Category Archives: School Media Specialist

Academic, General, Public, School Media Specialist, Special

Finalists Named for the 23rd Annual Minnesota Book Awards

The Friends of the St. Paul Public Library have announced the finalists for the 23rd annual Minnesota Book Awards! To see a list of all the finalists by category, please visit http://www.thefriends.org/programs/mnbookawards/award_winners_and_finalists.html. The categories include: Children’s Literature, General Nonfiction, Genre Fiction, Memoir & Creative Nonfiction, Minnesota, Novel & Short Story, Poetry, and Young People’s Literature. All nominated titles appear towards the bottom of the page. Lots of great stuff here!

Also of note, the 23rd Annual Minnesota Book Awards Gala, when the winners will be announced, will be held on Saturday, April 16th. Visit the main Minnesota Book Awards site http://www.thefriends.org/programs/mnbookawards.html  for additional information and resources.

Keep your eyes peeled for another blog post from us during the month of March about how you can play a part in selecting the Readers’ Choice Award winner!

Academic, General, Public, School Media Specialist

Central Minnesota History Day @ SCSU Recap!

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January 22, 2011 was Central Minnesota History Day at the Miller Center Library, and it was a smashing success! This was the third year SCSU has hosted this event, and we had 97 participants. In all, we had six schools attend. This year’s History Day Theme is Debate and Diplomacy in History: Successes, Failures, and Consequences.

The students received detailed research instruction, handouts, and assistance from SCSU librarians, interns, Minitex, and the Minnesota Historical Society (MHS) staff. MHS provided guidance on project creation, structure, appearance, and what makes a History Day project great! MHS also had a sample History Day project on hand from last year. Instruction was provided on such topics as: using the Minnesota Digital Library www.mndigital.org, accessing and utilizing SCSU’s many primary source databases, using the ELM Databases, and the SCSU online catalog. This instruction was invaluable, and really got students moving in the right direction.

Throughout the day, CMLE staffers provided assistance with checking out materials and requesting interlibrary loans. In all we checked out 109 materials – ensuring that students in the central Minnesota region have the primary and secondary sources that they need to create a successful project. In addition, Patricia assisted with research questions, provided a nice welcome during the opening session, helped set up the breakout rooms and lunch, and worked to ensure that the day ran smoothly.

 We were happy to see such a great showing and hope to welcome these schools back again next year… and, we’d also love to see you, too! Please visit http://www.flickr.com/photos/cmle1/ to see Central Minnesota History Day @ SCSU in action!

To learn more about National History Day, please visit http://www.nationalhistoryday.org/. To learn more about the research day at the Miller Center, visit http://research.stcloudstate.edu/page.phtml?page_id=344.

SCSU is looking forward to hosting the annual Central Minnesota History Day Regional competition on March 19th, 2011. The event is expected to bring students to campus to compete for prizes, such as monetary awards, continuing on to the state competition, and scholarships.

Academic, General, Public, School Media Specialist, Special

Google Cloud Print in Beta!

Printing… from your phone?! If you’re a Windows user and are lucky enough to have an iPhone or an Android smartphone, you can try out this new beta service now! Currently, your options for what to print are limited to select Google services. Additionally, it requires a special beta version of Google Chrome and will only send print jobs to printers that you’ve connected to your Google account. Review PCWorld’s article on this service, and follow the helpful steps they’ve provided to give it a whirl! Or you can bypass the PCWorld article and start directly with Google.

 Let us know how it goes in the comments area!

Academic, General, Public, School Media Specialist, Special

How do you measure the size of the internet?

Focus.com recently created a fantastic graphic that captures the “size of the internet”. Take a look at the graphic directly from the Focus.com site, or take a glance at Mashable.com to view the graphic and a brief analysis.

Who would’ve known that 36 billion photos are uploaded to Facebook every month?

Image: ‘Facebook Friends’  http://www.flickr.com/photos/4everyoung/2093186582/

Academic, General, Public, School Media Specialist, Special

Minnesota Library Futures Initiative Update

On December 10th the Minnesota Library Futurists gathered at the St. Cloud Public Library to discuss the general outlook for Minnesota in 2025, with the goal of creating a common framework for the Futurist’s work in upcoming months.  In preparation for the meeting, Futurists researched current trends and outlooks for demographics, economics, education, and technology. For each of these areas, mini-SWOT analyses were performed.

 Additionally, Futurists analyzed and discussed the current political climate and how it could impact the library landscape in 2025. Ideas for how libraries will move forward into the future began to present themselves as the day came to a close.  These ideas have been recorded for further examination.

 The Futurists are also excited to announce that a website and blog are now available. The website is available at https://sites.google.com/site/mnlfi2025/home, and will be used to convey information about the MN Library Futures Initiative, the 23 Futurists, the key focus areas, future-forward bibliographies, archived recordings of guest speakers (when available), and plans for upcoming meetings. Feedback and ideas from the library community are welcome on the MNLFI blog at http://mnlfi2025.blogspot.com/?zx=4e5a215efb8b40d7. The blog will include updates from the Futurists, but the hope is that those with an interest in the future of libraries will also post to the blog. Questions, commentary, and ideas about the future are encouraged.

The group’s next meeting will take place at St. Paul Academy on Friday, January 21st. The focus for the day is technology.