Tag Archives: From the Director

Academic, General, Public, School Media Specialist, Special

From the Director: My last official CMLE blog post!

In case you haven’t heard, August 31 is my last day with CMLE. If a new Executive Director is hired by August 15th, I will work with them for two weeks to help get them grounded in the culture of our region, and the current work of CMLE. I tend to always look forward, so the person following me need not worry that I am looking over their shoulder. The very cool thing about my job (and CMLE), is that any number of things can and should change, and services can be done differently, or benefit from a new perspective. After all, libraries are in a world of change!

IMG_0553As I review my working career, it is eclectic and  colorful, and I expect retirement will be no different.   In scanning my bucket list recently, I realized that I’ve always wanted to be a children’s librarian, but never was, so recently I created a Children’s Little Free Library at my Alex lake place. I now wear the proud title of the Cottage Grove Resort Children’s Librarian, which satisfies my bucket list!

My 14 years at CMLE is the longest I have ever stayed in a job!  Recently, I did a blog post about taking stock, which seemed like a good idea at this point.
What has been hardest? Funding is number one. The multitypes were created through MN Statute, and there are no provisions for multitype funding increases (even though expenses increase), so funding can stagnate for 15 years. And to get an increase, we need to troop down to the State Capitol and make the case, which is just plain hard and often uncomfortable. Part of the job though.
What has brought me joy? The programming has been the fun part. I am proud to say that I have stayed energized and active right up until the end, which has always been a goal of mine. I know our readers like brief, so here are the items that “hit a 10” on my Joy Meter while the CMLE Executive Director!
  • Favorite! In 2003, I secured 22,000 new, free books from Scholastic Library Publishing for CMLE member libraries, some who had a zero book budget!
  •  In 2008 the MN multitypes launched 23 Things on a Stick, a  self-paced, online learning program. Other iterations of the program followed, but coaching our members through the program was sheer fun and a great relationship builder as we learned together.
  • By investing time in collaborative work with NLLN and Region 1, in  2008, CMLE was able to invite schools to join the North Star Library Consortium.  This important development leveled the playing field for all school media centers in our region, a sweet moment!
  • In 2012, CMLE ended its 30+ year newsletter and began its online publishing and social media work. Needless to say, this decision was an instant success for readers and CMLE staff! The energy involved in reviewing hundreds of news items, then producing 10-15 pieces each week is very satisfying.
  • My work in recent years with hosting social events at the MLA and ITEM Conferences. The first year I took the somber ITEM dinner event and re-created it into a Mexican Cantina, with a festive, fast-paced night of taco bar, and crazy, fun trivia, was a golden moment indeed!
  • Each spring, I hear from people feeling inadequate or unsure of their leadership skills. In 2016, we offered the Supervisor Nuts & Bolts Workshop; a smashing success in helping attendees to be better leaders! Exciting to see the light-bulb moments and renewed energy…
  • And, finally, some CMLE events are focused on enjoyment and networking. Guest authors to our events starting in 2002 have included: Pete Hautman, Faith Sullivan, John Coy, Doug Ohman, Nathan Jorgenson, Will Weaver, Annette Atkins, Julie Kramer, Catherine Friend, Buffy Hamilton, Jonathan Friesen, Paddy O’Brien and Erin Hart, Jess Lourey (I know I have forgotten a few). Food, books, authors and prizes always produce joy in most librarians!

But enough of me….I want to personally thank you for your support and friendship over the years. It has been a privilege to serve you. Best wishes for an amazing future. Keep doing what you do best, know what brings you joy, and find ways to do more of that!

Thanks to social media, I will continue to see many of you online, and of course at library events too! I will always consider you friends. No goodbyes, just later!
Patricia-
This past blog post will get you all caught up with my retirement and the search for a new Executive Director too!
Academic, General, Public, School Media Specialist, Special

A message of gratitude from the director…

photo-1415912364061-78a25859c0faAfter all of the recent terrorist threats, I think we are all feeling especially close to family and loved ones this Thanksgiving. I am thankful for so much this year, it is hard to list it all, indeed, I need categories!

Library colleagues do indeed get their own category. I appreciate engaged library staff (like you) who continue to use our services and engage in our programming. Whether you are reading and/or commenting on our weekly blog posts, liking our Facebook page, retweeting our Tweets, writing book reviews or other blog posts, suggesting ideas for programming, applying for scholarships, participating in our Quick Question Polls, or attending our events, you are the heart of what we define as resource sharing!

