Category Archives: Academic

Academic, Public, School Media Specialist

Need help with your stretched budget?

Yellow butterflyAre you an educator looking for additional funding? If so, you definitely should investigate the site GetEdFunding.

Sponsored by CDW-G, their mission is to help educators with the funds needed to supplement budgets that are already stretched very thin. The site features thousands of grants and awards that are updated daily. These opportunities are available to both public and private institutions, pre-K and K-12 educators, schools, districts, institutions of higher learning, and also nonprofit organizations that assist these places.

They do require you to register with the site, but once registered, you can do very specialized searches (including 43 areas of focus) to help find relevant grant and award opportunities. They also feature a handy “Deadline Alert” section that highlights which grants and awards will need to be submitted soon.

Click Here to Search for Funding Opportunities.

Remember, CMLE has a grants page too. More info here.

Image credit: http://tinyurl.com/zhvcobz licensed under (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Academic, General, Public, School Media Specialist, Special

12 literary places to visit

alley to the oceanPlanning a trip this summer? If you like books, this article will share with you several unique literary spots not to be missed, including libraries, bookstores, and architecture!

These 12 spots were found on Google Maps so you can get both the address and an idea of the neighborhood they are in, to ensure you can locate them easily should you ever be in the area.

Check out the book benches in Istanbul, which are spread throughout the city and include the works of 18 famous Turkish writers. Or, shop for books in a castle! Hay Castle in the U.K. features an open-air bookshop.

Have you traveled somewhere with a literary influence? We want to hear about it! Let us know in the comments below.

Image credit: http://unsplash.com/(Bertrand Zuchuat) licensed under CC0 1.0

 

 

 

Academic, General, Public, School Media Specialist, Special

Misinformation spreads faster than Creeping Charlie

IrishI am seriously thinking of unplugging from social media lately. Waaayyy too many crazy, unfounded claims and bits of information, most connected to politics. Such a need for drama it seems; has society become addicted to drama? As a librarian, I feel a need to set the record straight when I see these, but I also know that engaging with such Facebook posts will only cause me to receive more! What to do?

This is such a problem that the World Economic Forum declared the online spread of misinformation to be a form of “digital wildfire,” and one of the main threats to global society. As librarians we understand the power of information, but it rises to a new level for me as I read about  a team of researchers who have conducted a five-year-long study on a wide range of Facebook users in a quest to find out how misinformation blossoms online. If echo chambers, trolling pages and confirmation bias appeal to you, please read the following results from the study. 

Wondering how to check outrageous claims to see if they are true? See our earlier blog post: Do You Really Know the Truth? Snopes Field Guide.

Image credit: https://unsplash.com/ (Irene Dávila), licensed under CC0 1.0

 

 

Academic, General, Public, School Media Specialist, Special

CMLE Weekly Review: 5/12/2016

This issue of the Weekly Review recaps our blog posts from May 6 – May 11, 2016.

CMLE Updates: State & Regional News
– In case you missed it: New SCTCC library and Jess Lourey event More
– Featured Book: Dare to Disappoint More
– State Library updates 5/3/2016 More
– CMLE seeks new Executive Director! More

Upcoming Events and Registration Information
– Looking for professional development? More
– Register now – free “live only” webcast with Kate DiCamillo More

Tech Bits and Ideas
– Share your screen and offer tech help – 3 tips More
– Libraries Ready to Code launched by ALA & Google More

Resources You Can Use
– Teen Read Week site is up! More
– New: The letters of Laura Ingalls Wilder More
– Help fund your makerspaces, events, and collections! More

Food For Thought
– Results reported from Higher Ed Horizon More
– Which books are weeds? More

Just For Fun
– Bookish acronyms cheat sheet More

Academic, General, Public, School Media Specialist, Special

Bookish acronyms cheat sheet

sitting on booksWhile perusing book-related sites, do you ever come across an acronym you just cannot understand?

Luckily, this article can easily be bookmarked and saved for future reference, so when you come across a book categorized as “GN YA PNR” you can figure out that it’s a Graphic Novel for Young Adults in the genre of ParaNormal Romance.

The article breaks the acronyms into sections for easy use, including: general reading, genre and demographics, organizations and event related, formats, and fun stuff.

Image credit:  https://unsplash.com/(Gaelle Marcel), licensed under CC0 1.0