Meet our newest CMLE-HQ staffer! This nice guy arrived here from the MLA Annual Conference silent auction. (Thanks!!) He comes complete with a bag of books, and a librarian button on his vest. He has been designated the Official Office Bear.
He is currently making himself at home, checking in with the Team Plant members, and trying out different spots in the HQ to see where he may want to hang out. And he made his Instagram debut, to immediate acclaim.
But: he arrived without a name! We want you to contribute your ideas and your vote to give Official Office Bear a name.
Getting your voting skills sharpened and VOTE here for a name!
Looking for a one-stop shop to plan out some professional development in the upcoming months, or begin work on some grant applications?
The CMLE website is here to help with that! We have our Continuing Education page, which features a Google calendar that is updated daily with new learning opportunities. Most of the events on the calendar are webinars or online courses, and yes, some are free! We also have links to organizations like Library Juice and the AASL’s eAcademy that offer their own training and development opportunities.
Our Grant page features both a Google calendar that is regularly updated and also a list of grants that breaks them down individually in more detail. We know that library budgets are tight, and it can be a challenge to run a library or media center on a small budget. Check out some of the grants or awards to see if they could be useful to you!
If you have questions about any of the Continuing Education or Grant items, or need some help applying for an award or grant, don’t hesitate to contact us! We are here to support you!
We need to get them to us before we can hire great employees!
Part of hiring great people is making sure that they are applying to your library! Without a pool of good candidates, you can’t make good people appear.
How do you get these good people? Like so many things: you need a plan. A solid recruiting plan will help you to bring in the good applicants, and give you the best kind of hard choice to make when hiring – picking among people who would all be good in your library.
It sounds hard. Where will you get the time? How will you know if it is working? What kinds of decisions should you be making?
CMLE is here to help you! We will walk through the basic steps of creating a plan here, so you can start working on your own plan for your library. Then, we are here to work with members to finalize their plans, to make decisions, and to help with the evaluation. Continue reading Recruiting to hire good people (Hiring Series #3)→
Encouraging young reluctant readers is always a topic for thought and conversation, especially among librarians, or even just among parents that want to foster a love of reading in their children. As a new mom, I definitely fit into the second category! What can we do to help young people that can be hesitant to pickup books?
You can read this article or listen to the conversation from MPR News that tackles this challenge in a fun and informative way. See below for some of the tips included in the article, and keep in mind a common theme is persistence!
Show your kids you love reading, too!
– Read in front of your kids, for your own enjoyment, and they will eventually take notice
Make sure books are always available
– Books should always be visible and accessible, whether around the house or at frequent visits to the library or bookstore
Give audio books a try
– They are great options for kids that have trouble concentrating or sitting in one place. They are also great additions to car rides and road trips!
Keep your judgement and expectations in check
– Try to refrain from pushing books that may be too challenging, or critiquing a book choice that you may view as too easy. Allow kids to gain enjoyment from books, at their own pace.
And finally, my personal favorite, when in doubt, get out the Harry Potter!
– Described as “a gateway drug,” in the article, the series “really allowed kids to fall into a world that was so cool. When you give it to a kid at the right time, it unlocks something for them.”
“Work simply. Live fully.” This week CMLE focuses on the following work productivity tip from Work Simply, Carson Tate’s popular book. At CMLE, we’ve boiled down Tate’s wealth of knowledge from Work Simply to a few key points; please see the book for more detail and resources. At the bottom, see links to earlier tips in the series! Let’s all be our best selves….
This week’s activity: Reclaim your inbox by refining your email skills.
By making just a few tweaks to your email routine, you can feel in control of your inbox. Take advantage of Carson Tate’s Email Agility System from Work Simply, through which she believes “The faster you can make accurate decisions regarding the content of your inbox, the more time you will have in your day.”
Read Decide (does this email require me to do something?) Act (if action is required, then just do it, delegate it, or create a task. If not, delete or file it!) Contain
Recently, you discovered your Productivity Style with a simple assessment.
Find your Productivity Style for some personalized advice for controlling your inbox:
Prioritizer: Take advantage of the Rules feature: Pay attention to patterns of the emails you receive, and write Rules to file them accordingly. You could also try setting a goal of having no more than a specific number of emails in your inbox at any time.
Planner: Schedule specific times during the day to check your email. You could also benefit from using numbers and symbols to organize your email folders so that your current folders of highest importance are at the top and easily accessible.
Arranger: Beware your tendency to overcommunicate, and use the cc: line sparingly. You may also like to try listening to music while you manage your emails, which brings some fun into the process.
Visualizer: Use the tool of color to code your incoming messages by sender or subject (red for your boss, etc) which helps you see quickly which emails require timely attention. Also, minimize distractions by turning off your email notifications.
