Tag Archives: CMLE Weekly Review

Academic, Check this out:, General, Public, School Media Specialist, Special

Like Book Reviews?

Image by Simon-Cocks. Retrieved from Flickr. Used under Creative Commons' licensing.
Image by Simon-Cocks. Retrieved from Flickr. Used under Creative Commons’ licensing.

Are you currently reading a book that you want others to know about?  Or, do you already write book reviews for various reasons? Might you consider sharing your reviews with others in Central Minnesota?

CMLE Board Member, Maria Burnham, Sauk Rapids-Rice Library Media Specialist, suggested including book reviews in our current communication streams. We thought this was a wonderful idea!

Our Goal: Over the next six months, we would like to like to have 20 book reviews starting this November going through April of next year.

We’ll need your help!!!

  1. First, we want to come up with a catchy name for this series. It will appear in the title each time a book review is being posted. Place your suggestion(s) in the comment section below or send us an email by next Thursday, October 31st. The winning suggestion will receive public kudos and a reward.
  2. Maria will be kicking off our first post next week. You could be one of the additional 19 CMLE book reviewers. To share your notes with library colleagues, across Central Minnesota, simply email our office (cmle@stcloudstate.edu) place “Book Review” in the subject heading.

TIP:  If you are already reviewing books and blogging about them for your students, it would be easy to send us a copy for this series.

Academic, Check this out:, General, Public, School Media Specialist, Special

Quick Question Polls are Coming!

Some rights reserved by Valerie Everett
Some rights reserved by Valerie Everett

CMLE provides library support services to 319 academic, public, K-12 and special libraries in twelve counties of Central Minnesota. One of our biggest challenges is assessing both the interest and needs of so many different types of librarians/organizations.

Please watch your email for messages from us  with a subject line “Quick Question.” These messages will include an easy link to a  very short poll on  Survey Monkey.  We will always ask you to identify your library type first, then will ask a few, very quick questions. Promise, no more than that.  Thanks in advance for participating in each poll as quickly as possible!

Feel free to contact me if  you have questions, concerns or suggestions (papost@stcloudstate.edu)

Academic, General, Public, School Media Specialist, Special

CMLE Announcements

Please review a couple of important updates from our office:

  • Monday, February 18th, the CMLE office will be closed in observance of President’s Day. Normal office hours will resume on Tuesday.
  • Due to the short week and a number of other competing service areas, the CMLE Weekly Review will skip a week and be back in your in-box on Thursday, February 28th
  • Please feel free to send us your stories about what is cool in your library,  or your other ideas for blog posts. Send all to cmle@stcloudstate.edu and use Subject Line: Possible Blog Post
Academic, Check this out:, General, Public, School Media Specialist, Special

Welcome & Service Changes: From the Director

First off, welcome back to a new academic year! Our K-12 and college libraries are gearing up just as the public libraries breathe a sigh of relief after their summer reading programs come to an end. We have lots of exciting news at CMLE, so hang in there for a few minutes, and let me know if you have concerns or questions! Hopefully, during our eight month strategic planning process, we did our homework, and our plans for the future will meet your needs. If not, please know that I welcome any and all of your suggestions!

Our mission: CMLE is a Central Minnesota library hub, a clearinghouse of talent, materials, and expertise for all types of libraries.

Our new strategic focus areas for the next three years include:

  1. Refined focus on K-12 media center needs
  2. Convening and bridging libraries around issues
  3. Stretching dollars: Cost avoidance and cost savings

For more detail on our Strategic Framework and our Strategic Workplan, go here

New Communication Streams: Our staff strives to get you important library/school media information, yet keep your life uncluttered. With our new communication strategy we hope to reach you wherever you are:

  • Each Thursday, you will receive a CMLE Weekly Review message recapping our blog posts of the week. Just click on the links of what interests you; it is as easy as that! So, going forward, you will receive fewer emails from CMLE, but will lose no content from us.
  • Twitter: Find us, follow us, and we’ll follow you back!  Our Twitter handle is CMLEMN
  • Facebook: Find us by searching for “Central Minnesota Libraries Exchange”.  Please “Like Us” right away so you never have to do this search again!

Service Changes….

Interlibrary Loan (ILL): After conducting  a 10-year trend analysis which showed consistent drop in ILL requests,  and a cost-benefit analysis of what it costs us to provide this service, our governing Board is in agreement that we sunset our physical ILL service. However, we do not want to end our tradition of resource sharing in Central MN and will evolve resource sharing into more digital resources. We will spend this academic year helping users of the ILL service to find alternative methods for getting the resources they need before our end date of June 30, 2013. We will also be unveiling new resource sharing strategies soon, so stay tuned!

 Annual Meeting: After careful debate and thought, the Board agreed that we can serve more of you better if we convene some smaller, targeted gatherings around the region rather than one big event. Please watch for more detail about possibilities, and if there is a conversation you would like us to convene, please let us know. Example: Would you enjoy a conversation about information literacy with academic, K-12, public, and special librarians to hear what works best in their settings? Information literacy and e-books are already on our wish list of possibilities, what is on yours?

As we work through this exciting but difficult transitional year, know that we are seeking ways to further assess and serve your needs, and engage you. We hope that some of our new ideas including our new communication streams provide new opportunity and energy in your world.

Patricia Post, Director of CMLE