing environs in their respective communities. This project will provide opportunities for librarians to serve as judges and facilitators for the competitive category judging sessions, book artist programming and exhibits, as well as funds for libraries around the state to hold programming with Minnesota Book Awards finalists and winners.
Hennepin County Library – $12,000
“iPads and Pre-Readers, a Together Project”
IPads and Pre-Readers, a Together Project will offer families and caregivers access to literacy-rich opportunities to interact with their young children using technology. Through this project, patrons will build increased awareness of early literacy skills and the ways in which carefully-selected apps, explored together, can help build those skills. With increased access to tablet technology, patrons will identify the library as a resource for selecting developmentally-appropriate mobile applications. Hennepin County Library (HCL) staff will become more comfortable and confident when working with patrons using tablet technology, when talking about use of technology with children and be more capable when relating the use of technology to early literacy skill building.
Oak View Elementary School, District 279 – $76,313
“Digital Learning at Oak View”
Digital Learning for Oak View’s goal is to provide increased access to digital literacy resources at school for all students and at home for low-income families to increase students’ reading proficiency and understanding of 21st century digital literacy skills. We seek to do this by providing access to quality digital resources that provide for reinforcement, practice and increased engagement with the Common Core English Language Arts standards. Adding mobile devices will give Oak View approximately a 1 to 5 student to device ratio and dramatically increase student’s access to digital literacy resources.
Perpich Center for the Arts – $17,900
“Literacy Equity: Engaging Resourceful Community Knowledge”
Literacy Equity: Engaging Resourceful Community Knowledge will build and reinforce partnerships between school media centers and local community libraries so that both are better able to engage partnerships and resources in response to the emerging needs of their communities and provide targeted outreach to under-served populations. In this professional development project, participants will develop literacies related to improving water quality and building a cross-cultural school community around a particular community need. Participants will learn strategies for identifying and partnering with organizations, individuals and families to build collective literacy about the changing quality of our shared watersheds, and to better understand and share the cultural assets of the school and local communities.
Plum Creek Library System – $86,768
“Murray County School Libraries Addition to the PCLS Catalog”
This project will enable the Murray County Schools in Slayton and Fulda to join the regional library catalog operated by Plum Creek Library System (PCLS). Joining the PCLS catalog will allow four school library collections in the two school districts to be shared within the schools, by the general community with the local public libraries on the same catalog, throughout the region with 25 public and 8 school libraries, and through the MN MnLINK network. The PCLS catalog connection and delivery service will also open up the world of local, regional, and statewide resources to the library users at the school buildings.
Southeastern Libraries Cooperating (SELCO) – $49,200
“Collective Learning Online Training Hub (CLOTH)”
The Collective Learning Online Training Hub (CLOTH) project will allow SELCO to consolidate a variety of training methods, documents, and tools in an online environment. An online learning environment will ensure that quality training sessions on the various products and services offered by SELCO to its member libraries are readily accessible. This is expected to increase the quality of services provided by librarians to patrons, particularly those in small, rural libraries or school media centers.
Southeast Library System (SELS) – $49,850
“eBooks for Southeastern Minnesota Schools”
eBooks in Southeastern Minnesota Schools will bring together a group of school librarians, administrators, curriculum specialists, and SELCO staff to undertake a comprehensive study to determine the need for eBooks in schools from the 11 counties that make up SELCO and SELS. The data from this study will be used as the basis for developing a shared eBook offering for the region.
St. Paul Public Library – $26,237
“Advancing At Risk Youth Toward Working Professionals”
Saint Paul Public Library (SPPL), working with Saint Paul Parks and Recreation (Parks), will create a system of badges to certify work readiness for Youth Job Corps (YJC) Workers hired by the two city departments. The “gamification” of skills acquisition will enhance the experience for the young people while providing them with credentials they will need in the broader work environment. Parks and SPPL will pilot badging with YJC workers in their two departments with the intention of providing replicable curriculum for other YJC employers throughout the state. Badges granted will include but not be limited to: writing a resume; job applications and interviews; showing up ready to work; time management; financial management; and digital literacy. Together, they will culminate in a Work Readiness Mastery Badge which will be recognized by SPPL and Parks as a strong recommendation for jobs and advanced training in the two departments.
St. Paul Public Library – $12,500
“Community Connectors: Services for Underserved English Speaking Urban Populations”
The project will improve digital literacy for adults experiencing barriers of homelessness, poverty, unemployment and/or underemployment and basic literacy for children who experience racism and racial barriers as Black Americans. The Mobile WorkPlace in the Saint Paul Public Library will partner with organizations to offer computer classes that will teach basic computer skills in order to transition adults in becoming productive member of society. World Language Storytimes, which ensure limited English proficiency children to develop literacy skills, will expand to include Black American story times. Activities will include engaging an individual of Black American heritage to present story times who will help to develop early literacy skills in the targeted culture.
Yinghua Academy – $48,925
“Skills for Success: Digital and Information Literacy for Middle School Learners”
Skills for Success will improve information and literacy skills for middle school (5th-8th grade) students by enhancing the Yinghua Academy school library collection and expanding services for learning and access to information and educational resources. Students will interact with information and communication technology, developing information and digital literacy skills while also improving 21st century skills in learning and working. Improvements to the school media center, in conjunction with program activities and collaboration with subject area teachers and middle school curricula, will develop student facility with digital literacy skills and encourage ongoing information literacy well beyond middle school.
For more information, contact Jackie Blagsvedt at 651-582-8850 or jacqueline.blagsvedt@state.mn.us