Category Archives: Public

Check this out:, CMLE, Communication, Public, Resources, School Media Specialist, Training

Interested in adding sign language to your storytime? Join CMLE for ALA's webinar!

macmillan-livenup_300indHave you been looking for new ideas to spice up your storytime? Sign language with babies and toddlers can be a fun addition! It encourages participation and can make the experience more interactive and entertaining.

ALA is offering a webinar “Liven Up Baby and Toddler Storytimes with Sign Language Workshop” and CMLE wants to extend an invitation to any interested librarians that may want to participate! If we can get just two additional people that would like to come view this webinar from CMLE Headquarters, we will qualify for the group rate for the workshop, which is $40 instead of $60.

The online workshop is 90 minutes long and begins at 1:30pm on Wednesday, Dec. 7th.

At the completion of this workshop, you will be able to:

  • List 3 benefits of using sign language with young children
  • Describe at least 3 ways to use sign language in baby and toddler storytimes
  • Demonstrate 3 ASL signs appropriate for use in baby or toddler storytimes

You can find more information about the workshop here.

Please contact us if you are interested in joining us!

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.

 

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

Strategies to Simplify: Tip 11: Reform your meetings

“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: Change the way you handle meetings

When done correctly, meetings can be a powerful way to communicate, share ideas, and delegate work. They can lead to more productive teams. Unfortunately, as Carson Tate shares in her book Work Simply, “Too often, meetings are ineffective, irrelevant, wasteful, and costly.” In order to rectify this, she suggests a few fixes to try: examine the value of each meeting you are invited to, explore the alternatives available to an in-person meeting, require an agenda be used in each meeting, and assign accountability for any tasks delegated during the meeting.

Continue reading Strategies to Simplify: Tip 11: Reform your meetings →

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

Upcoming Webinar: Engaged Planning – Ask What You Can Do For Your Rural Community

CMLE Headquarters is working to provide everyone in our system with all kinds of training to help you hone your skills in this every-changing profession! We maintain a Continuing Education calendar on our website, we offer regular in-person and online training sessions, and we will direct you toward the many other valuable opportunities available to you.

Many CMLE libraries, of all types, provide services to rural areas. This webinar, from WebJunction, can help you to think through your services in a way that will be beneficial to your community members.

There is no cost to attend, and materials will be available after the webinar. So sign up now, and discover some additional tools for reaching out to your rural community!

Engaged Planning: Ask What You Can Do For Your Rural Community

A webinar presented in collaboration with ARSL outlining the steps of an engaged planning process, to align library capabilities with community needs and aspirations.

Your community needs the library, and planning for the future of your library begins with understanding the community and their aspirations. Once you understand what your rural community wants and needs, you can assess how the library can help them. In this webinar, understand the important steps of this engaged planning process, including internal assessment, data collection and analysis, trustee involvement, and community conversations. Learn what it means for your library to “turn outward” to secure its place at the heart of your community.

This webinar is hosted in collaboration with the Association for Rural and Small Libraries.

Presented by: Cindy Fesemyer, Director, Columbus (WI) Public Library, population 5,000

Tweet: #wjwebinar