We know there are a lot of crafters who work in libraries. And of course, crafting is a great type of program to do in any type of library! Each week we are sharing links to a craft that you might want to try in your library – or work on it yourself. (Hint: we would love to see photos when you are done!!)

This week’s craft is really easy – and it looks so good! Even for those of us who are newbie crafters, this is a very achievable craft.

Sharpie Dot Mug (Click here to get all the directions, and photos of each step.)

The materials are easy to assemble:

• a cappuccino mug from the Dollar Store
• sticker paper
• sharpies (You can use one color, or just go with a variety)

You will need an oven at the end. So if this is a library project, you may want to send everyone home with a card of written instructions for warming the mug to finalize it.

Here is an image of the final project from the website.

We are excited to hear all about the mug designs you make! (Send pictures – we love to see them!)

We like books; we like parks – and Minnesota is lucky to have both of them! Join our Goodreads book challenge: Armchair Travel to Minnesota State Parks.

We give you a link to each state park, a short fact, and a prompt for you to find a book. You find it, and read a book, and then tell us all about it.

In this podcast, we give you a few suggestions for books to fit a prompt for each park. Try one of these books, or find one of your own to enjoy!

Fort Ridgely State Park has a variety of historic sites to visit while you are here – and a horse camp!
https://www.dnr.state.mn.us/state_par…

Enjoy a walking tour while you visit the park, or enjoy some armchair travels with a book that has a walking tour in the story.

Visiting our members is one of the highlights of being at CMLE! One of our main purposes is to connect our members to each other, and to build community. When we visit members, the write ups are always popular, because everyone likes to see the neat things going on in libraries across our community of good libraries!

Check out this really nice book recommendation system! Each staffer can slide a book cover image in here, and students can get some ideas for potentially good books – and they know the staff are real people who are book fans. What a great idea!

I am always a sucker for fun stuff in a library! Libraries should be fun, interesting, welcoming places. And it’s great to see libraries really embracing their role in making things fun. So, for all of you who fondly remember your days of working with Mr. Potatohead – just make one of your own!

You can always put up a display of new books! Displays are a great way to draw attention different books, and to encourage patrons to take a few home!

Have you tried this in your library?I was VERY excited! The Turning Tumble book is a very cool graphic novel, filled with challenges and tasks for students to work their way through as they build their programming skills. I did manage to drag myself away from it without playing for hours, but it was tough.

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Another easy, and fun, display idea! The words are selected by students, and other students then get experience in alphabetizing and using dictionaries. Sure, online dictionaries are good and have lots of nice information and links. And in addition to that, knowing how to use paper dictionaries is a useful skill.

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Does your school issue passes to come to the library? This school has a very good system. Students can get one of those maker space passes, to let them come to the library and try out an assortment of the maker space tools. They can work in small groups, or individually, and have more individual time from teachers and from library staff. Or, if they need to just have a quick trip to the library they are issued a ten minute pass. They sign on the clipboard, and grab a timer. Library staff get to know names of students, and they get a chance to explore materials.

Thanks so much to Lori Yerbich for showing me around! And I got to drop off VR kits here, so I’m hoping to hear all about some great projects to come!

We are excited about sharing our VR kits with members. (Thank you to the Minnesota Dept of Education, Library Services; and to the IMLS, for the funding for this project!!) Virtual Reality kits are very cool, and we have so many good educational resources for people to share.

These kits are fun, of course – learning is best when it connects with people. And that is the main focus of our VR kits: education and learning.

This week’s article looks at a bunch of different uses for VR in different school settings. And, as you might guess: the potential uses are vast and varied! (The whole article is here: Virtual Reality in Education: An Overview)

This is one of my favorite examples, and I admit to being totally biased in that I really like the Milwaukee Art Museum, and I really like Neil Gaiman! (Click the link for more information on that project.)

“ART EDUCATION

“Blue-Fall,” a 1966 painting by Abstract Expressionism pioneer Helen Frankenthaler, is housed in the Milwaukee Art Museum’s permanent collection, but you don’t have to trek to Wisconsin to experience it. Any VR user can virtually zoom in on Frankenthaler’s bold, cobalt monolith — and even listen to author Neil Gaiman play docent as he lends art-historical context and detail.”

And, how very cool is this!

“A VIRTUAL LAB ENVIRONMENT

Between 2016 and 2026, the number of STEM occupations in the United States will grow by nearly 11 percent. That’s more than 3.5 percent higher than the rate at which non-STEM jobs will grow, according to forecasts from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

But state-of-the-art labs where so much hands-on STEM learning takes place can be difficult and costly to access. Labster democratizes the process with 30 different virtual lab environments. The labs — which can be accessed on Daydreams, the VR headset built by Labster partner Google — allow students to culture bacteria, track cellular respiration during an exercise routine, even conduct an ultrasound exam on an expectant mother — virtually speaking, of course. More than 250 institutions currently use the technology, a company representative told Built In.”

We have a lot of small schools, and underfunded schools in our community. It would be really great if these kinds of resources could be used, to ensure all students have chances at learning opportunities that may only currently be available in larger, wealthier schools!

There are other examples of how different schools are using VR in education for different areas, so read the whole article here!

Welcome back to Season Six of Linking Our Libraries!

Click on our show notes page here, to get links to other resources and links to the books we shared this week.

This week we look at strategies you can use to connect with students! You can use these ideas in schools, or in any type of library. Our purpose in every library is always to connect our community to information, and we have some suggestions for getting that done!

Our Guest Host this week is Audrey, with a flair for technology, from Mississippi Heights Elementary in Sauk Rapids. She helped to organize a really interesting conference – led and produced by students!