Members, we love to visit your libraries! It’s such a joy to discover all the amazing programming, resources, and materials that you have to offer your communities!
We have an entire page dedicated to our Library Visits and we hope you take a look at some of the fantastic member libraries we have visited. (It is a long list!!)
But the CMLE system is made up of 12 counties! That is a lot of libraries, and we have not visited every one! So, we want to come to visit YOU!
And to encourage you to set up a visit, we have a lovely selection of framed literary-themed prints that we are offering to libraries that contact us to set up a visit. You can choose two prints and we will bring them to you at the time of the visit. See below for the choices:
Our visits are casual, probably around thirty minutes long, and involve CMLE staff admiring the work you doing and finding out how we can be of more help to you in your library, archive, or media center. (They are not a test or scary or painful in any way!)
Sign up below, send an email to admin@cmle.org, or visit our Request a Site Visit page. We can’t wait to visit you! 🙂
Especially when community members are going to be younger, I absolutely love to see bright colors and fun furniture. Our whole purpose as library people is to bring in people, and encourage them to use all of our stuff. This kind of thoughtfulness in design is a great example of promoting the library as a good place – one that is interesting to kids (and adults!).
It’s our job to help with information literacy and instruction – and these signs are great tools!! I love to see this kind of explanation of books and genres. What a great way to help kids start to think about books they like, and books they may want to try!
And finally, especially in a school library, letting patrons know that they are important and valued is critical. We are not here just to stuff books in their hands and send them along; we are here to teach and help kids build skills. I was having a moderately tough week when I visited, and I have to say – I felt better reading this! I’m guessing it’s been helpful for other kids and adults. What a great idea!!
Check this out. You know you are in a library, you know you are in place where people care about your learning and development, and darn it – this is just cute!!
That’s Pat! Everybody wave! *waves* Don’t be fooled by the sign; she’s fiercely devoted to her library and to serving her community – but not scary. She is a great example to us all – joining every committee and group she can find, to be sure she’s there to tell people about the things her library can provide. That’s good advocacy, right there!
How could you NOT want to follow the Cat in the Hat to the library?? And you just know that once you arrive, there is sure to be all kinds of great things to check out! (Spoiler Alert: Yes there are!)
It’s always so fun to visit member libraries – and just check out how cute this one is! This elementary school is set up to meet the needs of shorter patrons, who want bright colors and lots of fun things to look at. Mission accomplished!
Look there, to the left in this picture. See that lofted area?? I love that! When I was a teeny kid I definitely would have loved to go spend time up there, reading my books and having tons of library fun! (Okay, I’m not currently teeny, but still went up there and enjoyed it!)
Sorry, this is not a great photo of it, but this is what you find when you head up to the reading platform. How fun would this be??? Kids can recline in their camp chairs, and enjoy their crafted “fire” in the center of the circle of chairs. (Okay, at this point I practically had to be dragged away to admire other things, because I really wanted to sit down and read books. You can’t possibly blame me for that!)
Then, underneath that platform is even more cool stuff! Check out these cute little chairs, and all the bright colors. Thinking about setting up places to encourage patrons, of any age, to want to settle in and read, enjoying the library, is a great thing for libraries to try! (Sorry, I didn’t scrunch down to try this area; but it did look great for people shorter and more flexible than me!)
I have never seen this bin before, but I love it! In many libraries there are spaces set aside for patrons to plop down books they have browsed but decided not to take home. It is usually easier to keep the shelves orderly if library staffers re-shelve books; and it is an easy way to see what kinds of things people are actually looking at. This bin is cute and catchy for kid-sized patrons to reach and to use!
When you arrive at the library, you can immediately see where the important functions will happen. This is the Circ Desk – located near the front door for easy access to checking out and returning books, and to give patrons (students primarily) a central location to find staff who can help them.
You can get a good perspective on the space of this library here. The Circ Desk is there on the right side of the photo, and you can see all the space for students to use desks, to wander and look at books on shelves, and space for teachers and library to spend time working with students individually and in groups.
I am always, always a fan of design that considers usability for patrons – and this a great example of doing that! High-interest books are found right here, just inside the front door and easy to locate. Kids can flip through this shelf that is sized just right for them, and they can easily find books that have eye-catching cover art, and books that appeal to them and their own reading interests. Location and size both contribute to making these books more valuable to the users.
This visit happened at the end of the year, when books were due back from users; so the shelves are a little more full than usual. But you can see how many great opportunities kids (and teachers!) have to find books useful in the classroom, or books that are just fun to read. Books that are interesting to read, and well organized, encourage kids (and adults) to read more books – always an important goal in any library!
And of course, libraries have many different ways to share information. Books, of course, are always important; but we are also a great place for our patrons to use computers to connect with the internet, to hone their technological skills, and to find information using digital tools. Students can use computers right here in the library to supplement their other technology work.
Art is another important tool for sharing information, especially in a school environment. This sculpture is one of several located in the library on the shelves. They were created by students in art class. It is always great to see libraries connecting with and partnering with other groups, and in school libraries this often means working with academic departments such as an art department. (A student working in the library gave me some information about how these little sculptures were created – it was so nice to get that info from a patron!)
Sorry that this photo is kind of off kilter, but what we are looking at is two-fold. First: plants of any sort (including artificial) are always great to see in a library! Real plants can help to clean the air, and even artificial plants can help to reduce stress in people who see them. Second, it was hard to get in a photo, but you can see the very cool glass shelves! Library staff can put up books in these glass shelves, and they are on display out on the hallway – how neat!! Displaying books is always a great way to help increase circulation, and to help connect books with patrons.
Every library is unique, and every library I have ever visited (literally hundreds of them) has something interesting to set it apart. While there are several interesting and unique things in this library, I enjoyed seeing this (completely harmless, empty) wasp nest. Bringing in nature to any indoor environment is great for people, like students, who spend a lot of time inside. But it’s just a neat thing to have something unique to potentially engage student interest in coming to the library!