Category Archives: Academic

Academic, General, Public, School Media Specialist, Special

In case you missed it – new library and author-talk event

We had a wonderful time at our event on May 5th that took place at the new St. Cloud Technical and Community College library!

Writer Jess Lourey started us out with an engaging presentation, walking us through her life and the events that led to her becoming a published author. Lourey grew up with stories, and she spoke about her high school English teacher who encouraged her writing. When receiving an award years later in her hometown of Paynesville, her teacher shared that he had actually saved one of her short stories, knowing she had talent and would become successful. Lourey’s path hasn’t been easy – her first novel was rejected over 400 times and she faced tragedy in her personal life. However, through the power of story, she was able to channel some of those situations and feelings into her writing. Lourey has written YA, magical realism, and her thriller Salem’s Cipher is scheduled to be released in September this year. She is also an award-winning professor of creative writing and sociology at St. Cloud Community and Technical College. Lourey will be presenting a TEDx talk about her upcoming book Better Than Gin: Rewrite Your Life, about the power of narrative therapy through fiction writing. Check back with us, we will keep you posted with where to find her TED talk.

ebooks minnesotaBeth Staats from Minitex gave a great presentation about the exciting new venture that is eBooks MN. As we know, our state has a flourishing publishing industry. This platform is taking advantage of that to share the materials with the wider public! You can download the app, and can also download books to read offline, all free of charge. Currently it is estimated 3/5 of the titles are aimed at children, but they are working on increasing their contents for adults. After all, we try to shop and eat local, why wouldn’t we read local too?

Finally, we were able to enjoy some tasty Mexican food and toured the spacious new library facility at the Tech College. Modern furniture, energy-efficient lighting, and comfortable group work areas (plus many additional updates!) all come together to create a fantastic space. You don’t need to be a student to reap the benefits of the library either – they offer library cards to community members! If you haven’t visited yet, go check it out!

Image credit: http://www.sctcc.edu/
Academic, General, Public, School Media Specialist, Special

CMLE seeks a new Executive Director

On an adventureHi, Patricia Post here! I am always reminded that we need to communicate often, in different ways, and in different formats! So, for all the people who have seen that CMLE is looking for a new Executive Director, and are wondering what is going on, here are some quick links to get you caught up!

Did you know:

  • I recently wrote a blog post announcing my retirement.
  • On May 4th, the Executive Director position was posted on 18 online job boards and social media sites. If you have seen it, help us spread this opportunity  far and wide!
  • Haven’t seen the job posting? No worries, go to our new www.cmlejobs.com site to see the job ad, view the position description and scoring strategy, and find out how to apply!
Image credit: http://tinyurl.com/pd6sq4g, licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0
 

	

	
	




	
	

				

			Academic, General
		

			
2016 Higher Education Horizon Report

		

			 		

	


		

		
A perennial favorite, the 2016 New Media Consortium (NMC) Horizon report for Higher Education is out! In it, they talk about “six key trends, six significant challenges, and six important developments in educational technology” and “their likely impact on the core missions of universities and colleges.” Interestingly we are seeing many of these trends affecting academic libraries in the CMLE region. A new library at SCTCC and new work on a Learning Commons at CSB/SJU reflect a focus on “redesigning learning spaces” and “rethinking how institutions currently work.” Check out the table of contents below to get a quick snapshot or check out the whole report now.


Key Trends Accelerating Technology Adoption in Higher Education:


    

  • Advancing Cultures of Innovation
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  • Rethinking How Institutions Work
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  • Redesigning Learning Spaces
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  • Shift to Deeper Learning Approaches
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  • Growing Focus on Measuring Learning
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  • Increasing Use of Blended Learning Designs
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  • Blending Formal and Informal Learning
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  • Improving Digital Literacy
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  • Competing Models of Education
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  • Personalizing Learning
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  • Balancing Our Connected and Unconnected Lives
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  • Keeping Education Relevant
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  • Bring Your Own Device (BYOD)
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  • Learning Analytics and Adaptive Learning
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  • Augmented and Virtual Reality
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  • Makerspaces
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  • Affective Computing
    • 

  • Robotics
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Read the whole report now.

	

	
	




	
	

				

			Academic, General, Public, School Media Specialist, Special
		

			
Three ways to share your screen and offer tech help

		

			 		

	


		

		
Do you need a quick and easy way to share your screen? Maybe you find yourself needing to show students, or present, or even helping someone with tech support. Well, leave it to Richard Byrne at FreeTech4Teachers.com to give us a list of some of the best options for sharing your screen. All three options are free and require little to no technical knowledge. Check out the whole article now for all the details or use the quick links below to jump right in!


	

	
	




	
	

				

			Academic, General, Public, School Media Specialist, Special
		

			
Which books are weeds?

		

			 		

	


		

		
SeedlingI have got gardening on the brain, do you? It is exciting to see anything green push up through the dirt, even a weed! But soon enough, we know that for the sake of the garden, those weeds have to go. So goes it with our library collections too. As we remove the clutter, the truly good content can breathe, can shine through more brightly. This is the time of year when many of our readers are doing inventory and weeding collections, so this post seems timely. The key question always is….which books are weeds, and many a librarian are quite tortured by it! Deep down, I think librarians absolutely know something needs to be weeded, they just need absolution for discarding any book. In many cases, the act of discarding is painful, and fraught with indecision. Some people simply cannot do it!


If you have been reading our blog for some time, you have heard of Mary Kelly and Holly Hibner, two light-hearted Michigan librarians best known for their Awful Library Books blog.  They also offer Advice to Reluctant Weeders Here. You might want to also check out their Hurdles to Weeding.


Good to go, or do you need to go deeper? Other resources that may help include:



Image credit: http://tinyurl.com/q3vaodr, licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0