All posts by Theresa

General, Public, School Media Specialist

Recommended App: RWT Timeline

RWT TimelineRecently, the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) came out with their 25 Best Apps for Teaching & Learning for 2014.  The apps were chosen because they foster innovation, creativity, active participation, and collaboration.

One of the featured apps is RWT Timeline.  The app lets students make timelines (organized by date, time, or event) using photos and text.  AASL says, “this app has a lot of potential in social studies and science classes.  Students may create their own timelines from history or use the app to share results from a science experiment or step-by-step instructions.”

The app is recommended for all grades K-12 and is available for free on Android and iOS.  This brief video shows off the features:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0mvHOssP3Wk

For more apps, check out our 2014-2015 Recommended App archive!

General, Public

Public Library Day 2015 is coming!

Arboretum ParkThe Minnesota Public Library Day is approaching!  This year’s event will be at the Grands at Mulligan in Sartell, MN on Tuesday, April 28th, 2015.  Registration opens on March 13th.

This is a great opportunity to network and connect with colleagues. This event is offered by the Public Libraries Division (PLD) of MLA. Topics of the day will include:

  • Makerspaces
  • Teen tech squads
  • Diffusing security issues when you’re by yourself

For more information, click here.

Concerned about costs?  Apply for a CMLE scholarship of up to $200 – the money is yours to use for registration, hotel, mileage, meals, or to subsidize the cost of your employer hiring a substitute worker while you are away.  The application process is easy, and approaching your boss to say you have found a way to contribute $200, they will see that you have taken initiative!

For more events like Public Library Day, check our our Events/Initiatives page.

Image credit: http://tinyurl.com/nlzryfd, licensed under CC BY 2.0
Academic, General, Public, School Media Specialist, Special

Road Trip? See the MN Book Awards Finalists!

MN BACan’t get enough of the Minnesota Book Awards?  For the next month, public libraries in the metro region will be hosting Minnesota Book Awards finalists – each library hosts a different category, and the finalists from each category will be present to read from their nominated works.  Some events include appearances by previous winners, too!
While we realize that these events are all in the Twin Cities, you can save on the cost of attending the Gala and still get to know these great Minnesota authors!  Some are during the week, and others are on the weekend – opening up the possibility for a much-needed night on the town or weekend getaway!  You can get the details on these eight events here.  Once you’re on the page, scroll down to “Public Libraries Celebrate the Minnesota Book Awards.”
General

Need help with a personal book purge?

lilacs at windowThis is the time of year when we all start thinking about spring cleaning – whether we do it or not is another matter entirely.  Jeanette Solomon of Book Riot found herself in a situation some of us may find ourselves in from time to time: her colossal book collection was causing her a generous amount of stress.  Tired of owning plenty of unread books, she began to weed out her collection.  “There were so many books I’d accumulated for so many reasons that simply no longer mattered to me,” Solomon writes.  While she loves looking at other people’s bookshelves, Solomon loves seeing her own “pared down shelves and only having positive feelings about the books that live there.”

See the full article for more on how Solomon’s book purge changed her mood for the better – and how she understands that book purging isn’t for everyone.

Image credit: http://tinyurl.com/ms34bvj, licensed under CC BY 2.0
Academic, General, Public, School Media Specialist, Special

Copyright Continues: Free Copyright-Friendly Resources

iStock_000014864782LargeCMLE’s copyright/fair use information just keeps getting better! We have added a new Resources tab to our Copyright LibGuide on CMLE’s Learning Landing!  The new tab features  links to: images, video, music, books, software, open education resources, and open access scholarly resources. You can rest easy in knowing  that  these resources can be freely used with no worries around copyright or fair use. How do we know? Because these resources were assessed and shared by Nancy Sims, U of M Copyright Librarian at our November event, Us, Use, and Users. A big thank you to Nancy for creating her materials under Creative Commons licensing, which allows us to share freely!

Check it out here, and , if you haven’t already, check out our recap of the Nancy Sims event!

Image: ©iStockphoto.com/porcorex