All posts by John

Academic, General, Public, School Media Specialist, Special

MN Law resources for Law questions

MSLL_FullColor_WEBGrayThis message comes to us from Liz Reppe, State Law Librarian. Take advantage of this great resource!

Do you ever get questions from patrons about where they can get legal help? The State Law Library has put together legal referral sheets for every county in Minnesota. These can be a great resource for librarians and patrons! Check out – http://mn.gov/lawlib/factsheets.html

Liz Reppe
State Law Librarian
MN State Law Library
Room G25, MN Judicial Center
25 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
St. Paul, MN 55155
651-297-2089
liz.reppe@courts.state.mn.us

General

Preserve your special books with Kindle Convert

61-OaDOAm7L._SL1000_Looking to convert your old books to Kindle format? Now you can with Kindle Convert for your PC. The Windows application doesn’t come cheap at $49 but Darrell Etherinton of TechCrunch reports that “it can help convert special out-of-print books that may not be generally available, as well as documents and books with personal value that may not exist anywhere else.” Will it find a place at your library? Maybe, but remember you’ll also need a scanner to get your books into digital format.

Happy scanning, converting, then reading on your Kindle!

Academic, General, Public, School Media Specialist, Special

Register now for the Minitex Interlibrary Loan Conference

PrintThe 24th Annual Minitex Interlibrary Loan Conference will take place on Tuesday, May 12, 2015, at the Continuing Education and Conference Center on the Saint Paul Campus of the University of Minnesota.

Register Now!

More session details to follow but come join keynote speaker Lorcan Dempsey and Marshall Breeding for some ILL learning!

No Money? A CMLE scholarship of up to $200 is yours to use for registration, hotel, mileage, meals, or to subsidize the cost of your employer hiring a substitute worker so you can be away. If you approach your boss to say you have found a way to contribute  $200, they will know you are invested and have taken initiative. The application process is easy, CMLE would love to exhaust its scholarship budget this year, so go for it!

Finally, remember you can stay up to date with upcoming events in our events table.

Academic, General, Public, School Media Specialist, Special

Does your library have a public identity?

UntitledEven librarians can take tactics and ideas from politics. Recently, Rachel Korman wrote about the idea of “surfacing” on the EveryLibrary blog. “Surfacing is when a candidate emerges into the public consciousness and creates a public identity for themselves.” Libraries are already in the public consciousness you might say, but there are always special instances when properly increasing your public identity can help. That’s what the Findlay-Hancock County Public Library of Ohio ran into when they had a 0.5 levy renewal on a ballot. Asking for money on a ballot, whether for a public library or public school, can be a difficult task. That’s where surfacing comes in! Here are the steps:

Step 1: “Demonstrating candidates’ fitness for office” – communicate your plan
Step 2: “Initiating political rituals” – rallies or campaign events
Step 3: “Providing the public opportunities to learn about the candidates” – get out of the library
Step 4: “Developing voter expectations…” – what does the library do?
Step 5: “Determining main campaign issues” – create and follow a plan
Step 6: “Separating frontrunners from the rest of the candidates” – keep positive perceptions
Step 7: “Establishing candidate-media relationships” – get your voice heard

Read more about surfacing here. Maybe you can apply it to your next library campaign or just increasing your library’s footprint in the community.

Image Credit: http://tinyurl.com/mab6pc4, licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
Academic, General, Public, School Media Specialist, Special

Graffiti wall engagement

-Stay_In_Your_Lane_Kent-It might be old school, but many libraries are seeing more engagement than ever with one simple tool: a bulletin board. A simple easel and marker, or the more ambitious “graffiti wall,” are getting students to interact more than any social media tool.

Andy Priestner, Information & Library Services Manager at Cambridge Judge Business school in the UK, also added to the conversation with his blog post about “The Speaking Wall.” First, he mentions how they don’t “expect to receive many comments or opinions on our social media channels.” A sentiment that many social media managers can echo. Then he moves on to the four large noticeboards they have in his library and how they used them to create a graffiti wall. “As a low-cost method of gathering user opinion and engaging in user dialogue our graffiti wall has been a great success,” he says. “It has played a significant role in resolving both known and unknown issues, and has been a very useful means of proving that the we are interested in, and open to, what our users have to say and pretty damn responsive too.”

Simple, cheap, and his students are engaging with it. Are you inspired? Or are you already using this technique? Send us a pic or tell us about it below!

Image credit: http://tinyurl.com/popjzbs, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0