Category Archives: Public

Academic, General, Public, School Media Specialist, Special

CMLE Weekly Review 3/17/2016

CMLE Updates: State & Regional News
– April is School Library Month! Time to start planning…More
– MnLINK updates you should know about More
– Registration is open for CMLE hosted Supervisor Nuts & Bolts Workshop More
– State Library Updates 3/9/16 More

Upcoming Events and Registration Information
– “Multitype powered” library professional development calendar More
– Free national online library events to build your skill sets  More

Tech Bits and Ideas
– New Raspberry Pi 3 has been released More
– Free FRBR book More

Resources You Can Use
– AASL Recommended App: Remind More
– Writers to watch this spring… More
– School library award of $5,000 for humanities programmingMore

Food For Thought
– In rural MN, the public library can be the only available high-speed Internet access  More
– Meet the nominated Librarian of Congress More

Just For Fun
– Yeah, I work at the public library, giggle, snort! More

General, Public

In rural Minnesota, libraries can be only source for high speed internet access

MN broadband coverageIn too many places, libraries are the only reliable high speed access point. And no other place is this more apparent than in rural Minnesota. Taking a look at the Minnesota Office of Broadband Development’s website, we see map after map where broadband coverage is lacking.

Fox 9 in Princeton recently talked about this issue and even spoke to East Central Regional Library Director Barbara Misselt. “It’s not uncommon to see cars pulled up when the library is closed,” she said, “people using their devices from their car.” The need is there but as Fox 9 points out, it seems cost is the factor keeping companies out. There is hope, Governor Dayton is asking for more funds to expand broadband and the task force is working hard too. Let’s hope a change to broadband availability happens soon so that rural Minnesota is on equal footing with the rest of the state.

Read the article or watch the Fox 9 video now.

Academic, General, Public

Need a free book about FRBR?

FRBR: Before and AfterFor those hard-core catalogers and metadata librarians, Karen Coyle has done you a favor. First she wrote a great book on FRBR called FRBR: Before and After. The book gives a great introduction to FRBR explaining, among other things, what a Work, Expression, Manifestation, and Item all are in simple, easy to understand text. Second, she released it under the CC-BY license. Basically this means its free! Read the whole book now.

On her site, she explains why she did it:

“As promised, as of January 2016 the full contents of book available for Open Access with a CC-BY license. If you (or your library) can afford the hard copy I encourage you to purchase it. I earn $0 from sales, but ALA Editions generously allowed me to exchange potential royalties (which would have been quite small) for the privilege and advantage of having a professional publisher. This book would not have happened without their effort, and I greatly appreciate their willingness to make this exchange that is, in my opinion, a win-win-win (for me, for ALA Editions, and for readers).”

We hope this, along with other authors, increases the amount of books and articles under the Open Access umbrella. Well done!

Academic, General, Public, School Media Specialist, Special

Obama nominates 14th Librarian of Congress

Did you know that recently, President Obama nominated Carla Hayden for the post of Librarian of Congress. Did you also know…

  • The Library of Congress is “America’s Library”
  • The U.S. president nominates the person, the Senate confirms the nomination
  • The Library of Congress is the nation’s oldest federal institution
  • Hayden will be the first female and the first African American to hold this honor. Watch this video to meet Dr. Hayden…..