Tag Archives: CMLE

Read with us in April!

We think spring is a great time to read, especially because it can sometimes be done outside in the sunshine. If you are looking for books to join you outdoors as the weather warms up, we’ve got a few great choices for you with our Goodreads groups.

This month in our Librarians Enjoying Books group we are reading The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger.

“A most untraditional love story, this is the celebrated tale of Henry DeTamble, a dashing, adventuresome librarian who inadvertently travels through time, and Clare Abshire, an artist whose life takes a natural sequential course. Henry and Clare’s passionate affair endures across a sea of time and captures them in an impossibly romantic trap that tests the strength of fate and basks in the bonds of love.”

Plus, the author has a great love and appreciation for libraries! From her Acknowledgements: “I would also like to thank
the librarians of the Reference Desk at the Evanston Public Library,
for their patient assistance with all sorts of wack queries.”

The Evanston Public Library was our Spotlight Library during Episode 4 of our CMLE podcast, check it out here.

In our CMLE Librarian Professionals group, we will be reading Radical Candor: Be a Kickass Boss Without Losing your Humanity by Kim Malone Scott.

Radical Candor offers a guide to those bewildered or exhausted by management, written for bosses and those who manage bosses. Taken from years of the author’s experience, and distilled clearly giving actionable lessons to the reader; it shows managers how to be successful while retaining their humanity, finding meaning in their job, and creating an environment where people both love their work and their colleagues.”

In fact, author Gretchen Rubin (who wrote our December book The Happiness Project!) recommends this book: “I’ve known Kim Scott for many years. She and I worked at the Federal Communications Commission together. After that job, I switched to being a full-time writer, and she worked in a bunch of different places, including three failed start-ups, Google, and Apple. I love talking to Kim about workplace issues. She has such interesting things to say about how to be a terrific boss or colleague who has high standards, and who can help people grow and improve, but also be kind. It can be a tough balance.”

Join us this month and let’s read together!

 

CMLE is on the air!

You probably listen to a few podcasts already, or at least know about some of the biggies out there in the podcast world.  We have talked about library people who podcast, and podcasts you can use for workplace stress management. It’s a great way to share information – something we take very seriously here at CMLE Headquarters.

So we have begun our own podcast!

Our podcast is called Linking Our Libraries, in recognition of the work we do as a multitype system in linking our libraries to each other, to all sorts of information, and to us. Continue reading CMLE is on the air!

Cheer on the CMLE Bike Team!

As you may be aware, at CMLE HQ we are huge fans of our bike desks. We appreciate the focus that biking brings us while we work, and they are a healthy addition to our work space!

Since we bike at our desks every day, we thought it would be fun to start tracking the miles to see how far we can travel. That was how we created the idea for our Virtual Library Bike Tour! Each week we will track our mileage and will virtually “visit” libraries along our trip.

We have an in-person map with pins (Orange = Angie, Blue = Mary) for visual tracking and will of course be keeping track online as well. Follow our progress on Google Maps here!

Each library that we “visit” will be linked to and briefly described on our Twitter account @CMLEBikeTeam.

So far, on my way out west, I’ve “visited” St. Cloud Public Library, Clemens Library at St. Ben’s, and Alcuin Library at St. John’s!

Follow along and visit libraries across the country with us as we embark on this biking adventure!

And of course, if you’d like a bike desk of your own, check them out on Amazon.

Support CMLE: Shop at Amazon!

As the Minnesota multitype library systems prepare to enter our tenth year without a budget increase, we are looking for ways to diversify our income from other sources. We want to be able to provide more services and more programs to our members!  One easy way to help us to do this is by using Amazon.com.

Not available at Amazon, but she’s a big CMLE supporter!

Amazon provides a program called Amazon Associates. When people click through our site to buy things at Amazon.com, we get a small percentage of their profits on the sale.  You have probably seen some other libraries, nonprofits, and small businesses using this program.

What could you do to support CMLE? It’s easy!

Click on our website. Find stuff you like at Amazon.com. Buy it. Bask in the glow of supporting library services!

Aaaaaaannnnd…that’s it! Continue reading Support CMLE: Shop at Amazon!

A furry visitor to CMLE HQ!

At CMLE, we love animals and recognize the positive impact they can have in the workplace!

That’s why we decided to have a special visitor come in last week – my greyhound, Lady Grey!

She was a very calming presence in the office, as we encountered some technology challenges, and also made many new friends who were happy to come give her lots of attention!

As you can see, Lady Grey did a great job supervising our CMLE office! She will likely come back to visit, and we will let you know when that happens, if you’d like to come say hello! She loves new friends, especially when they are library people 🙂