Tag Archives: CMLE podcast

Books

Episode 102: Science Fiction

1 Comment

Science fiction

Ready to win?? Leave a comment below; one person will be randomly chosen. You can win a copy of The Cocktail Guide to the Galaxy: A Universe of Unique Cocktails from the Celebrated Doctor Who Bar, by Andy Heidel! “For the first time ever comes a book that unites two of the best things in the world: nerd culture, and booze. Because if anything is true, it’s that nerds are awesome, and many of us like to throw back an adult beverage or two while re-watching Firefly for the seventeenth time.”

Bonus announcement: If you are in the St. Cloud or Collegeville, MN area on November 7 at 7pm – you could meet award-winning author John Scalzi! He be at the Pellegrene Auditorium to talk about what science fiction can teach us about the role of technology in human experience. A book signing will follow the talk. (Mary will definitely be attending, as she adores Scalzi’s books; you can contact us if you want to meet up!)

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.

Welcome, everyone, to Books and Beverages! This is our book group podcast, where we discuss different genres of books each week, while we 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 of our book group.

Who is joining us this week? Our regular hosts Angie and Mary are here. This week our guest host is Kathy Parker, director of libraries at St. John’s and St. Ben’s.

Books, CMLE

Read-A-Thon Report!

3 Comments

Librería de lance en México DFHave you ever wanted to read books all day and all night? Me too!! Saturday, Oct 21 I took part in the annual Dewey’s Read-A-Thon – the chance to read books for 24 straight hours! It was fun, there were snacks, I read lots of books, chatted with people on Twitter, and got to really enjoy wallowing in having tons of books around me to read!

 

This was my first #readathon experience, so I was a little nervous. I had a ton of books in paper format from the library, downloaded a few audio and eBooks from Overdrive, and even had two books sent to me through the ILL system to be sure I was really, really prepared. I was ready to read, no matter what genre or format I would decide I needed to read!

I had also read that snacks were an integral part of the reading experience, so was stocked up with a variety of things. (At one point I took an audio book out to the kitchen as I made my “famous” blueberry/dark chocolate chip pancakes for brunch. It seemed like a great time to splurge on fun foods!)

Everyone asked me what I would do when I needed to get up off the couch to do other things – and of course the answer was easy: Audio books can go anywhere with you! I had to go hiking on Saturday, and John Sandford’s newest book about Virgil Flowers went with me. (It seemed right, as Virgil also spends a lot of time trudging around Minnesota, and enjoying outdoor adventures.)

The event is flexible around your own schedule – so you can start and stop as you see fit. The idea for me was to know that I had a day I could really devote to reading, which was so fun. Everyone around the world read during the same 24 hour period, so you needed to know when it started in your own time zone. Our start time in Minnesota was 7am, and I was up and listening to an audio book right away. I shifted over to a paper book, after I got myself assembled on the couch with my breakfast and my tea. I read all day, and wrapped it up about 12:30am when I finished another book.

One of the first things I realized was that I was way overstocked on books! Of course, it seems obvious that even a full 24 hours will only allow so many books to be read – but I had (unrealistic) visions of flying through tons of reading. This was not actually a problem, and my book binging continued on Sunday as I wrapped up some more hours of reading!

What was my output?

Sunday I kept moving with the reading binging:

It was – clearly – lots of fun!!

And I really enjoyed following along on social media to see what other readathon people were reading (and eating!), as well as getting pictures of their pets! You can follow the #readathon hashtag to see comments and pictures for yourself.

Do you need reading suggestions? Wish you had a few more books in your life? Or would you just like to be part of a no-stress book group? Be sure to join us in our Books And Beverages Podcast! New episodes drop each Tuesday! And you will want to tune in for our guest hosts, who come from public, academic, special, and school libraries. We even have a few non-library people! Join us by either downloading the episodes or streaming the on your computer or tablet.

Last week we looked at the genre of Romance, this week we explore Science Fiction, next week – for Halloween!  – we look at some Horror material. You won’t want to miss an episode!!

Services

Linking Our Libraries Podcast: Episode 210 Customer Service

Customer service photo

Want to listen to an episode?
  1. You can download an app, subscribe to “Linking Our Libraries” 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 “Linking Our Libraries” and hit Subscribe.
    • If it is not readily available, just enter this RSS feed: http://libraries.blubrry.com/feed/podcast/.
  2. Or, you can stream an episode right now on your computer by going to our streaming page, by clicking here.

Whatever tool you use, we hope you enjoy it! Thanks for listening, and sharing ideas on libraries!

