Tag Archives: CMLE Scholarship

My MLA Conference Recap

Patricia Post, CMLE Director
Patricia Post, CMLE Director

It is always unfortunate for CMLE staff that the MEMO and MLA Conferences are back to back. It is hard for us to both be out of the office, but we always come away from both conferences with new programming ideas and connections in the library field. The two conferences are quite different in look and feel, which is what keeps it interesting. MEMO is of course very focused on school media and their issues, while the MLA Conference is heaviest maybe in public library issues, followed closely by academics. Our staff intentionally looks for the breakout sessions that are bursting at the seams, to see what is most popular. If we join the fray, we are looking on behalf of all Central MN library types, but also watching and listening to see how the content is received, and if the questions from the attendees indicate something might be lacking in content. If the speaker is phenomenal, we ask them about their willingness to bring their expertise to our region.

We listen at the lunch tables and in the hallways to hear what people are excited about, and what they are struggling with too! For staff like ours, these are all clues as to what type of programming might be helpful in the region. Since so many meetings are now done online, conference season allows face-to-face contact with people in your network.  Face-to-face is still best for building relationships and hearing about your needs.  As several of us talked about this, we noted how much we miss the face-to-face, as it bonds people in ways that online meetings struggle to produce. A few of my highlights of the MLA Conference included:

  • Things in a Flash Breakout Session: Bursting to capacity, this fast paced session was populated for the most part with the “tablet crowd”, or the wannabes! I still had not upgraded my iPad to iOS7, as I feared I would not have the needed gift of time to figure out some fairly significant upgrade changes. This session gave me the highlights for navigating this brave new world, which gave me the confidence to download the upgrade. We also heard about many apps that fulfilled a number of professional and personal needs. Out of the twenty or so covered, my two favorites were CamMe, an app that helps you take photos of yourself without the “fully extended arm method” while using your phone! I also really liked Quixey, a search engine for apps. Read last week’s blog post about Quixey.
  • Sessions on Change Management and Mindfulness: Staff from the Minneapolis Community and Technical College (MCTC) did an excellent session (Conducting Change: Leading a Mindful Tune) about bringing mindfulness into the workplace. Presenters acknowledged that we are living in a time of unprecedented change. We need tools to help us work well in teams and embrace change rather than burrow away from it. Identifying and understanding  our strengths, and those of our team members, also makes us better. They talked about WOO (winning others over), working in “flow state”, and the pitfalls of extreme multitasking. At one point in  time, multitasking was considered the much preferred option, but it appears it can actually have negative connotations these days. Does multitasking just make us do many things in a superficial, haphazard way? If we focus and/or reflect, can we do a better job?

And, we need tools to help us in letting go of emotions. Acknowledge the emotion, let go of how things should be, and recognize that  too much attachment to the end goal can make you miss better things.  The presenters showed a hysterical, yet poignant video of C.K. Louis on the Conan O’Brien show to illustrate what they mean about acknowledging your emotions. MCTC created a meditation room in their library this year to allow anyone to engage in 20 minute segments of seated mindfulness (pillows on the floor). Every 20 minutes a chime signals when to enter or leave the room.

Mindfulness and reflective thinking are showing up in both the education and library literature. These practices not only help manage work-related stress, but also improve the quality of library services. Kristen Mastel, MLA president, recently published an article on the topic, Insights and Practical Tips on Practicing Mindful Librarianship to Manage Stress.

  • After little sleep and a hastily read breakout session description, I stumbled into Roll With the Changes: A Percussion-Based Experiential Approach to Change Management. I will admit I almost backed out of the room when I saw a circle of chairs with a variety of drums and rattles placed in front of each chair. We were quietly instructed by two academics to “sit near the drum that speaks to you.” Okay…I sort of felt like I needed someone to work some WOO on me! However, I pushed through my discomfort while chiding myself for not reading the session description well enough. I have little musical ability and what if I needed to perform solo?  But then, I remembered that I could be mindful about my discomfort, embrace it and own it, then let it go, which is exactly what I did! This session began with a review of the research on group drumming or drum circles, some simple rhythmic exercises, and culminated in a full blown structured drumming exercise and debrief as the exercise relates to facilitating change and positive growth in work teams. It was energizing, easy and fun. I left the session smiling and energized to keep exploring new ideas!

I always roll out of Fall conference season on an adrenaline high about what I have learned and whom I have met. Then, I get back to the office and see the piles of work left undone as a result of attending the conference. By writing this blog post, I got my “conference high” back, which felt great.

What about you? Can you share conference high points with others to increase the learning and show the value in developing yourself professionally?

Tip 1: To mine the comments (tweets) of Twitter users at the conference, go to Twitter. Use the search window to type in the #mnlib13 hash tag. By doing this, you may pick up other useful links to materials others shared as a result of  breakout sessions they attended.

Tip 2: Were budgets too tight to allow you to attend a conference this Fall? If you work in an academic, public, special or school library in Aitkin, Benton, Chisago, Isanti, Kanabec, Mille Lacs, Morrison, Pine, Sherburne, Stearns, Todd or Wright counties in Minnesota, you are eligible to apply for a CMLE scholarship. Watch our blog posts for other upcoming conferences that might be a good fit for you!

ALA Conference: CMLE Scholarship Recipient

The following post was submitted by CMLE scholarship recipient David Wuolu, Collection Development Librarian, Clemens Library & Alcuin Library, College of St. Benedict’s/St. John’s University.

David Wuolu,
David Wuolu, Collection Development Librarian

Thanks to the CMLE scholarship, I was able to recently attend the 2013 American Library Association annual conference in Chicago, IL.  In fulfillment of my obligations for this funding, I am submitting this essay.

What were your favorite takeaways or new things learned?

