Category Archives: Research

Day Twenty Seven of the CMLE Summer Fun Library Tour!

Image result for batgirl librarian
Batgirl was a librarian!

Looking at the Socialization of LIS Students
Through a Pop Culture Lens

This is a little bit of self-promotion, but the fun kind! A few years ago my research partner and I wanted to watch Buffy the Vampire Slayer reruns; but we had very demanding jobs that required us to be working all the time. So we had to work out a way to make watching Buffy into work.

Reader, we did it.

We both like pop culture, and as professors we frequently used pop culture images and ideas to illustrate points in library work. Students would identify with pop culture material, and use it to help incorporate the ideas we were discussing in class into their own professional images they were developing.

We wanted to find out how common this was, so we did a survey of library students across the country to find out what kinds of pop culture images they like, that they shared with others, and were using in their professional development. You can flip through our article to see what all we found; one of the biggies was how very cool students are, and how much pop culture they knew!

Libraries, as well as archives and museums and other information-focused professions, are very well represented across all sorts of pop culture images and ideas. So be proud, and seize your own professional identity ideas from the wide range of pop culture images out there!

We really need you – for ten minutes!

The survey closes Monday,
so get in on this NOW!!!

Multilingual

We need your help! We are looking for information and experience from library people all across Minnesota – and that means you!

Below is the information about this survey; if you choose to take it, this will be given to you again on the first page.

Please take a few minutes to fill this out; and then please share it with absolutely everyone in your library, and any other library person in the state of Minnesota!

Two people will be randomly selected to each win a $30 gift card from Amazon, and everyone will be able to receive the results we find.

Thank you, in advance, for your help !!

 

Minnesota residents speak more than one hundred languages at home.

Libraries of all types are working to serve their community members, including people speaking all of these languages. Serving Emerging Bilingual community members can present some challenges to the traditional library services you are already providing, as well as bringing in new strategies and ideas for providing service to your community.

Who are Emerging Bilingual community members? They may, or may not, already be using your library. They speak languages other than English as their first language, and are learning English or speaking it fluently as a second language (or third, or fourth!).

We want to know how it is going for you! We are interested in the things that are great – successes you have had, good resources you have found, community groups you have connected with. And we want to know where you see opportunities for improvement – resources, funding, training, time, and anything else that is an obstacle to your library providing outstanding service to everyone, regardless of language. Continue reading We really need you – for ten minutes!

Share Your Library Information: We Need You for a Few Minutes Today!

MultilingualWe need your help! We are looking for information and experience from library people all across Minnesota – and that means you!

Below is the information about this survey; if you choose to take it, this will be given to you again on the first page.

Please take a few minutes to fill this out; and then please share it with absolutely everyone in your library, and any other library person in the state of Minnesota!

Two people will be randomly selected to each win a $30 gift card from Amazon, and everyone will be able to receive the results we find.

Thank you, in advance, for your help here!!

 

Minnesota residents speak more than one hundred languages at home.

Libraries of all types are working to serve their community members, including people speaking all of these languages. Serving Emerging Bilingual community members can present some challenges to the traditional library services you are already providing, as well as bringing in new strategies and ideas for providing service to your community.

Who are Emerging Bilingual community members? They may, or may not, already be using your library. They speak languages other than English as their first language, and are learning English or speaking it fluently as a second language (or third, or fourth!).

We want to know how it is going for you! We are interested in the things that are great – successes you have had, good resources you have found, community groups you have connected with. And we want to know where you see opportunities for improvement – resources, funding, training, time, and anything else that is an obstacle to your library providing outstanding service to everyone, regardless of language. Continue reading Share Your Library Information: We Need You for a Few Minutes Today!

We need you! (Yes, YOU! I’m talking specifically to you!)

MultilingualWe need your help!  We need to know if your library is doing tons of things for English Language Learners (Emerging Bilingual patrons), or what we can do across the state to help you to provide more materials, or if this is not an issue in your community!

If you are in a library, no matter what you do or your experience, we need you for this survey!

Two people will be randomly selected to each win a $30 gift card from Amazon, and everyone will be able to receive the results we find.

Below is the information about this survey.

Please take a few minutes to fill this out; and then share it with absolutely everyone in your library, and any other library person in the state of Minnesota!

Continue reading We need you! (Yes, YOU! I’m talking specifically to you!)

New Project Launched: MN Water Research Digital Library

Minnesota has a new digital repository, all about water research. The Minnesota Water Research Library has digital materials in PDF format and “provides one-stop access to all types of water research, enabling water managers, researchers, engaged citizens and others to easily find, share, and coordinate research to support their efforts to protect, conserve, manage and restore water in Minnesota.”

PALS (Project for Automated Library Systems) and the MN Water Research Library are looking forward to working together and providing an example to other state agencies looking for a way to manage their digital materials.

Read more about this project here!