Tag Archives: collection development

Books, Check it Out:, Guest Blogger

Fieldstone and St. Michael Elementary CMLE Extended Mini Grant Report

This is a guest post from Kristina Kampa, Media Specialist at Fieldstone Elementary and St. Michael Elementary.

I have seen this grant application before, but never thought to apply. My thoughts were it would be too much work since I have never applied for a grant before, I don’t have time, I would never get it, the list goes on. 

I saw the information in the CMLE Newsletter this fall and I figured I would apply this year because we were not given any funds to purchase books other than the money we raised from our book fairs.

So this was the year I was going to sit down and fill this application out for the two elementary media centers I work in. The Google Form for the grant was very simple to fill out.  When I received the email back saying that both of my schools I work in were awarded the grant, I was beyond excited.

I work at two different elementary schools in my district and they both have areas in the collection that need updating, but funds have kept the updating limited. 

I started weeding the non fiction section in one of my schools last year, but realized I couldn’t weed all of the books my report suggested because I didn’t have funds to order new ones.

Our sports team section was in desperate need of more current updated books and I was able to purchase a whole new collection of football books from this grant. I was also able to purchase a few new graphic novels as well which we never can keep on the shelves! 

My other school desperately needed updated picture books for the students and teachers to have for read alouds. With this grant, I was able to place an order for over 50 new picture books. 

The students have been eagerly waiting for these books to arrive and to read them. I am very thankful for this grant and how it allowed me to purchase new and current books for my students and staff at both schools. Thank you CMLE for helping me update our collections this year! 

Books, CMLE, School Media Specialist

Ruth Johnson CMLE Extended Mini Grant Report

This is a guest post by Ruth Johnson, Media Specialist at Clearview Elementary.

With sincere gratitude, I am happy to report on the significance of the $565 grant that our Clearview Elementary Media Center received from your organization.  Your grant was used to support an important need in our school’s library.

Clearview hosts our district’s Spanish immersion program for students in K-5.  In addition, our school has traditional classrooms where neighborhood children attend for instruction in English. 

As a result, our school library has to essentially be “two libraries in one”.  With tighter funding through the years, it has been a challenge to keep both collections updated and growing in current reading material.  

In many ways, most of our collection growth came about by hosting Scholastic Book Fairs and using the proceeds to purchase books.  While we are very thankful for this opportunity, the book selections are limited, especially in getting Spanish literature that is genuine and not just a translation of English titles.

So, when awarded your grant, we focused on buying books that would help grow our Spanish collection.  Our school is comprised of 17 classrooms and 12 of these are Spanish immersion, so our need was to add many more book choices and copies to the Spanish side of our library.

Working with a book company that has special pricing for districts with higher poverty levels, we were able to order 140 books with the grant award covering almost all of the cost!  I think this is a huge return on your money, as it averages to be less than $4 per book!  Who would ever expect to get that many books for $565?  

Now what will those books do?  They will delight our students who each check out from 1-2 Spanish books per week!  Having new literature to choose from is such a treat!

I sincerely thank you for this opportunity to expand our book collection at Clearview!  Please know that your organization and its mission are much appreciated!

Books, Resources, School Media Specialist

Kari Green Extended Mini Grant Report

1 Comment

This is a guest post from Kari Green, Media Specialist at Monticello Middle and High Schools.

The Monticello High School library has been sorely neglected for years after the library media specialist position was eliminated. Even though it is a newly remodeled space, the full-time paraprofessional has no library training and is employed under the IT department; checking out books is a courtesy rather than a job requirement. My (nearly) full-time library media specialist position at Monticello Middle School has slowly evolved to meet different needs. Because of this, I am teaching fewer media classes and have more availability to act as a “consultant” to the high school for a couple of hours per week. 

When I began to look at the foundational pieces of the library, I discovered that the library catalog had been completely deleted after the last inventory. There were 1,700 missing books, and utter disarray of policies and procedures.

Once I got a handle on the foundational tasks, I began looking at collection development needs. You can imagine what I found! Huge swaths of essential reading were either lost, missing, or never purchased. 

I turned to my Follett representative and asked for a list of “core” high school purchases – the type of purchases districts make when building a library from scratch. The list that was sent contained $169,000 worth of titles that are not available in the high school library. Wowza!

From this list, I selected the 51 most popular titles. These ranged from essential classics such as To Kill a Mockingbird and the Outsiders to newer titles such as Seraphina and Before the Ever After. My goal was to create a solid foundation to (hopefully) built upon in future years. 

Since the yearly budget is $1,500, the grant from Central Minnesota Library Exchange is a significant boost. With the help of the grant, the collection is moving in the right direction. Monticello Schools is grateful for the support! Thank you!

Check it Out:

Olympics: Day Nine

sea water forming seafoams
Photo by Jess Vide on Pexels.com

The Olympics continue! And with this huge, international gathering of incredibly talented people comes the opportunity for libraries to connect books and other cool information sources to your community members.

Whether or not you are watching the Olympics, or care about sports, or even know about all the different sports in the Olympics – there are people in your community who care a lot. Especially when you are dealing with reluctant readers of any age, or people who may not connect their interests with books, this is a great opportunity to show how relevant your collection is to the community!

So, what is happening today?

  • badminton
  • baseball
  • basketball
  • beach volleyball
  • boxing
  • cycling
  • diving
  • equestrian
  • fencing
  • field hockey
  • golf
  • gymnastics
  • handball
  • sailing
  • shooting
  • swimming
  • table tennis
  • tennis
  • track and field
  • volleyball
  • water polo
  • weight lifting
  • wrestling

Of course, these sports do not just exist during the Olympics – you can set up programming and displays any time to help connect people to some books, and other resources, they may not know exists or may not think to ask for in your library. We get you started off with a few book ideas, fiction and nonfiction:

CMLE, Guest Blogger

Ellie Radaj Extended Mini Grant Report

This is a guest post from Ellie Radaj, Library Media Specialist at Pinewood Elementary in Monticello, MN. Read more about our Extended Mini Grant Program or fill out one of our applications. This program is only available during the FY21 school year.

Pinewood Elementary says a big THANK YOU! to the CMLE for their Mini-Grant program.

When schools shut down in March of 2020, our library, like everyone else, was a bit unprepared.  Our large elementary school was caught with almost 2,000 library books checked out to students and staff. 

Over the course of the spring and fall, our library staff took concerted efforts to regain as many books as possible, but we knew for certain that we did not want students or their families to be burdened by paying for lost books during such a time of chaos and uncertainty.  Instead, in October we wrote off the remaining 80 unreturned books as a loss.  

Unfortunately, nearly half of those unreturned books were from our most popular topics and series – Minecraft, Pokemon, Marvel, Wimpy Kid, Dog Man, Raina Telegemeier – and while they were a small portion of our total collection, the loss hit hard, and the students noticed many of their favorite books missing.  

This spring, we reached out to CMLE to inquire about the Mini-Grant, and received funding to replace many of these popular books!  We were able to purchase over 60 brand new books for our collection from Barnes and Noble using their educator discount, and the students noticed as soon as they started to hit the shelves! 

As we processed the books a few at a time, the excitement was palpable. These are the books that make our students love the library, that spark their attention and pull them into reading.  We love being able to provide students with books that fuel their passions and open the door for life-long readers.

Our students say a huge THANK YOU!