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

ELM Expo – Sessions and Registration

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Register Today for the ELM Expo: Still a few spaces remaining!

Date & Location

Friday, November 6, 2015 from 8:30am to 3:30pm

Anoka-Hennepin Staff Development Center
2727 North Ferry Street
Anoka, MN 55303

Registration Details

Fee: $30 includes morning snack, lunch, and handouts – Register Now!

Please note: Enrollment is limited to the first 100 people.

ELM Expo Sessions

Vendor sessions with trainers from Britannica, Ebsco, Gale, and (we hope) ProQuest. Learn about new resources, interfaces, and features.

Learn More

Electronic Library for Minnesota (ELM) is an outstanding suite of databases available to all Minnesotans. Join us to learn more about ELM, the specialized databases available, which database is best for what, and more. Learn with the experts how to search, save, and share your results. Take home tips on how to teach the databases to users.

This day-long training event will give you the chance to attend multiple sessions tailored to your interests and experience. Computers available, but feel free to bring your own laptop or tablet to personalize your learning.

All levels of experience welcome! Novice or advanced searcher, there will something for you.

Who Should Attend

Public, academic, school, and special librarians. School librarians (K-12) are urged to come as a team with History Day Teachers, Guidance Counselors, English Teachers, STEM Teachers, and anyone who uses ELM or wants to use ELM in libraries or classrooms. CEUs available.

Click Here -> Register Now!

Brought to you by CMLE, Metronet, and Minitex.

CMLE has scholarships for this event for registration, mileage, and/or to subsidize the cost of your employer hiring a substitute worker. Recipients would be able to apply for other scholarships in the future; this wouldn’t ‘count’ against a future award. Contact other multitypes for scholarships in those regions.

Check this out:, General, Public

We’ve Learned

photo-1423666639041-f56000c27a9aNew on the job

  • ECRL welcomes Welcome Steve Karlson as the new Princeton Branch Librarian. Steve is replacing Robin Suhsen who retired at the beginning of the summer.
  • ECRL also welcomes Barb Los as a new Branch Assistant in Aitkin.

Events

  • Book Lovers Night will be held Tuesday, October 27, 2015 at the Gorecki Conference Center, Room 204 on the College of Saint Benedict campus. The book and author will be Good Night, Mr. Wodehouse by Faith Sullivan.
Image credit: https://unsplash.com/ (William Ivan), licensed under CC0 1.0
Academic, Check this out:, General, Public, School Media Specialist

Digital Citizenship 101 Resources

iphone-4-closeupHelp us celebrate Digital Citizenship Week by starting the conversation about the importance of this topic. All adults can be powerful role models as they explain to kids the why and how they conduct themselves online.

How do you teach Digital Citizenship to students? What tools can you use to ensure they are prepared for a world full of technology?

Before we get too far into our discussion, let’s settle on a definition of Digital Citizenship. Digital Citizenship can be defined as the appropriate and responsible behavior with regard to technology use. Most break this down into 9 Elements:

  1. Digital Access: full electronic participation in society
  2. Digital Commerce: electronic buying and selling of goods
  3. Digital Communication: electronic exchange of information
  4. Digital Literacy: process of teaching and learning about technology and the use of technology
  5. Digital Etiquette: electronic standards of conduct or procedure
  6. Digital Law: electronic responsibility for actions and deeds
  7. Digital Rights & Responsibilities: those freedoms extended to everyone in a digital world
  8. Digital Health & Wellness: physical and psychological well-being in a digital technology world
  9. Digital Security (self-protection): electronic precautions to guarantee safety

Now that’s a long list! Where do you even start? Luckily Common Sense Media has created an easy to use program that many schools are already using. The program has age appropriate lessons for Digital Citizenship in their Scope and Sequence page. It contains curriculum appropriate for Kindergarten to 12th grade. Another page on assessment has online quizzes that students can take to test their learning. Here is a screen shot of a K-2 quiz:

dig_cit_assessment

Finally, Common Sense Media has their own app, Digital Compass, that helps students learn the fundamentals of digital citizenship through animated, choose-your-own-adventure interactive experiences, designed for grades 6-9. Check out this promo video to learn more:

Image credit: https://unsplash.com/ (Alejandro Escamilla), licensed under CC0 1.0
Academic, Check this out:, General

2015 LITA Forum is in Minneapolis!

LITA ForumThe 2015 LITA Forum includes 3 amazing Keynotes
Minneapolis, MN
November 12-15, 2015

Registration is now open!

