All posts by John

General, Public, School Media Specialist

Are you reaching reluctant readers?

Its important to remember “that reluctant readers may be aliterate, not illiterate. There is a big difference between approaching a teen who can read, but chooses not to and a teen who cannot read.”

The above quote was from Jessica Lind, a blogger from YALSA, who recently attended a reluctant reader presentation, featuring Patrick Jones, at the 2014 YA Literature Symposium. In her post about the event, she breaks down the event into some of the bigger themes:

  • PatrickJones_150-760023Why They Aren’t Reading
  • Qualities of Books for Reluctant Readers
  • Ease In-Library Access
  • What Will Reluctant Readers Read?
  • Things to Do to Reach Reluctant Readers of Tomorrow

The entire presentation can be found here.

You might remember that CMLE held a reluctant reader event in 2013 featuring Minnesota’s own Patrick Jones as well. Clearly this is an issue that we will continue to talk about.

General, School Media Specialist

Minnesota Department of Education Announces 2014 Celebration Schools

News from the MN State Department of Education about 2014 Celebration Schools. Congratulations to CMLE member libraries Mississippi Heights Elementary (Sauk Rapids-Rice) and Rice Elementary for receiving the award.

state_mnDRAFT FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: December 17, 2014
CONTACT: Keith Hovis, 651-582-8275, keith.hovis@state.mn.us

Minnesota Department of Education Announces 2014 Celebration Schools

ROSEVILLE – Today, the Minnesota Department of Education announced that 22 schools are being recognized as Celebration schools for their efforts to increase student achievement. This year, 143 schools applied for the honor.

“I want to congratulate these schools for this incredible accomplishment,” said Education Commissioner Brenda Cassellius. “Minnesotans should be proud of the work going on in our schools. I look forward to continue learning about their successful efforts to ensure all students succeed and share that work with other schools across the state.”

The Celebration school designation is part of Minnesota’s federal accountability system that replaces No Child Left Behind. Under Minnesota’s program, schools are assigned a Multiple Measurement Rating (MMR) based on students’ proficiency and growth, as well as a school’s progress towards reducing achievement gaps and increasing graduation rates. The state’s Title I schools—those serving racially and ethnically diverse student populations and receive federal funds for children from low-income families—qualify for designations if they are top performers.

Celebration-eligible schools are the 25 percent of schools directly below those designated as Reward schools (the top 15 percent of Title I schools). These schools are then able to apply for Celebration status by documenting what efforts they are using to increase student achievement. The department selects schools based on their ability to effectively document best practices that have led to student success to receive the Celebration school recognition. Celebration-eligible schools are identified annually.

The schools chosen as 2014 Celebration schools this year are:

School Name / District Name

  • Blooming Prairie Elementary / Blooming Prairie Public School District
  • Cedar Park Elementary / Rosemount-Apple Valley-Eagan
  • Dover-Eyota Elementary / Dover-Eyota Public School District
  • Fair School Downtown / West Metro Education Program
  • Hmong College Prep Academy High School / Hmong College Prep Academy
  • Huddleston Elementary / Lakeville Public School District
  • Kelliher Secondary School / Kelliher Public School District
  • Kennedy Elementary / Willmar Public School District
  • Kenny Elementary / Minneapolis Public School District
  • KIPP Minnesota Charter School / KIPP Minnesota Charter School
  • Menahga Elementary / Menahga Public School District
  • Minnesota Transitions Middle School / Minnesota Transitions Charter
  • Mississippi Heights Elementary / Sauk Rapids-Rice Public School District
  • Moose Lake Elementary / Moose Lake Public School District
  • Oak Grove Elementary / Bloomington Public School District
  • Oak Hills Elementary / Lakeville Public School District
  • Rice Elementary / Sauk Rapids-Rice Public School District
  • Richardson Elementary / North St. Paul-Maplewood-Oakdale Public School District
  • Ridgeway Community School / Ridgeway Community
  • South Terrace Elementary / Carlton Public School District
  • Southgate Elementary / Austin Public School District
  • Weaver Elementary / North St. Paul-Maplewood-Oakdale

News of the award was also featured in the St. Cloud Times. Read about it here.

Academic, General, Public, School Media Specialist, Special

What are the top tech trends in 2015?

Thinking about the year ahead2015 is upon us and the predictions of what 2015 has in store for us have too. Computerworld starts us off with their prediction of 6 technologies that will change PCs in 2015. One example that seems exciting is wireless charging. Who among us wouldn’t want to get rid of all those charging cords!

