Category Archives: Resources

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STRESS! Let's listen to podcasts to help!

stress
podcasts of happiness await you!

Stress affects everyone, and end-of-year stress can be particularly difficult. Many of us are struggling to finish up all our work for the end of the semester, or celebrating holidays and all that comes with it, in addition to dealing with every single other thing that was already driving us crazy all year long! Patrons have less patience, money is suddenly tighter, and all kinds of extra programs can just cause even the best-balanced library person to hit a breaking point.

CMLE is here to help you. This month we will provide all kinds of information about stress, to help you learn more about it, and learn some strategies for managing stress. You cannot stop stress from happening, but we can all learn better ways to increase our resilience so stress does not knock us out!

One easy way to help is to listen to podcasts.

Of course, there are all kinds of librarian podcasts out there, and we recommend those as nice way to keep up with interesting things happening in the profession!

And there are podcasts you can listen to that will help you address your stress in a productive way. Continue reading STRESS! Let's listen to podcasts to help! →

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

Start planning now: Library Legislative Day is coming soon!

ala

At CMLE Headquarters, we want you to be informed about all the great things happening across the profession. And advocacy is ALWAYS an important topic!!

If there is sufficient interest in this, CMLE HQ can help to make arrangements for members to travel to Washington DC, so we can directly tell our federal politicians how valuable we are to our communities. Funding is going to be tight, and priorities for resources are shifting – and libraries are not at the top of the list for support.

The profession needs YOU!

  • If you can not make it to Washington, then attend our Minnesota legislative day!
  • If you can not do that, then give your legislator a call and tell them (briefly, politely) about something great your library did today, or this week, or this month.
  • And if you need to practice your phone call before you make it, talk to us first! We can help you organize ideas, and to feel confident that you have a great story to share!!

This is not just for “other” library people, or just people with a degree, or just ALA members, or just ANYTHING!

YOU are in a library, YOU know about the service you provide, the materials your patrons would not have without you, the help you give every single day. YOU are exactly the right person to do some advocacy for your library, for your community, and for your profession. GO TELL SOMEONE!!

(There we go – that’s library advocacy! You nailed it!!) Continue reading Start planning now: Library Legislative Day is coming soon! →

Check this out:, CMLE, Communication, General, Public, Resources, Special

One of our travel bugs has made it to a library!

cheesehead-library-cacheOne of our travel bugs has been retrieved and moved on to its next location – and it looks like one that we can all enjoy!

The travel bug Libraries Rock made a quick stop off at the St Cloud Public Library, then moved on to its next cache – Enjoy the Journey. “The coordinates above will take you just outside of a place that holds a multitude of wonderful adventures. You can easily lose track of time when adventuring. Before you enter you will need to find a time capsule that will lead you to your adventure inside.” (Thanks, East Central Regional Library! Everyone from CMLE who stops in to see their cache, be sure to say hello to the library staff! This is yet another great way for system members to get acquainted and chat with each other!)

Have you been to this cache?

Have you searched out a geocache? Tell us about your adventures in the comments!

In December, as we are all working on stress management, heading out to look for geocaches and travel bugs – whether they started at CMLE or not – can be a great way to relax and enjoy some fun exploration!

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

From Good to Great as a library leader

Pencil tips
Working on our professional development!

If you’ve been keeping up with CMLE’s book groups on Goodreads, the phrase “Good to Great” may ring a bell! That’s because the book “Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap and Other’s Don’t” by Jim Collins was our November read in the Librarian Professionals group! We hope that if you read the book, you were able to take away a sense of what helps great leaders and companies function at such a high level.

Library Journal recently posted this article written by librarian and Vice President of the ACRL Steven Bell on why the book can be especially helpful to those in the library world. He discusses how the book is still relevant in today’s library leadership world, but also names additional articles and resources that have continued to build upon Collins’ book.

Bell names a main component that is necessary for achieving greatness – passion! Leaders need to be able to channel their passion for their work in a way that inspires others to follow them and leads their company in the right direction. Bell also gives some suggestions of how to lead successfully in the library world.

If you are interested in developing your leadership skills, CMLE’s Librarian Professionals book group is an easy place to start! Our book for December is The Happiness Project, and we welcome you to join us!

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Updates on the CMLE travel bugs!

cheesehead-library-cache
the Cheesehead Public Library cache!

As library people, we are dedicated to providing information in all sorts of formats, and on all kinds of topics. One strategy for finding information is geocaching! To participate in this, we have set up five travel bugs we hope will be traveling around to libraries and library caches.

library-visitor-initial-drop-in-cheesehead-library-cache
Library Visitor drops into the cache, waiting to be taken to a library!

Our latest travel bug to head out into the world is Library Visitor. This travel bug was dropped in the Cheesehead Public Library geocache. This is a great cache, with a selection of books in plastic bags to keep them safe and dry.

One of our other adventurous travel bugs, Libraries Rock, has been retrieved! An experienced cacher located it, and left a note that she will be moving it on to a library cache.

Where might our travel bugs go?? What library-related adventures might they have? We have to stay tuned to find out! You can click at the top of the page to follow any of our travel bugs, to see where they travel.

Many adventures in information finding are ahead!