As your library system, our job at CMLE Headquarters is to support you and provide help in training, grants, and other services to make your job easier as you serve your community. And so: this survey.
As I am new, I want to get acquainted with all the libraries in our system, and to start making some longer range plans on services we can provide to help you to do your jobs. I want to know what people are doing, what kinds of continuing education would be useful, what issues you see coming up, and really anything else you think is important for me to know about the libraries here.Tell me about your job, about the things that are important to you, and let me know what CMLE can do to help you!
As always at CMLE Headquarters, we want to keep you up to date on library happenings around Minnesota; so we are sharing the regular updates from the State Library Services. It is always good to know what is going on in the larger world of library work, beyond just what you do every day. As a group of very excellent library people, we are all doing so many neat things it can be tough to keep up! So follow the CMLE blog, check out all the training we list on our calendar, see what we are saying on Twitter – we are here to help you keep track of the best things in libraries! Continue reading State Library Services Updates!→
It is always good to get professional awards. And when they come from your peers, they are even more special! At this year’s Information and Technology Educators of Minnesota (ITEM) conference in Minneapolis, CMLE was proud to have not one but TWO winners!!
From the left: Willie L. Jett II, Angie Kalthoff, Maria Burnham, and Erich Martens
Angie Kalthoff, @mrskalthoff,is a Technology Integrationist in St Cloud School District 742. She won the award for Technology Support She was joined by her very proud Superintendent Willie L. Jett II. Right after the ITEM conference ended, she continued her advocacy for libraries and technology work by leading sessions at the Code.org workshop at the North Dakota Association of Technology Leaders conference in Minot!
Our own CMLE Board President Maria Burnham, @MariaBurnham4 ,Technology Integrationist at Sauk Rapids-Rice High School, won the award for Library Media Specialist of the Year. She was joined by her equally proud Principal Erich Martens.
Both Angie and Maria have been very active in the library community of central Minnesota; as well as both reaching out to work with their peers. I can tell you that the applause for both women was thundering, as the conference attendees recognized the work they have done to improve service and technology for their communities. It was great to see, and to be a part of, the celebration of the achievements of so many interesting library people.
Take a moment to applaud their achievements! It is great to work in a community with high-achieving people; we all benefit from their example, and we can all work out new strategies to keep our skills sharp and our library services aimed helping our patrons!!
The Information and Technology Educators of Minnesota (ITEM) Fall Conference was held in Minneapolis, October 13 – 15, 2016. “The theme this year is Innovate-Integrate-Motivate, and we’d like to help our attendees connect and collaborate with our exhibitors to create a partnership that will benefit students and enhance learning in our schools.”
This was a fun conference, because there were many interesting learning opportunities available, and also many opportunities for participants to network and spend time together. The full schedule is available here; look through it to see the complete range of possibilities and programs, and to identify some of the people who are doing things similar to the things you like in the profession! Continue reading ITEM Conference recap→
At CMLE Headquarters, we are big fans of books and reading -and as we are in a system filled with library people we know our members likewise are readers! So each month we will read a fiction book with a library theme attached, and a nonfiction book with some applicability to making our work lives better.
What are we reading for November?? That is up to you!
We have a poll up on our Goodreads page for you to select your choice for the next book. The poll will be open through October 26, giving us a couple of weeks to still read our October book and to think about November.
Remember: these are very low-key book groups! We all just want to read books, and have a place to talk about ideas if we feel like sharing. As library people we spend so much time working with books, it can be hard to remember to take time to enjoy them. CMLE is here to help with that!
So read, enjoy, post discussions if you wish – and just have a good time with books!
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