Category Archives: CMLE

CMLE, Training

Training Tips: CMLE has material for you!

We are very interested in helping all our members (and other library people!) get the training they need to be ready to serve their communities. Working in libraries means constant change, new services coming along all the time. Staying on top of it all is tough!

CMLE will work to provide training in areas helpful to our community members. Some of that is in person, and it is fun to connect with each other as we work through ideas. Other material is on our website. We provide online training material for all types of libraries, including:

  • Linking Our Libraries podcast: training on all kinds of topics library people need, with a focus on leadership skills in different situations (subscribe, or stream from our site; read all the info on our site)
  • Reading With Libraries podcast: reader’s advisory material, with a new genre discussed each week; book recommendations, links to resources, and guest hosts to share ideas all combine to make this a fun and useful book group podcast (subscribe, or stream from our site; read all the info on our site)
  • Book Bouquets: a weekly series of books grouped around a specific topic; provided for people’s own TBR list, or to set up displays in their libraries; flyers included each week
  • Spotlight Program series: weekly series of programs that can be put on in any library, usually at low (or no) cost, and with little prep time
  • Read Across Minnesota series: a weekly book shared from a Minnesota author, or set in Minnesota; comes with a Google map to show locations of each book

What other topics would be helpful to you, as you work in your library?? We are here to find training ideas for you – either provided in-house, or we will help to track down some other training opportunities for you!

CMLE, Programs

Time for Tea!

We are already excited for this event, and it’s still some time in the future! (Plenty of time to get it onto your calendar!) Like cardigans and cats, tea fits the traditional idea of “librarian,” so we thought, great! Let’s have a tea party social event with our members!

We will meet at the Mad Hatter Restaurant, in Anoka:
Sunday, September 30 at 10:30.

As with all of our social events, we want to bring together members of the library community! It can be hard to leave your library or school or archive but interacting with others in the profession can be very beneficial, not to mention fun!

For this event, we are planning on the Queen of Hearts tea service. As this is going to be a little pricey, we are also offering “scholarships” to CMLE members who RSVP to us by Monday, Sept 24. We will cover the cost of your Queen of Hearts tea service if you respond below. (We need to make reservations!)

We want to meet in different places, so we can try out new things, and we can be closer to different members at different times. This is a bit of a drive, but we have set this up so you have time to go down to the Cities, if you want, after we are done. Plan on being here about an hour and a half, possibly longer if you wish.

We look forward to seeing everyone, to talking about libraries, to hearing about summer plans, and all the great things that can happen when a bunch of CMLE members get together!

If you know you can come with us (be pretty sure!), fill out the form below. We would love to see you, and hear about your library!!

Advocacy, CMLE

Fall Library Advocacy Postcard Party!

Are your fall calendars filling up already? Ours are too, even though it still feels very summery outside! We want to make sure you add our next Library Advocacy Postcard Party to your plans!

On Tuesday, September 25th from 11-1 (feel free to come a little early, or stay a little late, we’re flexible!) we will be having a lunchtime Postcard Party at the lovely Munsinger Gardens in St. Cloud.

This casual event will be similar to our past postcard parties, but this time we are focusing on local officials and decision makers. That means school boards, city council members, principals, and more.

These people need to be aware of the need for strong libraries of all types in their communities! School, public, academic, special libraries and archives all serve important roles and help people in different ways. Libraries deserve funding and support, so let’s spread that message!

We will again provide library advocacy postcards, postage, and yummy snacks to fuel your advocacy efforts! If you are unsure of the identity of your local officials, do some research beforehand otherwise we’re happy to help you out.

*Special note: if you are really into planning ahead, we already have our winter Postcard Party scheduled for Tuesday, Dec. 18 from 3-5pm at the Local Blend in St. Joe*

CMLE, Programs

Member Event: Join us for tea time!

English cream tea

You know we miss our members when we don’t see you. We  also want to be sure we are building a real library community across our system – so we want to have opportunities for everyone to get to know each other.

We are hosting another social event for members to attend, so we can have fun and chat about library stuff. (We can chat about all kinds of other fun stuff, of course!) This time we will be meeting for tea! Yes, tea is a traditional icon of the library profession (tea, cats, cardigans – all the best stuff); and we build on that here with a high tea.

We will meet at the Mad Hatter Restaurant, in Anoka:
Sunday, September 30 at 10:30.

For this event, we are planning on the Queen of Hearts tea service. As this is going to be a little pricey, we are also offering “scholarships” to CMLE members who RSVP to us by Monday, Sept 24. We will cover the cost of your Queen of Hearts tea service if you respond below. (We need to make reservations!)

We want to meet in different places, so we can try out new things, and we can be closer to different members at different times. This is a bit of a drive, but we have set this up so you have time to go down to the Cities, if you want, after we are done. Plan on being here about an hour and a half, possibly longer if you wish.

We look forward to seeing everyone, to talking about libraries, to hearing about summer plans, and all the great things that can happen when a bunch of CMLE members get together!

If you know you can come with us (be pretty sure!), fill out the form below. We would love to see you, and hear about your library!!

CMLE

Weekly Discussion Session this Thursday! 11:30 to 1:00

Lunchtime Crowd at Hyde Park (6604681881)

It’s summer time! It’s hot outside!

Nobody really feels like working hard – we get this. This is time to do things a little differently, and to have time to kick back and enjoy your work.

CMLE wants to help you to keep your library skills sharp over the summer!

Each week we are establishing a discussion session, where we gather to talk about a different topic relevant to the work we are all doing in libraries. These are casual, lunchtime sessions. You can drop in and out on your own schedule. Bring your lunch, bring a beverage (stop by Target as you come visit us – they are just next door!), and be prepared for some pleasant chatting with colleagues about different library issues.

We have some dates and topics suggested below. But anything relevant to libraries – and that’s a veeeerrrrrryyyy wide definition! – is fine to bring to share and discuss.

We will meet at CMLE HQ: 570 1st Street SE, St Cloud, MN 56304. Come in the front door, and around to our office area. We are setting the official times for this as 11:30 to 1; but we will probably be happy to see you any time!

Join us! Let’s have lunch, chat, and enjoy our summer!

  • Thursday Jun 28: programming
  • Tuesday July 10: collection development
  • Thursday July 19: weeding
  • Tuesday July 24: tech troubleshooting
  • Thursday Aug 2: policy development
  • Tuesday Aug 7: making plans
  • Thursday Aug 16: copyright
  • Tuesday Aug 21: information literacy