Category Archives: General

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CMLE's Goodreads: Check out our picks for November!

november-book-club
Join our reading fun!

 

Hello, fellow book-loving library people!

Have you been taking part in CMLE’s Goodreads book group? For the month of October we read and discussed two books.In our CMLE Librarian Professionals group, we learned about getting organized and happy with The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo. Our other group, CMLE Librarians Enjoying Books, had fun reading about a Minnesotan librarian and her helpful, conveniently magical, cats in Curiosity Thrilled the Cat by Sofie Kelly.

But November is quickly approaching! We are excited to announce our book choices for next month:

cover_good_2_gr8CMLE Librarian Professionals will be reading Good to Great – Why Some Companies Make the Leap…and Other’s Don’t by Jim Collins. Goodreads summarizes the premise of the book as:  “But what about the company that is not born with great DNA? How can good companies, mediocre companies, even bad companies achieve enduring greatness?” We will discuss the ideas presented in the book and learn more about achieving success. You can read the author’s top 10 tips to improve your company in this article from Inc.com.

dewey-library-catCMLE Librarians Enjoying Books will read Dewey: The Small-Town Cat Who Touched the World by Vicki Myron. Dewey was abandoned in a library in Spencer, Iowa and eventually became the library’s cat. We are excited to read about his journey!

Watch this video featuring Dewey and friends:

Like last month, we’ll have limited copies available of each book to borrow, so let us know if you want to be put on the borrowing list.

We are looking forward to another month of reading!

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

Strategies to Simplify: Tip 7: Your space matters

“Work simply. Live fully.”  This week CMLE focuses on the following work productivity tip from Work Simply, Carson Tate’s popular book.  At CMLE, we’ve boiled down Tate’s wealth of knowledge from Work Simply to a few key points; please see the book for more detail and resources. At the bottom, see links to earlier tips in the series! Let’s all be our best selves….

This week’s activity: Take ownership of your work space.

In her book Work Simply, Carson Tate makes the case that “An investment in rethinking and reshaping your work environment can pay huge dividends in increased productivity and happiness.” Ultimately, your work space should reflect who you are, the type of work that you do, and help you achieve your highest level of efficiency.

Recently, you discovered your Productivity Style with a simple assessment.

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Work Simply

Find your Productivity Style for some personalized strategies on making the most of your workspace:

Prioritizer: Try to avoid distractions by using the same color pens, folders, and sticky notes. Minimize clutter in your space by using filing cabinets and shelves.

Planner: Give a label maker a try – use it on file folders, containers, and shelves. Be willing to invest in the exact type of organizational supplies you need, like a specially sized folder for receipts or a certain kind of drawer divider.

Arranger: Use office tools that are visually and physically appealing – you may be energized by using a color scheme. Since you thrive on collaboration, try tools like Skype and GoToMeeting.

Visualizer: Try using unlined paper, notebooks, and large whiteboards with lots of colorful markers and pens. The phrase “out of sight, out of mind” rings true for you, so keep supplies handy in clear containers.

Previous tips in this series

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What are we doing in November? Advocacy training!

advocacy

In November, our Monthly Topic will be Advocacy!!

This is such an important skill for everyone in your library to master. We all need to advocate for ourselves in the workplace, for our libraries, and for the profession. During November we will collect and share information on each of these aspects of advocacy, to help build your skills and your comfort level with it.

At the heart: Advocacy is fun!! We get to tell people how great our libraries are, all the wonderful things we provide to our communities, and how valuable we are!! It can be tempting to just assume people know about this – but we want to really be sure they understand, so we need to tell them. This is our chance to brag!

CMLE will offer an in-person training session at our Headquarters (570 First Street SE, St Cloud, MN 56304). This will happen Nov 15. Spaces are filling fast – so don’t delay!

  • First session: noon to 1:30:
  • Second session: 4:30 to 6:00
  • Webinar will be provided online for future viewing

You are invited to attend either in-person session (they are identical). Feel free to bring your food! We will provide beverages.

Sign up at our Eventbrite site here!

When you leave this session you will have some basic skills and ideas:

  • identification of your library’s elected representatives
  • a draft email to send to each of them
  • a set of talking points about your library’s value
  • an elevator speech to share your accomplishments
  • details on library service nationally, for easy sharing

Any questions? Send Mary an email.

Would you like a training session brought to your library? Send Mary an email on that too!

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A spooky book recommendation!

A Guest Blog contribution from author Alisa Libby.

Alisa M. Libby has been writing stories since she first learned how to properly grip a crayon. Growing up in Natick, Massachusetts, she dabbled in other potential careers in her formative years (trumpet player, actress, astronomer, unicorn) but instead attended Emerson College for a degree in creative writing. While at Emerson she wrote numerous short stories about the “blood countess” of Hungarian legend, which years later evolved into The Blood Confession, her first novel. Fascinated by history, Alisa’s second novel, The King’s Rose, follows Catherine Howard and her brief marriage to King Henry VIII. Currently working on a new book, Alisa has recently moved to Attleboro with her husband and daughter.
the-blood-confession
Eek! A great Halloween read!

In honor of Halloween, I’m happy to share with you the origin of my first published novel, The Blood Confession. It’s appropriate for the time of year as it is, indeed, very bloody.

Growing up I had a tense relationship with horror novels and movies—my wild imagination and tendency toward insomnia could not match my intrigue. Often my bedroom light stayed on all night, while I was plagued by images from movies that seemed a great idea during daylight hours. Carrie, by Stephen King—Brian DePalma’s movie even more so than the book—traumatized me for a while at age 13. But I couldn’t help myself. Why was that prom queen covered in blood? I needed to see it, even if I would later regret it. Continue reading A spooky book recommendation! →

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Planning for your successor (Hiring series #4)

hiring
Who do we hire next??

Have you ever started a job and had no idea what you were supposed to do? Have you tried to hire someone, and realized you have no good direction on where to start finding a qualified replacement?

Where are the pens kept? How do you file a report? Who does the scheduling? When everything is new and different, even the most basic things are a challenge. And when an employee is trying to get through the basics, s/he is not focusing in on getting to the important parts of the job.

Every job should have some level of succession planning in place. Employees may move, get promoted, or abruptly depart from their jobs for all kinds of reasons, either permanently or temporarily. Having some basic procedures to help the next person will make the transition easier on everyone. For most jobs in the library this can be fairly minimal. It is a good idea to have everyone make some notes about their work and the things they do each day, each week, or annually. (Sometimes this request stirs up fears in employees that they are going to be replaced. Managers: be quick to reassure them this is not the case!)  These will be useful if an employee has to be out of work for a couple of weeks, or if they win the lottery and depart without notice. (Who could blame them??) Continue reading Planning for your successor (Hiring series #4) →