Tag Archives: CMLE podcast

CMLE, Podcast

Episode 302: Ethics

Business ethics

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Welcome back to Season Three of Linking Our Libraries! We are Central Minnesota Libraries Exchange, and we are here to share information with all types of libraries, archives, and other nonprofits working to build their skills. This season we are working through the tools you can use to be a better manager and leader.

This week we discuss Ethics.

The Basics

It is surprising how many people do not think about ethical issues being a problem in LIS. This may go back to the mistaken ideas some people have about what librarians do all day – that is, that we sit around all day waiting for people to come ask us lovely and fun questions that we can answer with smiles on our faces. Of course this does happen, and most of us enjoy it when things go so well. But other things happen too, and can pose challenges to our ethics, our practices, and even the laws governing our library and society. When you add in the idea of being a manager, responsible for the actions and behaviors of not only yourself but also yours staff, and things can get much more complicated when trying to behave ethically.

In the library field, we are a profession, and as such we are governed by an ethical code. To be more accurate: we are a multi-faceted profession with a lot of different people in different professional areas doing all kinds of different things. So we actually have several different ethical codes relevant to the work we do.

  • There are the biggies that cover us in the United States: the American Library Association (ALA) and the Society for American Archivists (SAA) both have ethics codes governing most of us across the profession.
  • Subsections of these groups may also have specific ethical codes to follow that are relevant to their work.
  • Other ethics codes may also be relevant to you if you are an LIS person working in some of the less traditional jobs for our profession. So you may be governed by codes for computer science, or engineering, or museums, or performers, or wherever else you find yourself working.

No matter what you do in libraries, you are covered by ethical codes. Be proactive about looking for codes that will govern your work, to be sure you do not get caught without your ethics firmly in place!

Too often, ethics are things that get mentioned quickly in orientation, everyone looks solemn, and we all reassure ourselves that we, of course, would always be nice people who will do nice things. Yay for us. But that is just the barest beginning of ethics and ethics training. We can all start from the stand that we are nice people (most librarians are, after all); but we need to have a specific, written-down, set of ethical principles that we all know, we all understand, and we all agree to follow. And then problems will happen and disasters will come to your door. Ethical codes give you either a nice ladder to climb up out of the problems, or can be used as a handy weapon with which to clobber if you ignore the rules and cause problems that make it into the news.

As a leader, it is particularly import for you to know and to display ethical behavior. Managers who lie, cheat, and steal show staff members that teamwork and ethical behavior are pointless; no one will get ahead in this kind of organization by following the rules and doing the right thing.

Thankfully, the opposite is also true. Managers who create an ethics-friendly organization, and who demonstrate ethical behavior even when it is the harder choice, are showing their staff how things should be done. All of this will add up to an ethics-friendly organization. And you will have yet another powerful skill for your own Manager Skill Set!

Thanks for joining us this week! And check back in with us next week to discuss Hiring and Staffing.

Podcast

Get ready: Season Three of Linking our Libraries is coming!

We are getting ready to put out Season Three of Linking Our Libraries – the podcast focusing on library training topics. No matter what you do in libraries/archives/nonprofits – we have episodes to help you to be more effective in your library!

This season we are creating a toolbox of skills. One of the training topics we get a lot of requests for is Leadership and Management skills. We will be building on these topics in future training opportunities, but this season we will present you with fifteen topics important for success as a leader in your organization.

Topics will be grouped, and will build on previous topics. So we start at the very beginning, with a look at some management theories to give everyone a foundation of ideas about your own leadership style. We progress through ethics, some HR topics, and then into different kinds of planning – the defining skill of a good manager. We wrap up with some strategies for bringing together groups of people, including looking at the organizational culture, communication, and teamwork.

We have several Guest Hosts, who bring their own experiences and library ideas with them to share with all of us. This is one of the big values in being part of a multitype system – our guests come from all types of libraries: public, academic, school, and special; so when they share their ideas we know those ideas will resonate across all our libraries!

