Category Archives: General

General, Public, School Media Specialist

ALA, Google launch “Libraries Ready to Code”

Backlit_keyboard“Ready to Code” will distill and share best practices—empowering more libraries to better prepare young people of all backgrounds with the computational thinking skills necessary for participation in the 21st century economy.”

Libraries have always been a place for community members to come together in pursuit of knowledge. Today, they are playing an increasingly important role in the development of young people’s computer skills.

The American Library Association (ALA) and Google, Inc. are coming together in an attempt to increase access to Computer Science (CS) learning for kids and young people. The project named “Libraries Ready to Code” pays attention to the opportunities offered at libraries for underrepresented groups of young people to expand their CS skills. They will monitor these opportunities through a mixture of interviews, focus groups, and site visits. They are hoping to find out just how much coding and computer learning takes place at libraries. That way they will be able to tailor their programs to be even more helpful to the kids, students, and young people who are in need of these increasingly relevant skills.

To learn more and read the press release, read here.

Image credit: http://tinyurl.com/zfs426q licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0
Academic, General, Public, School Media Specialist, Special

Bookish acronyms cheat sheet

sitting on booksWhile perusing book-related sites, do you ever come across an acronym you just cannot understand?

Luckily, this article can easily be bookmarked and saved for future reference, so when you come across a book categorized as “GN YA PNR” you can figure out that it’s a Graphic Novel for Young Adults in the genre of ParaNormal Romance.

The article breaks the acronyms into sections for easy use, including: general reading, genre and demographics, organizations and event related, formats, and fun stuff.

Image credit:  https://unsplash.com/(Gaelle Marcel), licensed under CC0 1.0
Academic, General, Public, School Media Specialist, Special

In case you missed it – new library and author-talk event

We had a wonderful time at our event on May 5th that took place at the new St. Cloud Technical and Community College library!

Writer Jess Lourey started us out with an engaging presentation, walking us through her life and the events that led to her becoming a published author. Lourey grew up with stories, and she spoke about her high school English teacher who encouraged her writing. When receiving an award years later in her hometown of Paynesville, her teacher shared that he had actually saved one of her short stories, knowing she had talent and would become successful. Lourey’s path hasn’t been easy – her first novel was rejected over 400 times and she faced tragedy in her personal life. However, through the power of story, she was able to channel some of those situations and feelings into her writing. Lourey has written YA, magical realism, and her thriller Salem’s Cipher is scheduled to be released in September this year. She is also an award-winning professor of creative writing and sociology at St. Cloud Community and Technical College. Lourey will be presenting a TEDx talk about her upcoming book Better Than Gin: Rewrite Your Life, about the power of narrative therapy through fiction writing. Check back with us, we will keep you posted with where to find her TED talk.

ebooks minnesotaBeth Staats from Minitex gave a great presentation about the exciting new venture that is eBooks MN. As we know, our state has a flourishing publishing industry. This platform is taking advantage of that to share the materials with the wider public! You can download the app, and can also download books to read offline, all free of charge. Currently it is estimated 3/5 of the titles are aimed at children, but they are working on increasing their contents for adults. After all, we try to shop and eat local, why wouldn’t we read local too?

Finally, we were able to enjoy some tasty Mexican food and toured the spacious new library facility at the Tech College. Modern furniture, energy-efficient lighting, and comfortable group work areas (plus many additional updates!) all come together to create a fantastic space. You don’t need to be a student to reap the benefits of the library either – they offer library cards to community members! If you haven’t visited yet, go check it out!

Image credit: http://www.sctcc.edu/
General, Public, School Media Specialist

New: The Letters of Laura Ingalls Wilder

letters laura ingalls wilderFans new and old of the Little House on the Prairie series will be excited to learn there is another opportunity to delve into the life of Laura Ingalls Wilder.

William Anderson, a Wilder scholar, has collected over 400 letters from private collections and museums and published The Selected Letters of Laura Ingalls Wilder. The letters were written by Wilder when she was between the ages of 27 and 89. She wrote them to friends, family, and also fans. In this article, you can read an excerpt from a letter to her daughter Rose where she offers a beautifully detailed description of Plum Creek.

In the letters, Wilder also touches on the importance of libraries. Upon having a library in Detroit named after her, she wrote to the community to emphasize the value of books, and how not everyone is lucky enough to have convenient access to a library!

Want more? You can find out more about Wilder’s life in her annotated autobiography, Pioneer Girl, published in 2014.

Academic, General, Public, School Media Specialist, Special

CMLE seeks a new Executive Director

On an adventureHi, Patricia Post here! I am always reminded that we need to communicate often, in different ways, and in different formats! So, for all the people who have seen that CMLE is looking for a new Executive Director, and are wondering what is going on, here are some quick links to get you caught up!

Did you know:

  • I recently wrote a blog post announcing my retirement.
  • On May 4th, the Executive Director position was posted on 18 online job boards and social media sites. If you have seen it, help us spread this opportunity  far and wide!
  • Haven’t seen the job posting? No worries, go to our new www.cmlejobs.com site to see the job ad, view the position description and scoring strategy, and find out how to apply!
Image credit: http://tinyurl.com/pd6sq4g, licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0