Tag Archives: CMLE Resource Series

CMLE, Communication, Visits

CMLE Resources: Library Visits

CMLE is here for you with all kinds of resources and information. Each week we will share a look at another piece of that information, to help draw some attention to resources that may help you as you serve your community.

Interior view of Stockholm Public LibraryWe love to visit our member libraries! Our whole purpose is to help to connect and communicate across our system of 300+ libraries of all types, and to share information. Going out to visit our members is one of the best ways we have to find out all the great things you are doing, and to work on new strategies to figure out what we can do to help you in the work you are doing.

And okay, yes: it is really one of the most fun parts of our jobs!

We are not the only ones who like to hear about everything in your library – all your colleagues across CMLE want to know what you are doing too! This is part of forming more connections between our members: getting to see what is going on in other libraries helps you to get some ideas to try in your own location.

Have we been to your library lately?? You know we want to come visit – so send us an email at admin@cmle.org to let us know what library you are in and give us a couple of dates we can come visit you!

CMLE, Communication, Programs

CMLE Resources: Travel bugs

Geocache opened

CMLE is here for you with all kinds of resources and information. Each week we will share a look at another piece of that information, to help draw some attention to resources that may help you as you serve your community.

This week we look at our geocaching resources!

We are always looking for strategies to share library ideas with people – and setting travel bugs loose in the world is one of our unique attempts.

Have you tried geocaching? It’s fun!

And what is it? “Geocaching is a real-world, outdoor treasure hunting game using GPS-enabled devices. Participants navigate to a specific set of GPS coordinates and then attempt to find the geocache (container) hidden at that location.”

What are travel bugs? “A Trackable is a sort of physical geocaching “game piece.” You will often find them in geocaches or see them at geocaching gatherings. Each Trackable is etched with a unique code that can be used to log its movements on Geocaching.com as it travels in the real world. Some of these items have traveled hundreds of thousands of miles thanks to geocachers who move them from cache to cache!

There are three main types of Trackables: Travel Bug® Trackables, Geocoins and other Trackables.

A Travel Bug is a trackable tag attached to an item that geocachers call a “hitchhiker.” Each Travel Bug has a goal set by its owner. Goals are typically travel-related, such as to visit every country in Europe or travel from coast to coast. Travel Bug Trackables move from cache to cache with the help of geocachers like you. See the “What do I do when I find a Trackable?” section of the guide for information on how you can help Trackables move.”

CMLE has set loose five trackables into the world. Some disappeared, some are still out there – but we like them all and look forward to hearing about their progress! We get emails as they are found, and it is always fun to see how they are moving.

If you want to track the CMLE travel bugs:

We are with you! Travel bugs can be pretty exciting. We are looking forward to checking in on their progress, to see how many libraries they visit! You can follow the links below, or just click on the travel bug on the geocaching.com site to get a quick email each time it moves around.

CMLE, Resources

CMLE Resources: Copyright

CMLE is here for you with all kinds of resources and information. Each week we will share a look at another piece of that information, to help draw some attention to resources that may help you as you serve your community.

This week we look at our Copyright resources!

Libraries and archives are often the locations in an organization where copyright laws meet the demands of your community members. We need to be ready to explain why it is not appropriate (legal) to just scan the latest expensive textbook and put it online for an entire class. We need to provide information on why we can not just photocopy articles from a popular journal every single week to distribute. We need to train our community members in using images online, in sharing information from behind paywalls, and so many more things to help them follow copyright law in their own work.

We provide a lot of information for you on our Copyright page. For some quick basics, check out our “Linking Our Libraries” podcast episode on copyright! Continue reading CMLE Resources: Copyright →

CMLE, Resources

CMLE Resources: Grant Resources

Money-flower

CMLE is here for you with all kinds of resources and information. Each week we will share a look at another piece of that information, to help draw some attention to resources that may help you as you serve your community.

This week we look at our Grant Resources material!

We provide a few links to help you write good grants. And we have a big chart of potential grant applications you can browse through to see which ones might work best for your individual library or archive.

Some Fundraising Links:

And of course, we have a podcast episode available with all kinds of grant information! You can download it to an app, stream it on your computer (instructions are on that page) – or just read through the material yourself. We strive to make information available and accessible to everyone, no matter how you like to learn things!

Would you like to write a grant, but are not sure where to start? Or have you started one, but are not sure what to say next? Or are you wrapping up a grant, and want another set of eyes to look it over? CMLE is here for you! Click here to let us know what we can do to help you!

 

CMLE, Communication

CMLE Resources: Site Map

World map blank without bordersIt’s not the most flashy part of our website, but the Site Map is a handy tool for you.

Our job, as a multi-type system, is to provide information, resources, and assistance to our 300+ members. So our website is bursting with all kinds of things that might be helpful in different situations, to different kinds of libraries, archives, history centers, and more.

It gets confusing. Things seem jumbled.  There is a lot to consider, and a lot to look at.

No worries, however! We have your back on this. We have spent a lot of time thinking  through the organization of the site, to make it as useful to you as possible.

Our Main Menu items are here: (There are a lot of links under each menu item, so you have plenty of material to browse around here.)

  • Welcome! Start Here
    • All kinds of information is here, including our contact information, our bylaws, our Board information, and more.

 

  • Subscribe to Us!
    • On this page you can subscribe to our social media, Linking Our Libraries podcast, online book groups, and weekly newsletter

 

 

  • Check Out Some Amazon Shopping!
    • If you want to check out some fun Amazon products, and you click our links, a small portion of the money you are already spending at Amazon will come back to CMLE.

You can start here to find what you need; and if you get stuck just contact us. You can find all of these links in our menu, so feel free to take some time to browse around and maybe find some fun new items!

We have organized this site for you, to provide you with information and resources to make your work easier. If you have material to contribute – send it to us! If you need some information we do not have up there yet – let us know!