We like the idea of a fifteen-episode season with a theme – especially a theme our members have requested more information on for their own skill building. We hope you like it too!

Subscribe today, to be sure you get each new episode as it drops. Episodes will drop every Thursday at 6am – for those who just can’t wait for their next dose of leadership and management skill training!

Podcast

Episode 115: Minnesota books!

Want to listen to an episode?

  • You can download an app, search for “Books and Beverages Podcast from CMLE” hit subscribe, and all episodes will appear on your phone – it’s so easy!
    • Apps we like include Pocket Casts, iTunes, and Stitcher.
    • Download any of these, search for “Books and Beverages Podcast” and hit Subscribe.
    • If it is not readily available, just enter this RSS feed: http://booksandbeverages.blubrry.net/feed/podcast/.
  • Or, you can stream an episode right now on your computer by going to our streaming page, by clicking here.

Check out our full information page for all the info!

Welcome, everyone, to Books and Beverages! This episode is the end of Season One for us – but never fear, we are not leaving you. Season Three of our library training podcast, Linking Our Libraries, starts next Thursday: Feb, 2.  Season Two of Books and Beverages will be back Thursday May 17. (Our first episode will be Pets, with some returning special guest hosts!)

This week we are discussing Minnesota books! We will look at books set in Minnesota, and books by Minnesota authors.

Beverages

We have guests, we have our genre. We just need our beverages. Fortunately, we all came prepared with something to sip while we talk about our books. Each week we like to connect the theme of our books with our beverages. Each beverage will have a recipe or a link on our episode page, so you can try them yourself!  Obviously, feel free to sip along with us with any beverage that is right for you. Just join us in celebrating books, and discussing books!

As Minnesotans, of course we have a wide variety of different beverages from all the cultures that make up our great state! But this week we are focused on sharing some local beers. It’s cold and dark outside, and a lot of us sip on local beers to celebrate the snow. When it’s hot and summery outside, a lot of us are outside camping, fishing, hiking, or engaging in other outdoor activities – and sipping on local beers is part of that tradition as well! We will have links to all these on our website, to encourage you to try out some new beverages for yourself!

Genre Suggestions

We have a huge diversity of cultures and languages in Minnesota. There are a lot of Scandinavian descendants, as well as German descendants. And we have several Indian tribes across the state including Chippewa, Ojibwe, Lower Sioux, and Ojibwa or Anishinaabe. We have many groups of cultures who have moved here in the last fifty years, including strong populations of Vietnamese, Hmong, and Somali people.

We live in big cities, and small rural areas. We have deciduous trees and forests filled with pine trees. We root for the Vikings and the Wild. We have a pretty impressive great lake: Lake Superior; and to back that up we are known as the Land of 10,000 Lakes – but that doesn’t cover our whole range of lakes. We have waterfalls and historic sites. In short, we are a land filled with a diverse set of people and natural settings – and the literature of Minnesota is likewise exciting and diverse, and is filled with different kinds of settings, people, and genres!

We love Minnesota books, and are collecting them on our website. Each week we publish a review of a book set in Minnesota in our series: CMLE Reads Across MN. We also have a google map where we locate each of these books, so you can see how geographically diverse our state – and our books – are to read! We link to this series so you can check it out yourself.

Books

Episode 114: Historical Fiction

The Strand Magazine (cover), vol. 65, no. 321, September 1917

Want to listen to an episode?

  • You can download an app, search for “Books and Beverages Podcast from CMLE” hit subscribe, and all episodes will appear on your phone – it’s so easy!
    • Apps we like include Pocket Casts, iTunes, and Stitcher.
    • Download any of these, search for “Books and Beverages Podcast” and hit Subscribe.
    • If it is not readily available, just enter this RSS feed: http://booksandbeverages.blubrry.net/feed/podcast/.
  • Or, you can stream an episode right now on your computer by going to our streaming page, by clicking here.

