Category Archives: Communication

Advocacy, Communication, General

Some early success in the fight to fund IMLS!

https://www.imls.gov/

We are passing along this letter from ALA President Julie Todaro. It looks like there is some growing support in the federal legislature for continuing to fund IMLS!

Remember that Minnesota directly receives nearly $3 million a year from IMLS. They fund the LSTA grants, they support training of all sorts across the profession, and they fund projects too large for one library do to alone. Check out our podcast on Digitization projects to hear about a few amazing things IMLS has helped to fund – including the Minnesota Digital Library, that many of us use every day!

Have you sent an email, or called, or stopped in to visit a federal or state legislator to tell them about the great things libraries do? Yes! Great!! Do it again!! Libraries need all of us to stand up NOW, and tell everyone how wonderful we are! (And we are – so go brag about the things you do every day!) Continue reading Some early success in the fight to fund IMLS! →

Communication, General, Resources, School Media Specialist, Writing

Notable Date to Celebrate: April 10th is Encourage a Young Writer Day!

You probably already know that at CMLE, we offer a service called “Notable Dates for your Noggin” which feature special holidays and birthdays of authors, as well as publications of well-known books. In an effort to help you get more from this service, we’ve decided to select one “Notable Date” each month to feature. We will include a few fun programming and activity ideas too, all for you to use!

April 10th is Encourage a Young Writer Day.

There are lots of ways to encourage a young writer in your classroom, library, or life.  Check out these great gift ideas for young writers or find some neat journals from Amazon. If you’re feeling crafty, work together and make your own book to write in!

Looking for words of wisdom on the subject? This article is written from a homeschool perspective but has great suggestions for encouraging writing in kids of all ages. Check out what author Anne Lamott has to say to aspiring writers, or read this article specifically aimed at helping teen writers.

Of course, the best way to get kids writing is to make sure they read! Going to the library is probably the best encouragement of all! 🙂

Communication, Writing

Call for Chapters: “We Can Do I.T.: Women in Library Information Technology”

Wiki Women Editors Project - Women in technology 2.4 (18)
You still have time!  The call for submissions for essays for the book: We Can Do I.T.: Women in Library Information Technology has been extended to May 1, 2017!!!

If you were thinking of submitting an essay but ran out of time, please consider sending one in.  We have received many great submissions (thank you all) but we need to hear from more of you.  Remember, it can be as short as a tweet, or up to 1500 words.

If you are not sure what to write about, here are some topics, but you don’t need to limit yourself to these:
•              How you started in library I.T.

•              Stories related to being a woman in library I.T.

•              Experiences of acceptance or resistance within the library I.T. community

•              Tips and advice for other women seeking a career in library I.T.

•              Changes in your career path because of entering library I.T.

•              Changes you’d like to see happen within the library I.T. culture

•              Advice for library management on how to improve library I.T. culture

•              A vision for the future about/for women in library I.T.

If you still aren’t sure what to write, want to try a different format (we have received one interview), or you would like to propose a topic before you spend the time writing, please email us at: womenlibit@googlegroups.com<mailto:womenlibit@googlegroups.com> Continue reading Call for Chapters: “We Can Do I.T.: Women in Library Information Technology” →

CMLE, Communication

CMLE is on the air!

You probably listen to a few podcasts already, or at least know about some of the biggies out there in the podcast world.  We have talked about library people who podcast, and podcasts you can use for workplace stress management. It’s a great way to share information – something we take very seriously here at CMLE Headquarters.

So we have begun our own podcast!

Our podcast is called Linking Our Libraries, in recognition of the work we do as a multitype system in linking our libraries to each other, to all sorts of information, and to us. Continue reading CMLE is on the air! →

CMLE, Communication, General

Cheer on the CMLE Bike Team!

As you may be aware, at CMLE HQ we are huge fans of our bike desks. We appreciate the focus that biking brings us while we work, and they are a healthy addition to our work space!

Since we bike at our desks every day, we thought it would be fun to start tracking the miles to see how far we can travel. That was how we created the idea for our Virtual Library Bike Tour! Each week we will track our mileage and will virtually “visit” libraries along our trip.

We have an in-person map with pins (Orange = Angie, Blue = Mary) for visual tracking and will of course be keeping track online as well. Follow our progress on Google Maps here!

Each library that we “visit” will be linked to and briefly described on our Twitter account @CMLEBikeTeam.

So far, on my way out west, I’ve “visited” St. Cloud Public Library, Clemens Library at St. Ben’s, and Alcuin Library at St. John’s!

Follow along and visit libraries across the country with us as we embark on this biking adventure!

And of course, if you’d like a bike desk of your own, check them out on Amazon.