Tag Archives: CMLE

Academic, General, Public, School Media Specialist, Special

CMLE has found a new Executive Director!

Mary JordanWe are pleased to announce that Dr. Mary Wilkins-Jordan will soon be joining CMLE. She looks forward to working with CMLE members, the other six MN Multitype Library Directors, and the MN library community. She is also thrilled to return to the Midwest.

I want to personally thank the Search Committee for their careful attention to detail and process, and for including me as an ex-officio member of the Committee. Our overall goal from the beginning was focused on our CMLE members. We want to ensure that this change in CMLE leadership doesn’t disrupt the services you have come to rely on! Mary will begin on August 15th. She will work with me for two weeks to transition accounts and get the high points of being a multitype director. My last day at CMLE is August 26th.

Mary’s most recent experience has been as a library and information science professor at Simmons College in Boston. Although Mary has been an academic, her heart is in helping people in the library field. She was most attracted to this job because it will allow her to do just that! Mary also has experience as a public library director and exhibited a great sense of humor, which certainly helps in challenging times. Don’t let that doctorate worry you. Mary is knowledgeable yet grounded, and sincere in identifying herself as a librarian, first and foremost!

As some of our “seasoned” CMLE members have witnessed over the years, our services are dynamic and sometimes change based on member needs. There are always plenty of things that can be done differently and with a new perspective. Take every opportunity you get to weigh in on services that are important to you. I believe CMLE is in capable hands going forward and wish Mary and all of you the very best!

Patricia Post
Outgoing CMLE Executive Director

Academic, General, Public, School Media Specialist, Special

Top 10 CMLE blog posts of the academic year 2016

10As the school year wraps up, we like to look back at the most popular posts or pages from the academic year. We thought you might be interested too!

  1. Makerspace madness! The top post was about the efforts of Sauk Rapids-Rice High School library surrounding makerspace programming.
  2. Our readers like to learn and keep their skills current, since our calendar of continuing education events came in second place!
  3. It’s been a busy year at CMLE, with some staffing changes taking place, and it’s clear readers like to stay updated!
  4. People were interested in learning about our event celebrating the new SCTCC library and Author event. Read the recap here.
  5. We were happy to see readers taking advantage of our Notable Dates Page! Check it out to help plan your library events or displays.
  6. The exciting news about the Scout & Morgan bookstore in Cambridge being a Top 10 finalist for the Independent Small Business Award landed it in sixth place!
  7. Another event that piqued interest was the Spring Author event with Paddy O’Brien and Erin Hart! Missed the event? Enjoy pictures and an event summary here.
  8. It’s no surprise big news from CMLE’s Executive Director Patricia Post on her retirement made the top 10!
  9. The desire of our readers to learn is clear! The calendar of Minitex Webinars and Training got many visits.
  10. And finally, who doesn’t need some humor injected into their day? Our post about funny library signs seemed to have been appreciated!
Image credit: http://tinyurl.com/n87a8p9, licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
Academic, General, Public, School Media Specialist, Special

CMLE Board President's Message

Editor’s note: This is a message from CMLE Board President, Maria Burnham, (Media Specialist @ Sauk Rapids Rice High School) that was given during the Board meeting that took place on Tuesday, May 17th. The purpose of this letter is to provide encouragement and support during this time of transition.

Screen shot 2012-12-19 at 12.03.08 PMHello everyone! And happy spring!

First of all, I want to take a moment to congratulate and thank Patricia Post for all of her work as she transitions into retired life. She has worked tirelessly to keep our CMLE ship afloat these last 14 years, and she has served our librarian community well. She provides quality programming and blogs, as well as assisting the Executive Director Search Committee team with any questions we may have in trying to find the best candidate possible as her replacement. Patricia’s shoes are big ones to fill, but I have faith and confidence that whomever we find will continue to move our organization forward. Also, I’d like to thank Angie for joining the CMLE team. She has proven to be a good fit for CMLE, and I’ve been very impressed with her blog posts and her positive energy. And finally, I’d like to thank the members of the Executive Director Search Committee team for the extra time and talent they are donating in order to find the best candidate possible to take over the helm of CMLE. Karen, Seal, Char, Joanne and Patricia (as ex-officio), THANK YOU, for all you have done!

CMLE is an organization that makes a real difference in the lives of librarians. I have received nothing but support from CMLE in scholarships to attend conferences (including TeenLitCon, which was a wonderful opportunity for my students to meet YA authors). Also, recently I was able to attend the Supervor Nuts and Bolts workshop, a wonderful professional development opportunity in learning about the supervisory part of my job, an integral part of my daily duties but one in which I’ve received little-to-no training. These examples show how I felt support from CMLE. And my story is just one of many. CMLE’s work is important work and it can affect many.

