Welcome to the newly-updated CMLE website! We decided a fresh new look would be a great way to start off a new academic year of publishing. Another new feature is our Continuing Education page. Make sure to check it out for great professional development opportunities!
Keep your eyes open for more changes that we will be making for your benefit! Any changes in particular that you would like to see? Let us know in the comments or send us an email!
Each month we’ll bring you a compiled list of fun national holidays, birthdays of authors, and publication dates of favorite books. You can use these for your own personal use or for some library inspiration! Share what inspired you in the comments.
September is Classical Music Month! Other things to celebrate in September. . .
Looking to learn some new skills, or enhance your abilities in a particular area? The Minnesota Multitypes are here to help!
The Minnesota Libraries Continuing Education Calendar always has some events to check out. These events are open to all library staff across the state, although there may be some registration requirements. The seven Minnesota Multitypes hope that this calendar makes it easy for library staff to see what continuing education events are already scheduled. Libraries are encouraged to submit their own learning opportunities to calendar@mnlibs.info as well!
In case you weren’t able to attend ALA’s 2016 Annual Conference and Exhibition in Orlando, Florida that took place in June, take a listen to this podcast!
Host Phil Morehart presents Episode Four of ALA’s Dewey Decibal podcast series that hopes to bring the convention to you. The podcast features interviews with a variety of staffers and speakers, including Peter Coyl and Michael Eric Dyson. Hosts also interview some of the 16,000 librarians and library professionals right from the conference floor, where they speak about their experience and the role they play in the world of libraries. Hearing the background noise and excitement in the voices of the attendees help to transport you to the energy of the conference.
Don’t miss Episode Five of the Dewey Decibal series, now available, with a focus on library architecture and design.
Disasters happen. Great River’s recent fire (St. Cloud) and flood (Belgrade) are scary reminders that all kinds of disasters can happen in libraries, and planning ahead for them can help make them less terrible.
Have you looked at your library’s disaster plan lately? Does your library even have a disaster plan? You can not assume your parent organization (school, college, city, corporation, or whoever) will include you, or that they will understand enough about what you are doing to include meaningful information. When disasters strike your library, you want to be ready with procedures that will quickly help you to cope.
Think realistically about the kinds of disasters that might strike your library. In Minnesota, we do not need to worry about hurricanes; but tornadoes, power outages, and fires are all pretty likely. I have seen library policies dealing with bears in the parking lot and rattlesnakes in the stacks; if these are likely to occur in your library – set up a plan! Are you ready in case your library’s website falls victim to a ransomware demand for Bitcoin? (see Radiolab podcast: Darkrode) It is starting to be an issue for hospitals – libraries could be vulnerable without protection and backup. (Wired: Hospitals as targets).
As with so many things, we can just follow the procedures other libraries have created. If you look at your disaster plan (or the blank space where a plan should be), and see that it could use some updating, you have a few basic options:
Here are a few resources you might look to as you prepare your own disaster planning:
This is definitely something we can work on together as a system. If you want some organized training, or a writing session where we all work together, or just someone to be a sounding board as you start your disaster plan work – let us know!