Another great look ahead comes from Joyce Valenza. Her top 10 tech trends are a varied list and include things like social media, crowd-sourcing, app-smashing, and making.

Do you have any thoughts on what 2015 holds?

Image credit: http://tinyurl.com/nbsbsxy, licensed under CC BY 2.0
General, School Media Specialist

Genrefication QQP results

Recently CMLE asked via a Quick Question Poll, which of you were thinking about, or have made the switch from the Dewey Decimal Classification to a genre based system. Although we had a small sample, it seems that most of you have already made the switch! Of the ones that hadn’t, it was “Know How” that was the most popular thing holding you back. Thankfully, the ones that had done it responded with plenty of sage advice and tips. Check some of them out below:

  • Plan, plan, plan. Don’t hesitate. Pick your categories first and change on the catalog not just the spine.
  • I left non-fiction alone and just redid fiction. Determining categories is not an exact science, and sometimes books need to be reclassified.
  • I used demco colored label protectors to indicate genres (different color for each genre). No retyping each spine label! If you are changing the call number/marc record, do it as you re-shelve. We rearranged first then changed the record…mistake!
  • Determining categories takes some thought and consideration. No list is perfect, and we periodically move books to a new genre if we feel it is misplaced. It is intuitive for non-library experts. Some patrons need to rely on the catalog to find a particular title or author since the genre for that book may not be easily identifiable.
    Sports Fiction
  • We have really loved it in our building! It is developmentally appropriate for our students and it makes browsing easier. We have also noticed that more kids are using the patrons catalog with the new system in place.
  • Suggestion: Have both a picture and words on your signage and labels – it supports the non and emerging readers as well as giving visual cues.
  • Choosing genres is a challenge. There will be overlap no matter which categories you choose. The online catalog search will still be important because patrons cannot just browse by author. One author may be in a couple different genre areas. Sometimes change in and of itself brings a new energy to a library.
  • We did re-catalog all of our genre books and added the genre code in the call number as well as in subject fields. Some high interest non-fiction titles are mixed in with the fiction (like “Into Thin Air” in Action/Adventure). 

Want to learn more about genrefication? Check out our Genrefication of your school’s fiction collection post.

Academic, General, Public, School Media Specialist, Special

Top 10 CMLE blog posts from 2014

Nailed it! My picture is a perfect 10!Are you tired of 2014 top ten lists yet? We hope not! Here’s one more for you highlighting some of the most popular CMLE posts from last year.

  1. Events, Events, and more Events: The most popular post of the year was our Upcoming Library Events listing. Recently implemented, this was a one-stop place for all the events that might be of interest. We are happy to see you like it!
  2. Know your Copyright: This past November, CMLE hosted a Copyright Event. The event was well attended and the feedback seemed very positive.
  3. Librarians on TV: Coming in at third was our post about the upcoming “Librarians” TV series on TNT. The show has since premiered and seems to be getting positive reviews.
  4. Goodreads Awards: At fourth was our post about the Goodreads Choice Awards. It seems that we all like to read and sometimes award winners are the best place to start.
  5. Teen Read Week: Teen readers are a growing segment of focus for all library workers. This was reflected in our fifth most popular post about YALSA’s Teen Read Week.
  6. Book Store Model: One of the many issues school libraries are wrestling with is Genrefication, or changing to a book-store model with their collection. This was reflected in our sixth most popular post of the year: Genrefication of your school’s fiction collection.
  7. Where are the Media Specialists: Coming in at seven was our post: Where have the media specialists gone in 2014? In the post we looked at regional data about current media specialist employment.
  8. Mindfulness: CMLE also saw that our members are looking for some calm among the storm of their jobs. At eight, the 12 part Mindfulness series proved to be a subject many of you were interested in.
  9. School Visit: At nine was our popular post about a school visit to the Dassel-Cokato High School. Although it was a longer read, we saw that there is always room for sharing each other’s wins and lessons learned.
  10. More Reading Lists: Finally, our tenth most popular post of 2014 was Summer Reading Lists.

So, those are the top ten of 2014. Did you have a favorite CMLE post of 2014? Share with us or post in the comments below what it was! We love to learn what keeps you coming back.

We hope you had a great 2014, and wish you a wonderful 2015!

Image credit: http://tinyurl.com/p85zskz, licensed under CC BY 2.0