This year’s Forum has three amazing keynotes you won’t want to miss:

LISA WELCHMAN

President of Digital Governance Solutions at ActiveStandards. In a 20-year career, Lisa Welchman has paved the way in the discipline of digital governance, helping organizations stabilize their complex, multi-stakeholder digital operations. Lisa’s focus centers on understanding and interpreting how the advent and prolific growth of digital impacts organizations, as well as the maturation of digital as a distinct vocational discipline in the enterprise. Her book Managing Chaos: Digital Governance by Design was published in February of 2015 by Rosenfeld Media.

MX A. MATIENZO

Director of Technology for the Digital Public Library of America, he focuses on promoting and establishing digital library interoperability at an international scale. Prior to joining DPLA, Matienzo worked as an archivist and technologist specializing in born-digital materials and metadata management, at institutions including the Yale University Library, The New York Public Library, and the American Institute of Physics. Matienzo received a MSI from the University of Michigan School of Information and a BA in Philosophy from the College of Wooster, and was awarded Emerging Leader Award of the Society of American Archivists in 2012.

CARSON BLOCK

Carson Block Consulting Inc. Carson Block has led, managed, and supported library technology efforts for more than 20 years. He has been called “a geek who speaks English” and enjoys acting as a bridge between the worlds of librarians and hard-core technologists. He has a passion to de-mystify technology for the uninitiated, and to help IT professionals understand and support the goals of libraries. As a consultant, Carson is often brought in to help solve complex institutional issues and to help align the library’s public service mission with its technology efforts to serve the needs of patrons and staff.

Don’t forget the Preconference Workshops

  • So You Want to Make a Makerspace: Strategic Leadership to support the Integration of new and disruptive technologies into Libraries: Practical Tips, Tricks, Strategies, and Solutions for bringing making, fabrication and content creation to your library
    ◦Leah Kraus, Director of Community Engagement and Experience at the Fayetteville Free Library.
    ◦Michael Cimino, Technology Innovation and Integration Specialist at the Fayetteville Free Library.
  • Beyond Web Page Analytics: Using Google tools to assess searcher behavior across web properties.
    ◦Robert L. Nunez, Head of Collection Services, Kenosha Public Library, Kenosha, WI
    ◦Keven Riggle, Systems Librarian & Webmaster, Marquette University Libraries

The 2015 Library and Information Technology Association (LITA) Forum is a three-day education and networking event featuring 2 preconferences, 3 keynote sessions, more than 55 concurrent sessions and 15 poster presentations. This year including content and planning collaboration with LLAMA. It’s the 18th annual gathering of the highly regarded LITA Forum for technology-minded information professionals. Meet with your colleagues involved in new and leading edge technologies in the library and information technology field. Registration is limited in order to preserve the important networking advantages of a smaller conference. Attendees take advantage of the informal Friday evening reception, networking dinners and other social opportunities to get to know colleagues and speakers.

Check this out:, General, School Media Specialist

Recommended App: Loose Strands

LooseStrands-app-icon-512Recently, the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) came out with their 25 Best Apps for Teaching & Learning for 2015. The apps were chosen because they foster innovation, creativity, active participation, and collaboration.

This week we highlight Loose Strands. This app harkens back to the days of Choose Your Own Adventure books. It allows users to “readers follow along and choose their desired outcomes.”

The app is recommended for upper Elementary (3-5) students. It is available on IOS for $4.99 and on Android for $4.39. Check out how the story unfolds in this quick introduction: