Tag Archives: CMLE Resource Series

CMLE

CMLE Resources: Mini Grant Application

1963 MkI Mini
At CMLE we are always working to support our member libraries. And now we have a new program for you:
Mini Grants!

Do you have a cool project you want to try out?
We want to help you with a Mini Grant!

CMLE will offer you up to $300 to try out a cool thing!

What does “cool” mean here?

  • It means an interesting program you want to bring to your library.
  • It means some new material you want to add to your collection.
  • It means supplies for a makerspace, or for a program, or for something else you want to try in the library.
  • Or, it may mean something else that will benefit your community, if you just had access to up to $300 more to get it done!

We want to help encourage our CMLE members to try some new things for your community members. The requirements of the Mini Grant are pretty flexible – we just want to see you try something you might not otherwise have a chance to do.

For the first half of the CMLE fiscal year (July – December), we encourage Mini Grant applications that focus on technology topics (programs, materials, supplies). We take a broad view of the definition of “technology” so feel free to be broad in your understanding of it as it relates to your library.

In the second half of the CMLE year (January – June), we encourage grants that focus on non-technology projects, materials, and programs. This is a guideline, not a hard-and-fast rule; so again, be broad in your conception of what is possible in your library!

Preference will go to new CMLE grant applicants, and to applicants submitting only one application in a fiscal year. If you submit more than one, we may try to fund a second one at the end of the fiscal year, if any money is still available. (Please do not count on that happening though!)

To reimburse you, we need you send us your original receipts, and a discussion of the program/material/supplies that we can put up on our blog. For our purposes, we do not care whether the grant worked or was a flaming disaster – either will provide valuable for our other members as they work on their own grants!

Ready to try this out? Fill out the application below. We will fund on a rolling, competitive basis, in the above described six month chunks, until our money runs out.

FY18 CMLE Mini Grant Application

Resources

CMLE Resources: Take advantage of CMLE Scholarships!

Each week, we will draw your attention to one of the many resources available to you from CMLE Headquarters. Our mission is to help build connections between members, across all types of libraries. We exist to share information across libraries (and archives, and museums, and history centers) – and we are always looking for more ways to make that happen!

One of the ways in which we encourage creating connections is by offering scholarships for professional development opportunities. And there are so many options out there for library people! We want to make sure all of our members get a chance to participate, whether it’s taking a webinar or attending a conference. Since we know money is often tight in libraries, CMLE has scholarships available to help fund your continuing learning and professional programs! And starting this year, you can apply for up to $300 to help with your expenses!

Some quick guidelines:

  1. You can apply for up to $300 in each CMLE fiscal year (July 1 – June 30).
  2. We need the application before the event, to approve it.
  3. You must be an employee or Board member of a CMLE member library. Preference will be given to first-time scholarship requests.

Find the rest of the guidelines here, along with the FY18 CMLE Scholarship Application.

If you are looking for professional development opportunities, make sure to keep an eye on our Continuing Education calendar which we update frequently! Or check out sites like TIES, ALA’s webinars, Library Juice, AASL’s eAcademy, and ACRL’s online learning page.

CMLE, Communication

CMLE Resources: Linking Our Libraries Podcast

As we all prepare for a new semester to get started, and are wrapping up our Summer Fun Library Tour series, it’s good to get back in touch with library resources. And at CMLE, we are filled with all kinds of great things for you!

Each week, we will draw your attention to one of the many resources available to you from CMLE Headquarters. Our mission is to help build connections between members, across all types of libraries. We exist to share information across libraries (and archives, and museums, and history centers) – and we are always looking for more ways to make that happen! Check out our Subscribe To Us! page, for information on subscribing to all our stuff.

We will keep changing and providing new types of information and new formats, to meet the needs of our members. If you have a topic you want to learn more about – tell us! If you have a format you like to use to get information – let us know! Our entire purpose is to connect our 300+ members to each other, and to provide all kinds of professional information to make your jobs better.

One of our strategies for sharing information is to podcast it! Linking Our Libraries is our podcast, created at CMLE HQ. Each Thursday we talk about a different topic that may be helpful to our members – and to anyone across the Library and Information Science profession. (We like you all!) We talk for about 20 minutes, sharing professional information, maybe talking about some libraries, maybe chatting with a Guest Host.

We also have a short segment where we share books we are reading. We have heard from many of you that this is a favorite part; so stay tuned for an upcoming book-themed podcast! (Oh – maybe there should have been a spoiler alert tag before that? Well: Spoiler! New podcast is coming up this fall!)

The whole thing is deliberately cheerful in tone ( we laugh a lot!); and we keep each topic at a pretty introductory level. Libraries are fun places! So if you know nothing about the topic of the week – this is for you! If you need a refresher – this is for you! If you like to hear about the neat things happening across the profession – this is for you! Do you just want to support libraries? Again: this is for you!

Each episode also has a podcast page with our notes from the episode, links to everything we discussed, and often links to other material on our topic. If a topic is useful to you, we want to be sure you have access to the information in any format that works for you!

The all-important part of podcasting:
How do you actually listen to it??

Want to listen to an episode? We make it easy for you!

  • You can download an app, subscribe to “Linking Our Libraries” and all episodes will appear on your phone/tablet – 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!

Do you want to talk with us about a topic? Could you use a helping hand in your library? We want to help! Tell us about it here, and let’s get started.