Category Archives: Special

Registration is now open for the CMLE/MEMO Annual Fall Meeting and Workshop!

The CMLE/MEMO Annual Fall Meeting and Workshop will take place on Thursday, November 4, 2010. The event will be held at the St. Cloud Country Club.

Register online … http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/cmleregistration now! The deadline for registration is October 29, 2010.

Here’s what you can expect…

1:30   CMLE Governing Board Meeting (optional)

4:00   Opening remarks

4:30   Five in Fifty: Five 10 minute presentations on new ideas in library programming and technology. Presentations will be coming from a variety of library types and topics will range from mind mapping tools to apps for the iPod Touch to literary resources and sites for children.

5:30   Cash bar, book sales, book signing

6:00   Dinner: An Italian buffet featuring a Caesar salad and garlic bread sticks to start, as well as your choice from two pastas, two meats and two sauces. Cake for dessert! Yum!

6:45   Author Catherine Friend:

 

c_friendCatherine Friend is the author of six books for children, and five books for adults. Catherine received the Minnesota Book Award for General Nonfiction in 2009 for her book The Compassionate Carnivore. Her book, Hit by a Farm, also received high praise from the Minneapolis Star Tribune, the New York Times, and Lavender.  Her children’s book, The Perfect Nest, was recognized by the Wall Street Journal as one of five best ‘read alouds’. Currently, Catherine is writing two additional books – one for children titled Barn Boot Blues, and one for adults titled Sheepish – which is a loose sequel to Hit by a Farm. Check out Catherine’s website at www.catherinefriend.com for more information.

7:45   East Central MEMO Regional Meeting: Even if you are not a current MEMO member, all are welcome to sit in on this brief meeting to plan the Spring MEMO/CMLE Meeting. Come with your ideas for topics and/or locations.

 

Hope to see you there!

Things 63 and 64 are here!

Check out the most recent Things on a Stick Newsletter at http://thingsonasticknews.blogspot.com/. Thing 64, written by Dayle Zelenka from Traverse des Souix Regional Library System/SMILE and Gina Zelenka from Blue Earth County Public Library, is titled Face-to-Face Social Networking for Libraries: Let’s Get Back to Basics. Thing 63, written by Dayle Zelenka as well, focuses on the new Droid X. Check it out now, and be sure to review some of the older posts in the archive – the multitypes were busy this summer bringing you the latest and greatest in technology via the Things on a Stick News Archive!

Information Literacy Programming with SCRATCH and SMILE: A CMLE Scholarship

The following report was submitted by a recipient of our new CMLE scholarship program.

Submitted By: Betsy Miller

For generations our family has loved visiting the North Shore.  When I received an email announcing that MINITEX was sponsoring a free workshop in Grand Marais this past August, I decided to attend.  The combination of Lake Superior, learning something new and FREE was definitely a winner.

 The workshop was Information Literacy Programming with SCRATCH and SMILE presented by Jennifer Nelson of the Hennepin County Library and Keith Braafladt of the Science Museum of Minnesota at the Cook County High School Media Center.  They gave us a great deal of information as we experienced a hands-on workshop of practical Web sites I will continue to use.

SCRATCH is new to me but has been around for awhile both in time and geographically as it is used all over the world. It is a programming language used to create interactive stories, games and animations. The home page is found at http://scratch.mit.edu/ giving over a million projects that others have created.  This is also the page where the free download is available for you to begin your own Scratch projects. There are several online tutorials giving you step by step directions to get started or to challenge you once you get going.  As a teacher I find Scratch Ed to be very helpful, http://scratched.media.mit.edu/,  giving resources and ideas for using Scratch in the classroom.

SMILE (Science and Math Informal Learning Educators) was also part of the workshop. This is a great online clearinghouse for math and science activities. The site, http://howtosmile.org/,  partners with the Lawrence Hall of Science, Exploratorium, New York Hall of Science, Science Museum of Minnesota, and the Children’s Museum of Houston to bring activities of all kinds to kids of all ages. 

LISNews Librarian Essay Contest

  Have something to say about libraries or the library profession? Want the chance to win an Amazon or Borders gift card?

 Visit this link http://lisnews.org/node/37272/ for information on how you can participate in the August LISNews Essay Contest.

 The only requirements are that you write an “essay length” document and that your essay is in some way (whether round-about or direct) about the impact of libraries and librarianship.

To review previous essays, visit this link … http://lisnews.org/essays/

 Check it out!

Things 59 and 60

“Things” 59 and 60 are now available! Linda Wadman, director of North Country Library Cooperative, introduced three very useful tools in the most recent newsletter installment. Thing 59 is about the Reading Rewards website for children. Thing 60 covers two tools that will assist you with reading webpages more effectively and efficiently. To view the latest Things on a Stick Newsletter follow this link… http://thingsonasticknews.blogspot.com/.