Category Archives: Communication

Communication, General

2016 – 2017 CALA Best Book Award Call for Nomination

http://www.cala-web.org/

We just passed the Chinese New Year, so Chinese literature may be fresh in your mind! (Happy year of the Rooster, everyone!) Have you read an interesting book about China? The Chinese American Library Association (CALA) would like to hear about it!

From CALA:

The annual CALA Best Book Award recognizes outstanding books, published in English or Chinese, which exhibit excellence in addressing topics about China and written by Chinese authors (or Chinese descent). The Award is to raise awareness of these topics and authors in North America.

The Committee will select nominated books in the following categories: Fiction, Nonfiction, Juvenile/Young adult (age 12-18), and Children (under age 12). Each award author(s) will receive an award certificate and be presented at CALA Annual Award Banquet in June 2017. The winners will be announced before early bird registration deadline for 2017 ALA Annual conference. Continue reading 2016 – 2017 CALA Best Book Award Call for Nomination →

Communication, General

Call for Volunteer Judges (in person and virtual) 2017 PR Xchange Awards Competition

CMLE members: we encourage you to attend conferences (virtual and in person), so you can hang out with people who do thing things you do in libraries. There are many conferences across Minnesota that would be interesting to you, and the American Library Association (ALA) Annual Conference is coming to our (general) area this June! If you have not been to one yet – picture more than 25,000 library people, from every corner of the library world, with every job and every title possible in libraries, all gathered together to learn, network, and to have fun!

If you have experience in marketing, graphic design, or communications, and can get together virtually on April 4th, this would be a fun introduction to the conference!

Continue reading Call for Volunteer Judges (in person and virtual) 2017 PR Xchange Awards Competition →

Books, Communication, Public, School Media Specialist

Finding but not keeping: Some book recommendations!

Books-aj.svg aj ashton 01

Many libraries have issues with patrons who struggle, and fail, to rein in their impulses to keep things they find. In this case, we are focusing on our younger patrons; and suggesting some books to help to share some good behavior habits!

A librarian was looking for book suggestions to help overcome a problem in her school library. She wanted books to help kids learn a few skills:

  • that when we find— we don’t keep
  • we don’t pass on what we find to someone who does not own it
  • we don’t put it in our backpacks or pockets and take it home
  • we give it to the person who we know for sure owns it
  • or we give it to the Teacher or the Teacher Librarian​-it may belong to another student, the Teacher, The Teacher Librarian, the library, the classroom, the school, etc.

As library people do, there was a quick rush of suggestions for books that might help in this school. And they sounded so good, they just might be helpful in your library too! Continue reading Finding but not keeping: Some book recommendations! →

CMLE, Communication

February Monthly Topic: Social Media

Socialmedia-pm
Monthly topics! This is a way for us to look at some information about a topic from a variety of different perspectives, to cover it fully. Our topics are taken from the recent needs assessment survey, and are the ideas and skills our members said they most wanted to know about in their library work.

We have concluded our look at Grants in January, and are covering Social Media this month.

There are all kinds of tools for social media, but the purpose to all of them is the same: to connect with your community members where they are.  Social media can also be a great tool for that very important skill in communication: listening. It is a very easy way to listen to issues of interest to your community members, to find out what questions are coming up, and to make connections between people and ideas.

Do you have topics you want to see this month? Do you have some great social media ideas or tips to share? Add them to the comments below! We look forward to hearing your ideas!!

Communication, General, Guest Blogger, Special, Tech

Podcasting – Jumping in Head First

 

check out Maria’s actual setup – pretty cool!

(by Guest Blogger Maria Burnham, from Sauk Rapids-Rice High School; read about our visit to her library!)

I’ve been a big fan of podcasts for a long time, and I love that podcasts are, once again, on the radar and a popular topic of conversation.  Several times over the last few months I’ve heard people say, “Have you listened to [insert podcast name]?  It’s so great!”  Podcasts sometimes feel like short little audio books; perfect snippets for those of us with limited spare time or those of us with commitment issues.  I listen to popular podcasts like Serial and Hidden Brain, literary podcasts like The Writer’s Almanac with Garrison Keillor, music podcasts like Tiny Desk, and book podcasts like Book Riot.

Recently, I decided that it was time to take podcasting into my own hands.  I’m an avid reader, and because of my role as the school’s “librarian” (even though that’s not my official title), I’m often asked to help others find a book.  In conjunction, I’m also in a high school setting which can sometimes be a finicky place to get reading traffic in to the library.  High schools aren’t like elementary and middle schools where classes of kids come down once a week to check books in and out.  Instead, I often rely on the roaming traveler in the book stacks or the rare, “My friend said I just HAVE to read this book!” for foot traffic.  Podcasting seemed like the logical blending of these two situations.  I could push out my book recommendations and at the same time try to create a bit more excitement about reading and the new books we have available.

Continue reading Podcasting – Jumping in Head First →