Category Archives: Public

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

Advocacy from the ALA!

ala

At CMLE Headquarters, we want to help members with access to resources and ideas from across the profession and our professional organizations. This press release, copied below, is timely in discussing an issue that is being widely pondered by librarians, teachers, parents, and everyone else: how libraries can respond with information assistance after the election. Any election and post-election season is filled with excitement, changes, and a rapid flow of all kinds of information, and this one has had all of that.

Libraries are here to help people sort through that information, to figure out what is real and meaningful, and to understand how information can apply to patrons and to their communities.

Continue reading Advocacy from the ALA! →

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

Thanksgiving at CMLE!

thanksgiving-3 As you may be starting to appreciate, we like to be festive at CMLE Headquarters. Since Thanksgiving is soon approaching, we decided it was time to hang up the turkeys! (We have decorative turkeys on streamers floating from the ceiling. There’s no good way to photograph them, so stop by or use your imagination!)

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We just wanted to share our decorations with you, and perhaps you have some festive November or Thanksgiving themed decorating going on at your library or media center? Send us a picture! For more glimpses of our exciting office happenings (often including Orville the Bear and the Office Plant team) follow us on Instagram.

thanksgiving-2

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

A Visit to the Avon Elementary School Library

Angie and I were invited to visit the Avon Elementary School library, where we were in the capable hands of Cathy Studer and Gayle. They showed us around their very nice library, in between helping their young patrons and teachers in technology distress. (A busy library’s work is never done!) Teaching a class in the computer lab behind the library was Dana Dingmann, and swamped with busy kids working on assorted projects. Dana also helps in the library, and works on devices for the school.

book-tasting-display
looks good enough to eat!

When you walk in the door you immediately see this great display. It changes monthly, and this month they are focused on food and books. This theme carries over to other displays in the library.

tablets-and-crayons
important library supplies

Check out the really cute basket of crayons! This food-themed strategy for putting out crayons for patron is on all the work tables in the library. The library is also available for backup for the school’s technology needs. They have a laptop cart with 30 laptops, and iPad cart with 30 devices, and another cart of 30 Chromebooks. Each classroom works on a 2:1 ratio of tech tools – Chromebooks and iPads – to student. Cathy and Gayle are available to work with everyone to be sure the tech is effective in teaching and learning. And there was a copy of a Magic Tree House series book – one of my favorites! Continue reading A Visit to the Avon Elementary School Library →

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

Sixteen quotes about loving libraries

Library books
Libraries are great for so many reasons!

We all know libraries are fantastic, and good places to spend your time. Just in case you’d like a reminder though, check out this article from the Book Bub blog that features cool photos and quotes about the joy of libraries.

Here’s another article, this time from Buzzfeed, about people appreciating the importance of libraries, and this one even has lovely pictures of famous libraries!

Do you have any quotes from people that have said how much they appreciate your library or media center? Or, do you have a special shout-out to a particular library that is great? Share with us in the comments!

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

Strategies to Simplify: A refresher!

work simply coverBy now, you’ve probably noticed that each week we’ve been sharing a tip from Carson Tate’s book Work Simply on how to streamline your life. Here at CMLE, we found Tate’s book incredibly valuable and thought it would resonate with many of you, too. We hope this has been the case, and that you have found these tips useful in your daily activities!

This post is simply to remind you of the source of that content: Carson Tate’s Work Simply. Before beginning the series, we reached out to her to request her permission to incorporate her content into our posts. We were so pleased when she was willing to do so! It was a great reminder that sometimes taking a chance does pay off.

Have any of the Strategies to Simplify tips we have shared worked particularly well for you? We’d love to hear about it! Leave us a comment or send us an email. We will continue to share tips beginning again next week.

If you missed any of the series so far, catch up now: