Category Archives: General

Academic, Check this out:, CMLE, General, Public, Resources, School Media Specialist, Special

Discover books about old Yule traditions

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Snow Tracks
What sort of creatures are roaming through the snow in winter?

Interested in reading some winter books that aren’t holiday themed? This article from Book Riot should help you out! The article includes several books that delve into some of the older traditions of the winter season. Daylight is short, and the nights are extra dark and long, so it seems logical that some spooky and mystical traditions exist during the season!

the-old-magic-of-christmas-yuletide-book-cover-linda-raedischOne of the books, The Old Magic of Christmas: Yuletide Traditions for the Darkest Days of the Year even includes cookie recipes and craft ideas alongside it’s description of the enchanted creatures of the season.

 

 

four-seasons-of-mojoThe list also thoughtfully makes a suggestion for your probably stressed-out body with Four Seasons of Mojo: An Herbal Guide to Natural Living that includes techniques to help with winter-related ailments like colds, flu, and depression.

 

legend-of-old-befanaFinally, since it’s likely you will be around some kids at some point during the winter season, you can’t go wrong with Tomie dePaola’s The Legend of Old Befana which tells the traditional Italian story of an old woman and her flight to find the baby Jesus.

 

life-and-adventures-of-santa-clausExtra credit: Not included on the list in the article, but also incorporating enchanted creatures and magical forests (although technically, yes, it is about Santa) is L. Frank Baum’s The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus which I grew up enjoying!

 

 

 

Do you know of any Yule or traditional winter folk books that we should be reading? Tell us in the comments!

Academic, Check this out:, CMLE, General, Public, Resources, School Media Specialist, Special, Training

Stress Management: Why Bother??

stress
which way do you want to go??

Stress!!

We all feel it, and the end of year can bring all kinds of extra stress for us with the semester winding down and holiday celebrations winding up. Working in libraries is no protection against workplace stressors; in fact, working with patrons – which is generally rewarding – can provide a significant amount of stress in our daily work.

I have spent a lot of time talking with library people across the country about workplace stress, and it was pretty depressing. Most of us are here because we enjoy our jobs, they provide us with a lot of professional satisfaction, and despite the problems we face libraries are still great places to work!

But minimizing discussion of workplace stress just minimizes the real problems we face. It is better to face the issue, and to help ourselves and our staff to resolve problems that can be fixed and to get some training to handle problems that cannot. Stress causes all kinds of problems, from an uncomfortable workplace to workers suffering from burnout and never able to return to their jobs. Employee health is an important part of providing good service, and stress can just torpedo that.

Everywhere I went to conferences to talk about stress, people would come up to me and whisper that they were glad someone was talking about this. They thought they were alone in it, that they were doing something wrong because they were feeling stress.

Ignoring stress does not make it go away!

Thinking that “real” librarians wouldn’t get stressed is incorrect!

Acknowledging this is an issue in our profession is important – and the best way to help us all to overcome it. We need to think about ways to manage workplace stress on the individual level, in our library organizations, and across the profession.

So this is our December Monthly Topic: Stress Management. We can’t fix everything in your workplace, but we hope we can give you some tools to work with and some ideas to think about in your library.  Continue reading Stress Management: Why Bother?? →

Check this out:, Communication, General, School Media Specialist, Visits

A visit to Kimball High School

A visit to Kimball High School library reveals a library dedicated to helping student patrons, and thinking about the future of libraries! Library Media Specialist Lori Miller showed me around her library; and then we had a chance to sit down and chat with some other technology staffers to talk about libraries and the future. That is one of the really fun parts about these visits – talking with colleagues about libraries is just great! And CMLE is here to help our members to be successful; so we are always available to talk about library history, present, and future.

book-display

Of course libraries are more than “just” books (as if that would be bad!); but our foundation is always books – the original technology for reading! Never needs charging or refreshing; and having a paper copy means you never worry about losing your license to the content. So the books are important. The bookshelves are neatly arranged, have cool posters on the end-caps to draw in prospective readers (it worked on me!), and the display of books makes them easily accessible and ready to grab – always a benefit when considering circulation stats! Continue reading A visit to Kimball High School →

Check this out:, General, School Media Specialist

AASL Recommended App: Books: Professor Astro Cat's Solar System

prof_astro_cat solar systemIn June 2016, the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) announced their 25 Best Apps for Teaching and Learning. The apps encourage qualities such as innovation and active participation, and are user-friendly.

Learn about stars, planets, and and outer space with Professor Astro Cat’s Solar System app. Users are able to earn medals and parts to build a rocket for completing tasks and correctly answering questions. There’s even a “jetpack challenge” quiz for students to play. The app is a good tool to reinforce concepts learned in science class.

Get more information about the app from this review, or this article from Fundamentally Children which features feedback from kids that have used the app, and also lists other related apps to try in the classroom!

Cost: $2.99
Level: Elementary
Platforms: iOS and Android

Watch the trailer here:

Academic, Check this out:, General, Guest Blogger, Public, Resources, School Media Specialist, Services, Special, Tech

Four Resources To Improve Your Library’s Accessibility

accessibility
Accessible is not Optional!

 

CMLE Guest Blogger: Carli Spina

Accessibility for individuals with disabilities is an important topic for any library. Not only is this a legal requirement for virtually all libraries, but it is also important to ensure that our libraries are welcoming and inclusive for all members of the community. This is particularly important when considering the way you offer your online materials. The four resources below make accessibility improvements approachable, no matter the staffing level of your library or the level of technical experience that you have.

  1. ARL’s Web Accessibility Toolkit – Though created and maintained by the Association of Research Libraries, this toolkit has resources that will be useful to those working in any kind of library. The toolkit includes definitions and background information as well as best practices and a step-by-step process for fostering accessibility at your library. In addition, it has a resources section that includes a detailed page on best practices and resources for adding captions to your library’s video content.
  2. WAVE (Web Accessibility Evaluation Tool) – WebAIM offers a wide array of web accessibility tools, information, and resources, but if I had to pick just one to recommend, it would be WAVE. This tool makes it simple to do a quick accessibility test of any website for which you have the URL. The resulting report provides detailed information in a way that is easy to read. While this tool might not catch every single potential problem on your site, it is an excellent way to find particularly troublesome issues.
  3. Contrast Checker – One frequently overlooked aspect of accessibility is color contrast. This is important not only to those who are colorblind, but also for users who have low vision or are reading in low light. But, despite the fact that contrast is important to a large number of users, it is frequently ignored in the name of design aesthetics. This tool will not only allow you to check specific colors to ensure that they meet accessibility standards but will also let you save and share color pairs that work well (or poorly).
  4. The Principles of Universal Design poster by NC State University College of Design – This resource moves a bit beyond basic accessibility to the concept of Universal Design, which is design that is “usable by all people, to the greatest extent possible, without adaptation or specialized design.” The poster sets forth the seven principles that are central to Universal Design and offers multiple examples for each principle. Implementing these principles will not only help to make your library more accessible, but will also make it welcoming for the widest possible range of users from those who are in a rush or have their hands full to those for whom English is not their first language and beyond. This poster is a great crash course on the topic and will almost certainly spark ideas for ways to make your library more inclusive.

I hope these resources will help you to improve your library’s accessibility and introduce you to new tools that will streamline your processes. If you have any questions, let me know in the comments or contact me on Twitter where I’m @CarliSpina.