Want to talk with us about this topic? Do you, your staff, or your organization need training in this topic? Want to write a policy, or develop a program?  We are here for you!
Click here to get started!

 

 

Contents of our information page:
  • Introduction
  • Background
  • The Basics
  • A Few Stories from the Front Lines!
  • Books We are Reading
  • Conclusion

This week we are talking customer service in your library: the good, the bad! Patrons, customers, or whatever you call those people who use your services, are the heart of it all – the reason our jobs exist. At our very foundation, we only exist in our jobs to serve these people. Some of them will absolutely be the best part of your job; they will make you happy to come to work, they will fill you with that positive glow of happiness in doing a good job, and will general be a delight! There may even be homemade snacks involved!

Other patrons will make you question your job, your reason for being in a library, and your very will to get out of bed in the mornings! When, not if, that happens to you, try to focus on taking a deep breath and remembering that this too shall pass. Go back and listen to our episode #206 on Conflict Management, and look through our material on handling stress in the workplace.

But don’t let the few lousy patrons be too big a part of your job! Actively keep your perspective focused on the great things you are doing to build community, and to enjoy the customer service aspects of your job! We are not going to overlook the tough parts of this skill, but we do not want to dwell on it and overshadow the good stuff too. So sit back, relax, and let’s talk about some good customer service procedures you can implement in your organization to make things flow better. And we will share a few stores from the real-life side of working with patrons all day!

 

Next Week:  we talk about technology training in your library, with Guest Host Angie Kaltoff!

Communication, Conference, Tech

Linking Our Libraries: Episode 209: Conferences!

Want to listen to an episode?
  1. You can download an app, subscribe to “Linking Our Libraries” 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 “Linking Our Libraries” and hit Subscribe.
    • If it is not readily available, just enter this RSS feed: http://libraries.blubrry.com/feed/podcast/.
  2. Or, you can stream an episode right now on your computer by going to our streaming page, by clicking here.

Whatever tool you use, we hope you enjoy it! Thanks for listening, and sharing ideas on libraries!

This week we are talking about professional conferences: attending them and presenting at them. This is your chance to meet other people who do what you do, who like the same things you like, and who are experiencing some of the same challenges you are facing! In our system, made up of all types and sizes of libraries, we have many people who are solo library workers, or who work with a very small group of people. That kind of isolation can be tough, so conferences are a great way to be sure you connect with other people in your area of the library world! And, as you are part of a big profession, this is also a chance for you to be giving back to everyone else with your ideas, your experiences, and your material.

We all work better when we are working together, and sharing information is a responsibility of being part of a community. (plus, it’s really fun to present at conferences! You get to feel like you are contributing, and you get the chance to really talk about issues and ideas that are important to you!)

So take a listen to our episode,  or find more information on our podcast page here. We hope to see you at some conferences this week! 🙂

CMLE, Training

Linking Our Libraries Episode 206 Conflict Management

Usually we talk about how wonderful libraries are – and they are! And we talk about cheery, happy, fun things in libraries – and there are tons of them! But today we are talking about a much more uncomfortable topic, but important in libraries: Conflict.

We are all about Minnesota Nice here, and it would be wonderful if everyone was nice, everyone agreed on library issues, and everyone agreed on everything. But we all know that when you work with other people, and when you work with members of the public, things do not always turn out so well. Conflict is inevitable and dealing with it can be hard.

But: like so many things, there is a process you can follow to make conflict situations better! We are going to walk through some ideas here to help reduce conflict situations, and hopefully to make things better. We are not going to fix everything – nothing will. But “better” is a good step in the right direction! Check out our podcast on Stress in the Workplace from Season One to get some good strategies for handling stress that may be a part of conflict.

So everyone take a deep, yoga breath, sit in a nice comfy chair or be engaged in a happy activity, and let’s talk about some skills for reducing conflict in your library.

We have material on our site for this episode; and we also have material on this skill, along with many others, available in our Skills Toolbox section of our site.

Contents on our full information page:
  • Introduction
  • Background
  • Strategies
    • Conflict with patrons
    • Conflict between staff
  • Books We are Reading
  • Conclusion

 

Want to listen to an episode?

  • You can download an app, subscribe to “Linking Our Libraries” 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 “Linking Our Libraries” and hit Subscribe.
    • If it is not readily available, just enter this RSS feed: http://libraries.blubrry.com/feed/podcast/.
  • Or, you can stream an episode right now on your computer by going to our streaming page, by clicking here.

Whatever tool you use, we hope you enjoy it! Thanks for listening, and sharing ideas on libraries!