Image credit: http://tinyurl.com/l6sc8te, licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
Academic, General, Public, School Media Specialist, Special

Retirements or staffing updates?

calm moodAs the academic year draws to a close, we ask to be made aware of any staffing changes in your location! If you or someone you know is planning to change work locations, or retire, please let us know! We want to be sure to extend a big congratulations to the retirees, and also make sure to keep our contacts up to date with any job changes or new personnel. If our contacts are not kept updated, we run the risk of losing touch entirely with certain locations.

If there have been any special achievements or awards won, we’d like to know that too!

Please send any updates or information you may have to admin@cmle.org. Thank you for your help!

Image credit: http://tinyurl.com/ktoxfxm, licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
Academic, General, Public, School Media Specialist, Special

From the Director: I am retiring!

PPphotoWell, no beating around the bush, the time has come for me to retire as Executive Director of CMLE. I am acutely aware that the moment I publish this, there is no turning back! An odd feeling.

This whole process of retiring is very strange ….intense excitement one moment about future plans, dread about all that needs to happen before my last day, and even tears (I am not a crier) when people start sending me mushy messages. Quite honestly, it reminds me to take critical moments to tell others how much they mean to me. It can really shore someone up when they feel spent and all used up. Tell them why you value them in your life.

You have nothing to fear as I leave; you are in good hands. The CMLE Search Committee is excellent, I am an ex-officio member of it, and we will post my position on 16 job boards during the first week in May. You are my peeps, I have worked hard to build CMLE, and I will do my best to ensure that CMLE services stay in place.

Many of you have meant the world to me over the years.  If we can take a moment to be honest, we’ve been through lots of hard times together, and a few good times too. Funding and politics are the hard pieces, no doubt. We have struggled together with that.

I will leave a clean camp; great infrastructure, a fantastic Governing Board, and a healthy work environment,  which will hopefully provide an easy start for my successor. Want to help CMLE find a new Director? See the link at the end of this post and point people to our jobs website, created for just this purpose! I love WordPress…

So, if you know me at all, you know I am a list person! So, without further fanfare and very little mush:

My Top Ten Reasons to Retire at the End of August, 2016

10.  First, in my defense, I have been in this job for 14 years, enough of my ideas already!

9.    I will be turning 63 in June, so I am entitled, right?

8.    I have three elderly parents and at times, I am the parent which is just so very odd and draining.

7.     Seven wee grandchildren (ages 3 months to 9 yrs) who would really value time with their Memaw. I have current requests from them to teach bread baking, help them sew dream pillows, work with Makey Makey kits, teach them lettering, and of course, read more stories.

6.     My husband of 43 years has already been retired for five years, and is more than ready to spend some fun time with me, free of pressing workloads and deadlines.

5.      I have taken stock of my reading list, and truth be told, I will need at least 20 years to buck through my current backlog! And there will be more, time to get crackin…

4.      A brassy little banty chicken named Chocolate, appears to get physically abusive within her flock, and my granddaughter Livi thinks I may be able to turn this bad behavior around. I have found a chicken stroller which may suit Chocolate and provide some much-needed timeout, but consistency will be key 11709453_10104420818481207_2406412224484831875_nwith this fowl misbehavior. I am on it!

3.      My life is too complicated, I am too plugged in, and I have way too much stuff. We will be doing an online auction to get rid of most of it. Then, into a much smaller house on the homestead of my daughter, her husband and their three little girls in the Princeton area. Yes, Chocolate lives there too.

2.      All of my bionic parts (two hips and a knee) hate the cold. No more Minnesota winters for this gal!

And finally, the top reason to retire is a need for diversity. The CMLE Director has had the first name of Patricia now for 31 years (Patricia Peterson before me). It may be time to see if someone with a different name wants to take the helm, right?!

Thanks for being my colleagues, for your kind words of praise and encouragement, which often helped me gauge if we were heading in the right direction. And, when I was dashing down to the State Capitol to testify on your behalf, to be your voice, you provided great fodder for my testimony too. It’s been great, but it is time to help tend a flock of chickens, keep some bees, bake some bread, plant wildflowers, and read only the very best books! Speaking of…I need to add the newly published Selected Letters of Laura Ingalls Wilder to my reading list, which just came out in March! See, it just keeps growing….

People interested in the CMLE Executive Director position should visit www.cmlejobs.com