Category Archives: CMLE

Advocacy, CMLE

TODAY! Postcard Party in the Park! Join us!!

Clemens GardensWe are very excited to hang out in beautiful sunshine, talk with library people, and let everyone know how wonderful and valuable libraries are.

So we are hosting a Postcard Party in the Park TODAY, and you are invited! (You, your family, friends, neighbors, polite strangers you met on the street – it’s a very inclusive invitation!)

CMLE HQ will provide postcards and addresses; you can write out quick notes to your stakeholders to tell them about libraries; and we will mail them. Quick and easy advocacy in action!

Thursday, May 25 from 11:00 to 1:00 we will be sitting at tables behind the Gift Shop at the Munsinger Clemens Gardens. Bring your lunch; we will provide snacks, postcards, pens, and addresses for your legislators. Beverages are available for purchase at the Gift Shop, and water fountains are nearby.

After our poll on the best day for this event, we have added a second time. We will also be there from 4:30 to 6:30 that afternoon. Stop by on your way home from work, or bring a sack dinner and enjoy the beautiful gardens, and the river! Snacks and postcards will again be available to everyone who attends. Bring your kids and sweeties and friends and patrons, and let them run around the garden while we have library fun! (Of course, everyone is invited to write out a postcard! But it’s not a requirement of having fun.)

We will provide suggestions for stakeholders who might appreciate some quick news for you, and give you some suggested wording to help you get started. This is your chance to enjoy yourselves in the company of other library people, chat about libraries, and do a little advocacy work to help us all!

Continue reading TODAY! Postcard Party in the Park! Join us!! →

CMLE, Research

Share Your Library Information: We Need You for a Few Minutes Today!

MultilingualWe need your help! We are looking for information and experience from library people all across Minnesota – and that means you!

Below is the information about this survey; if you choose to take it, this will be given to you again on the first page.

Please take a few minutes to fill this out; and then please share it with absolutely everyone in your library, and any other library person in the state of Minnesota!

Two people will be randomly selected to each win a $30 gift card from Amazon, and everyone will be able to receive the results we find.

Thank you, in advance, for your help here!!

 

Minnesota residents speak more than one hundred languages at home.

Libraries of all types are working to serve their community members, including people speaking all of these languages. Serving Emerging Bilingual community members can present some challenges to the traditional library services you are already providing, as well as bringing in new strategies and ideas for providing service to your community.

Who are Emerging Bilingual community members? They may, or may not, already be using your library. They speak languages other than English as their first language, and are learning English or speaking it fluently as a second language (or third, or fourth!).

We want to know how it is going for you! We are interested in the things that are great – successes you have had, good resources you have found, community groups you have connected with. And we want to know where you see opportunities for improvement – resources, funding, training, time, and anything else that is an obstacle to your library providing outstanding service to everyone, regardless of language. Continue reading Share Your Library Information: We Need You for a Few Minutes Today! →

Advocacy, CMLE, Programs

It’s Here! It’s This Week! Postcard Party in the Park Happens Thursday!!

Clemens GardensWe are very excited to hang out in beautiful sunshine, talk with library people, and let everyone know how wonderful and valuable libraries are.

So we are hosting a Postcard Party in the Park this Thursday, and you are invited! (You, your family, friends, neighbors, polite strangers you met on the street – it’s a very inclusive invitation!)

CMLE HQ will provide postcards and addresses; you can write out quick notes to your stakeholders to tell them about libraries; and we will mail them. Quick and easy advocacy in action!

Thursday, May 25 from 11:00 to 1:00 we will be sitting at tables behind the Gift Shop at the Munsinger Clemens Gardens. Bring your lunch; we will provide snacks, postcards, pens, and addresses for your legislators. Beverages are available for purchase at the Gift Shop, and water fountains are nearby.

After our poll on the best day for this event, we have added a second time. We will also be there from 4:30 to 6:30 that afternoon. Stop by on your way home from work, or bring a sack dinner and enjoy the beautiful gardens, and the river! Snacks and postcards will again be available to everyone who attends. Bring your kids and sweeties and friends and patrons, and let them run around the garden while we have library fun! (Of course, everyone is invited to write out a postcard! But it’s not a requirement of having fun.)

We will provide suggestions for stakeholders who might appreciate some quick news for you, and give you some suggested wording to help you get started. This is your chance to enjoy yourselves in the company of other library people, chat about libraries, and do a little advocacy work to help us all!

Continue reading It’s Here! It’s This Week! Postcard Party in the Park Happens Thursday!! →

CMLE, Communication, Research

We need you! (Yes, YOU! I’m talking specifically to you!)

MultilingualWe need your help!  We need to know if your library is doing tons of things for English Language Learners (Emerging Bilingual patrons), or what we can do across the state to help you to provide more materials, or if this is not an issue in your community!

If you are in a library, no matter what you do or your experience, we need you for this survey!

Two people will be randomly selected to each win a $30 gift card from Amazon, and everyone will be able to receive the results we find.

Below is the information about this survey.

Please take a few minutes to fill this out; and then share it with absolutely everyone in your library, and any other library person in the state of Minnesota!

Continue reading We need you! (Yes, YOU! I’m talking specifically to you!) →

Advocacy, CMLE

Rain Delay! Join us NEXT Thursday for Postcard Party in the Park!!

Clemens GardensIt’s raining on us all this week, so not a great time to enjoy hanging out with library people with lovely flowers – but we love libraries and want to share that love with everyone using postcards!

So we are hosting a Postcard Party in the Park – with a slight rain delay to next week, and you are invited! (You, your family, friends, neighbors, polite strangers you met on the street – it’s a very inclusive invitation!)

CMLE HQ will provide postcards and addresses; you can write out quick notes to your stakeholders to tell them about libraries; and we will mail them. Quick and easy advocacy in action!

Thursday, May 25 from 11:00 to 1:00 we will be sitting at tables behind the Gift Shop at the Munsinger Clemens Gardens. Bring your lunch; we will provide snacks, postcards, pens, and addresses for your legislators. Beverages are available for purchase at the Gift Shop, and water fountains are nearby.

After our poll on the best day for this event, we have added a second time. We will also be there from 4:30 to 6:30 that afternoon. Stop by on your way home from work, or bring a sack dinner and enjoy the beautiful gardens, and the river! Snacks and postcards will again be available to everyone who attends. Bring your kids and sweeties, and let them run around the garden while we have library fun!

We will provide suggestions for stakeholders who might appreciate some quick news for you, and give you some suggested wording to help you get started. This is your chance to enjoy yourselves in the company of other library people, chat about libraries, and do a little advocacy work to help us all!

Continue reading Rain Delay! Join us NEXT Thursday for Postcard Party in the Park!! →