Category Archives: General

General

Weekly Holiday: Sept. 29th is National Coffee Day!

Here’s another reason to look forward to Friday: it’s National Coffee Day! Not that you need a reason to justify your daily cup (or cups, we aren’t judging).

There are so many ways to enjoy this delicious caffeinated beverage, especially this time of year (Pumpkin Spice Latte, anyone?) so we decided to make a list of different ways you could celebrate this energizing holiday:

  • Of course coffee is delicious by itself, but why not incorporate it into some recipes? This article claims to contain the best coffee recipes on Pinterest, this one will help you make Chocolate Dipped Mocha popsicles, and in case you really want to splurge, whip up some Caramel Coffee Glazed Nutella donuts!
  • Read up on the health benefits of coffee from the Mayo Clinic, but remember that probably doesn’t apply to the donuts from the previous tip.
  • If you really want to show your knowledge about coffee, read about the History of Coffee.
  • And of course, National Coffee Day is the best day to share your love of coffee online! You can use some of the hashtags from this article.
  • Still need more ways to celebrate? Check out this article for additional suggestions.

I’m just excited to have an excuse to visit my favorite coffee shop, The Local Blend in St. Joe! Where is your favorite place to purchase or enjoy coffee? Let us know in the comments!

Communication, General

CMLE Resource: Libraries After Dark

After your day at working at a library (whether it is a school library, academic, public, history center, museum, or other) it’s nice to leave the world of libraries behind to spend some time pursuing your hobbies. Whether that means meeting up with your band for practice, heading to a state park to go hiking, or settling in at home with your quilting project, we would like to hear about it! We are starting a new page called Libraries After Dark, to highlight our library people and their interesting talents and hobbies.

It’s clear to us at CMLE that libraries are places where people with diverse interests, hobbies, and talents tend to work. And after the library is closed (or after your shift ends, either one) the people that work there leave their libraries to go engage in interesting activities!

So we thought it would be fun to collect stories of our library people’s “hidden talents” in order to share them with each other! It’s so fun to get a glimpse into what our members are passionate about (besides libraries, of course!) and the goal of our page is to share those hobbies and skills. Some of our members are musicians, artists, master gardeners, bakers, or love hiking. Does this sound like I’m describing you? Please let us know! We’d love to feature you on our Libraries After Dark page and in this series on our blog! And no, you don’t need to be an “expert” in your area of interest – just the fact that you are trying something new is exciting! Let us know if you have a hobby, talent, or area of expertise that you’d like to write about for our blog. We’re happy to share videos, post pictures, or link to content that you’ve created (as long as it is appropriate). We can’t wait to hear about it!

CMLE, Communication, General

CMLE’s Fall Social Event will be Monday, Oct. 23rd!

Thank you to everyone that helped select Monday, October 23rd as the date for our next social event! We will gather at Old Chicago in St. Cloud at 5:30pm for food and library socializing.

We would love for you to attend! These social events are casual, with no agenda, and everyone pays their own way. At CMLE, we appreciate the opportunity to meet our members face to face, and we have heard from our members they like to be able to chat with other people in the library world. Even though our members are from different types of libraries, many challenges and opportunities for growth are very similar!

So join us!
Monday, October 23
5:30 pm
Old Chicago
4040 2nd St S, St Cloud, MN 56301

Please RSVP below so we have an idea of how many people to expect:

Advocacy, Communication, General

Learning About Library Associations: Library and Information Technology Association

Library science is an enormous field, home to every interest you could imagine! This means that there are many organizations out there for you to join, in order to connect with other people who share your professional interests.

So even if you work alone in your library, there are other people out there doing work similar to yours! Each week we will highlight a different library association for you to learn more about, and depending on your work, potentially join! You can also check out our page dedicated to Library Associations.

This week we are learning about the Library and Information Technology Association (LITA) which is a division of ALA. According to their Wikipedia page, “LITA became a division of ALA in 1966 in response to the changing technological environment in libraries. LITA advocates for equitable access to information and technology, placing a focus on providing an environment that fosters investigation and enables the implementation of new technology within libraries. LITA is headquartered in the Chicago ALA offices.” You can find out more about membership to LITA and ways to get involved here.

According to their website, LITA’s vision is: “As the center of expertise about information technology, the Library and Information Technology Association (LITA) leads in exploring and enabling new technologies to empower libraries.  LITA members use the promise of technology to deliver dynamic library collections and services.”

LITA publishes an open access e-journal called Information Technology and Libraries which can be accessed here. They also offer several awards and a scholarship each year.

To learn more about LITA’s work with advocacy and the issues they promote, check out their page!

CMLE, Communication, General

Remember to Vote: Join CMLE for our Fall Social Event!

We love connecting with our members in person! It’s even more fun when food is involved, so we are having another CMLE Social Event taking place at  Old Chicago in St. Cloud. This will be a dinner event beginning at 5:30pm, but we need your help picking a date! Vote below and we’ll send out a notice of the final date.

As a multitype library system, one of our main goals is to provide connections between all different types of libraries: schools, history centers, museums, academic libraries, etc! One of our favorite ways to do this is through hosting social events where people from all types of libraries are free to get together and chat about library life.

Thanks to all of you that have already voted! If you haven’t yet, tell us which dates could work for you! We can’t wait to hear all about your experiences in the library world this fall!

Date options (feel free to select several dates that work for you)(required)