Can you believe October is almost over? This fall has been just beautiful, and hopefully you haven’t been too busy at your library to be able to get outside and enjoy it, at least a little! And we all know what the end of October means – Halloween!
We like to celebrate at CMLE, so we are having an open house Halloween celebration on Monday, Oct. 31st! Our office is decorated, we have treats, almonds, and other goodies, and we’d love for you to stop by and say hello!
Our location is 570 1st St. SE in St. Cloud, MN. Costumes are welcome, and we hope to see you then! Email us with any questions!
Angie and I are on a mission to visit all our CMLE member libraries – and we are making some great progress! This week we were invited to visit the library at the St. Cloud Hospital, by librarian Susan Schleper. We are sharing all these library visits with you, our members (and others!), to help everyone see the diversity of service we are providing across the CMLE system. And we want you to know what is going on in different libraries, so you feel invited to contact each other to talk about partnerships or sharing ideas for great service! Many of you are solo librarians, or working with others who are not doing the same kinds of things you do – but someone else in the system probably does it or wants to learn more about it. So: read, be awed by all we do here in the CMLE area, and reach out to each other! (And us! At Headquarters we like to partner too!!)
A nice place to sit, some popular fiction on the shelves – a great place to visit if you are in the hospital!
Most visitors to the hospital library are probably not as enthusiastic as we were to be there – but look at this location! If you are in the hospital as a patient or visitor – drop by to look at their materials. It can be very helpful to have a spot to just take a break; and the library can be that space. (I managed to keep my hands off their copy of the Hunger Games. But it was a close thing! Visiting libraries and NOT reading their books is really hard for a book-loving librarian!)
Have you ever tried working with ambient noise in the background? Did it help make you more effective, or did you find it distracting or stressful? Personally, I’ve never tried specifically ambient noise, although music definitely helps my productivity and mood. But an article from Book Riot“Immerse Yourself Into the Harry Potter World with Harry Potter Ambient Sounds” got my attention (for obvious reasons) and I decided to give it a try!
The article directs you to AmbientMixer.com which features a huge selection of free ambient sounds and even lets you create your own, or make adjustments to existing sounds. After sampling different options like “Storm on the Hogwarts Express” and “Autumn Forest” I ended up listening to “Hufflepuff Common Room” the longest. I liked the combination of birds chirping, the sound of a pen scratching, and the faint purr of a cat in the background.
For all you fellow nerds out there, it’s not just Harry Potter ambient sounds that are available – they have Doctor Who, Game of Thrones, and Lord of the Rings!
This article from Brainscape talks more about the “ideal noise level” for being more productive (they relate it to studying, but it could be applied to other tasks too) and gives some suggestions on the type of noise that could be helpful based on the task you are performing. If you really want to get in-depth, check out this article from Scientific American, which suggests that background noise may actually have a negative impact on brain functioning, and impair learning and memory.
At CMLE, classical music tends to keep us focused and uplifted. Check out YourClassical.org which features special playlists for relaxation, inspiration, and more! Or, if you prefer white noise, check out the site Noisli for different sounds options.
What do you think? Do you like to work or learn in complete silence, with music, or with ambient sounds?
Are you a CMLE librarian who has some good information to share?? RUSA wants to help you spread your knowledge, skills, and abilities to people all over the place! Submit a proposal for your webinar or online course today!! Members – we are happy to work with you on your proposal and/or your training program; so get your proposals underway!
The Reference and User Services Association, (RUSA) seeks proposals for webinars and online courses. The proposals must be submitted by October 31, 2016 for presentation November 2016 to August 2017.
Each month we’ll bring you a compiled list of fun national holidays, birthdays of authors, and publication dates of favorite books. You can use these for your own personal use or for some library inspiration! Share what inspired you in the comments.
Can you believe October is almost over? This fall has been just beautiful, and hopefully you haven’t been too busy at your library to be able to get outside and enjoy it, at least a little! And we all know what the end of October means – Halloween!