Our full information page can be found here! (Check out all the drink recipes!)

Welcome, everyone, to Books and Beverages! This week we are discussing Historical Fiction books!

We are the Central Minnesota Libraries Exchange, and we support all types of libraries. This is our book group podcast, where we discuss different genres of books each week, while we all sit in our comfy chairs and drink our beverages. And you are, of course, an important part of this book group. So if you do not already have a nice beverage please go get one, so you can join the experience.

Who is joining our reading group this week? This week we welcome back book group guest Lydia, from the Great River Library System!

The Historical Fiction genre is such a fun one! You have license to go anywhere in history, to become anyone, and to explore all sorts of exciting new places. It’s like magic – and sometimes it is – but good historical fiction transports you to a place in history and helps you to feel the experience of being there.

This is a great genre for book groups to read, as the books can be discussed in so many ways: pure history, character development, any anachronisms, whether it’s all back in time or your main character is living in our time and traveling back with you. This genre can, like so many broad categories, cover all sorts of other genres: science, mystery, literary fiction, YA, and so much more. We have a lot of suggestions for historical fiction you might enjoy, or that you might want to share with patrons or friends, all on our podcast website – so check it out!

Thank you so much for joining us for this discussion! We will be back next Tuesday with another genre, more book group hosts, and all kinds of books to share and discuss. Be sure to subscribe to our podcast so you don’t miss a single episode! And if you want to hear more about the work we do in libraries – which is surprisingly fun! – subscribe to our podcast Linking Our Libraries.

Bring your book ideas, bring your beverages, and join us back here for more book discussion next Tuesday!

Books, Podcast

Episode 112: Fantasy

Ariel, Mary, Angie

Want to listen to an episode?

  • You can download an app, search for “Books and Beverages Podcast from CMLE” hit subscribe, and all episodes will appear on your phone – it’s so easy!
    • Apps we like include Pocket Casts, iTunes, and Stitcher.
    • Download any of these, search for “Books and Beverages Podcast” and hit Subscribe.
    • If it is not readily available, just enter this RSS feed: http://booksandbeverages.blubrry.net/feed/podcast/.
  • Or, you can stream an episode right now on your computer by going to our streaming page, by clicking here.

Check out our full information page here, and get all the great drink recipes along with links to all kinds of useful resources!

Welcome, everyone, to Books and Beverages! This week we are discussing Fantasy books! Many of you who like this genre will also be SciFi fans; so check out Episode 102 if you have not already heard it.

This is our book group podcast, where we discuss different genres of books each week, while we all sit in our comfy chairs and drink our beverages. And you are, of course, an important part of this book group. So if you do not already have a nice beverage please go get one, so you can join the experience.

Who is joining our reading group this week? This week we welcome back frequent book group guest Ariel Krist, from St. Cloud Public Library!

Fantasy is one of those great genres that cross all kinds of boundaries in terms of other genres it can intersect with. Scifi can be defined as having a story that focuses on science; things in the story are possible (in theory at least) now or in the future. Items can be built, diseases can be unleashed or vanquished, robots walk among us. Fantasy books, in contrast, rely on magic or paranormal creatures or powers to advance the story.

These books easily lend themselves to big, sprawling world-building series. And those lend themselves to big-budget sprawling TV series and movies. So you see Game of Thrones, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings being not only very successful book series, but also very successful visually. Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series is so epic Brandon Sanderson had to wrap it up – along with all of his Mistborne books! (Love his novellas in the Legion series!) Is Dune Fantasy? Sure…also some Scifi – but it’s undoubtedly epic! Think about the Marvel and DC comic universe – those Avengers can be thought of as scifi (sometimes), but could also fit pretty neatly into the Fantasy world. It’s a pretty fantastic time to be a Fantasy fan!!

We have a lot of suggestions for Fantasy books and series you might want to check out, if you don’t already know them. Because, as we said – this is a very diverse genre, and filled with all sorts of potentially great things to discover!