I was hoping to learn more about best practices with ebooks for academic libraries.  There were several poster sessions which dealt with ebooks, and demand-driven acquisition experiences, and I was able to visit with the librarians who had implemented these programs.  I also attended the Collection Development of Academic Libraries meeting which included two vendors (JSTOR and EBL) and a librarian who shared their thoughts on the next significant ebook development, which included issues important to ebook suppliers such as preservation policy, discoverability, harnessing big data, evolution of lending models, as well as the ongoing issues important to librarians such as ILL, multi-user access, and DRM-free ebooks.   Interestingly, JSTOR indicated a little wiggle room on fair use, which is a change from their earlier stance on this topic.

Another session I attended was the Digital Preservation Interest Group.    Aside from learning how complicated digital preservation is, and how some institutions working with preservation of digital content, I did take away a model that has been developed by the Library of Congress, NDSA program, which is called the NDSA levels of preservation, a simple 1-page guide used to describe digital preservation (http://www.digitalpreservation.gov/ndsa/activities/levels.html).

As a result of attending this event, can you identify and explain a few things you can use/apply to your work or practice?

I learned more about ebooks, and more about digital preservation, both of which can be applied to my work.  The future is becoming increasingly digital, and increasingly clearer to me as a result of attending this meeting.  Still, there were a few interesting comments in the collection development meeting about an increase in print usage coinciding with ebooks, so I don’t think we’re done with print quite yet.

MILE Participant: CMLE Scholarship Recipient!

Minnesota Library Association (MLA) Institute for Leadership (MILE) encourages and promotes leadership regardless of the position a person holds with in a library . The following post was submitted by CMLE scholarship recipient Sarah Seeley, Branch Assistant, Great River Regional Library-Buffalo. 

My experience at MLA’s Institute for Leadership Excellence (MILE) exceeded my expectations on every level.  I met fantastic people, both attendees and presenters, and discovered leadership skills I had never identified. I also learned new techniques and forums for library leadership that I know will serve me throughout my library career.

The most valuable part of the retreat for me was identifying and understanding my own personal leadership themes, discussions of how those themes interact with other individuals, and strategies for building good teams with various leadership styles.  I have already begun using this new understanding back at my job, and know it will continue to benefit me in the future.

I enjoyed learning about various forums for library advocacy and techniques to get the message out about libraries in Minnesota and the nation.  We also had a great coach who led discussions and exercises about keeping yourself and staff engaged and effective at work and in life.

On the last day we set a number of goals for ourselves to be achieved in the next eighteen months.  Going forward I will be working with a mentor for advice, coaching, and accountability toward those goals.  I am thrilled with the mentor I have been assigned and have already begun work on my goals, all of which will have a great effect on my work and within our library system.

I appreciate the support CMLE has provided for my attendance at the MILE program. I recommend it to anyone interested in leadership in the library field.

Sarah Seeley

ALA Midwinter Conference Recap: CMLE Scholarship Recipient!

The following post was submitted by CMLE scholarship recipient Jake Grussing, Regional Coordinator-Collection Development, Great River Regional Library 

The unquestionable highlight of my ALA Midwinter experience was meeting with Pat Losinski, Chief Executive Officer of Columbus Metropolitan Library (CML). I am grateful to have had the opportunity to initiate an informal mentoring relationship with him. The most striking conversation we had was about how libraries measure success. Pat suggested that if libraries continue to hold up traditional metrics (circulation, holds filled, etc.) as the standards by which they hope to be measured, their hands will be forced to keep those numbers up. More revealing indicators might include kindergarten readiness, 3rd grade reading, ELL/ESL progress, high school graduation, post-secondary enrollment, and unemployment rates. A library cannot measure those outputs without help from other organizations, nor can a library claim to be solely responsible for improvements in those areas; a library is one among many organizations doing meaningful work in the community.

If not the focus of every session I attended, community engagement was at least mentioned in every one. In a session on the future of ebooks in libraries, Jamie LaRue urged libraries to deepen the connections with their communities by becoming the gatherers, curators, and distributors of local content; in a session on library technology an audience member asked if libraries could be platforms for networks around community objectives; and over coffee a colleague said it’s not about the stuff we maintain but the improvements we facilitate. Those ideas get at an unstated theme of ALA Midwinter 2013, one that will inform my work over the coming year: libraries should measure their success not by traditional stats but by the success of their communities.

TIES Conference Summary: A CMLE Scholarship

The following was submitted by a CMLE scholarship recipient.TIES

Submitted by: Nancy Lorentz, Becker High School Media Specialist
The first session I attended this year at the TIES Conference was entitled “Need More Tech Support? Enlist Some Students!” by Mary Klauk from Osseo Area Schools. I enlisted student help when we went to 1:1 at Becker High School. Mary had some good ideas for me to improve my program –I should have the students trained to run our new auditorium next year, and students who are able to help substitute teachers hook up projectors, etc. I also need to do a better job of training students to create videos for me — concerts, tutorials, etc. all take up quite a bit of my time. She also has a Tech Crew member who supports the Robotics Club–Becker is just starting one up this winter and I have JUST the right boy for the job!

Simon Sinek was the Keynote on Monday: “Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action.” So inspirational! My favorite quote was “Technology has to solve a human problem. If achievement goes up, it’s the teacher using the technology and not the technology itself.” This is so true–I believe the value in putting the technology in the hands of every student is that it forces people to become better teachers–and THAT’S when transformational teaching happens!

My last session may have ended up being the most valuable to me. Two teachers from South View Middle School in Edina work together on a Challenge-Based Learning project called “Combating Apathy.” I’m hoping one of my next steps at Becker High School is to create a Challenge-Based Learning project with a class or classes–and this session gave me some awesome ideas on how to get started!

Thanks so much for helping me to be able to attend TIES again this year!