CMLE staff  are thankful for the opportunity to serve your needs, and to work with you to increase the capacity of all types of libraries in Central Minnesota! It is our privilege to work with talented and engaged library staff and we thank you for the opportunity!

Programming Idea: Use a whiteboard in the library with a “What are YOU thankful for?” heading, then sit back, and observe a showplace of thanks big and small!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Patricia-

Patricia Post, CMLE Executive Director

Image credit: https://unsplash.com/ (Good Free Photos), licensed under CC0 1.0
Academic, General, Public, School Media Specialist, Special

Welcome Back!

Patricia Post, CMLE Director
Patricia Post, CMLE Director

This week marks the beginning of our new Weekly Review publication cycle, and by now, most of our K-12 and academic librarians have at least one week under their belts. Public librarians are taking a slight breather now that the summer reading programs have ended! And, it is hard to say what the special librarians are feeling at the moment; probably sadness that summer is ending! Schedules are slightly different for the 320 libraries in the Central MN region, but new energy is definitely in the Fall air! CMLE provides support services to library/school media center personnel. A few facts and reminders….

  • Some posts this week are gathered from news compiled over the summer, case in point, Getting Caught Up With State Library News
  • We continue to seek stories about programming in Central MN libraries and school media centers. Send stories or pictures  to admin@cmle.org
  • Last year,  CMLE used Google Hangouts to do monthly think tank meetings with a representative group of members. Are you interested in helping us assess needs and propose programming in our region? If so, please send email to admin@cmle.org
  • A reminder that upcoming library conferences, webinars and other noteworthy events will be offered through our Library Events Page.
  • Each week we will try to provide some easy, breezy, “good-to-know” posts about the library world or your home library too, but we will also insert some bigger picture posts to stretch you a bit too! No grumbling please….it is good for all of us…
  • Each week, we cull through hundreds of items and choose 7-15 items we feel might be of most interest or most helpful. Did we miss the mark? Let us know at admin@cmle.org
  • Last academic year we posted nearly 500 blog posts. We keep it manageable for you though one email per week with a listing of all of the weeks blog posts! Then, you are in control to pick and choose what meets your needs.
  • CMLE also has a Facebook and Twitter account….check us out. Facebook at Central Minnesota Libraries Exchange and Twitter @CMLEMN. Like us or follow us today!

Onward! Welcome back to a new academic year and lots of interesting activity and information from library land!

Academic, General, Public, School Media Specialist, Special

From the Director: The year in review….

PPphoto
Patricia Post, CMLE Director

CMLE staffers dust themselves off this time of  year and take stock of this fiscal/academic year. Academic and K-12 library staff are doing the same, and we realize many are limping to the finish line on fumes! We also realize our public library staff are just entering their busiest season, and we wish them well in their important work of inspiring kids to love the library and keep up their reading skills!

As we take stock of the high points this year, our weekly publishing hits the top of the list, and this week, we offered a blog post that captured our 10 most popular blog posts.  This was a big year for us around infrastructure, and the reveal of our new website was beyond satisfying. Our site is powered by WordPress, which allows us to easily keep our site fresh and current!  Our favorite event this year hands down was our copyright event with almost 60 of you along with U of M Copyright Librarian Nancy Sims joining us at the Stearns History Museum. The item that made me feel most connected this year was the set of results we received through our needs assessment. Your voice matters very much to us as we develop future programming. Special mention also goes to our first Google Hangout meetings this winter, which had direct positive impact on GRRL’s policy around library cards for students. We hope to enlarge the circle a tiny bit and try this again next fiscal year.

Our summer CMLE to-do list is quite different from our weekly work during the academic year. Summer is an important time for administrative work including the July Library Legislative Forum, our annual audit, year-end reports to MDE, book discount agreements, internal system updates, program planning for next year, and our commitments to the MLA and ITEM Fall conferences too.

So, it might seem a  bit sad, but our Weekly Review and associated blog posts will be on a short hiatus again during the summer months, but we will be back in the Fall! At that time, we will continue to scan the horizon, wrap our arms around the glut of library news and opportunity, filter and distill it down to an easy to digest format, and share it with you again starting in September. We remain committed to offering technology ideas and tips, best practices, cost savings, big picture concepts, library events, and application ideas too.  We hope this little blip in service gives everyone a refreshing “breather”. Watch our website in the event that time sensitive information surfaces that we feel a need to share immediately during the summer months. Enjoy your summer with quiet moments of  serenity curled up with a good book under a big shady tree. Are you taking classes or attending events this summer to sharpen your skill set? Good for you…that is another important way to take care of yourself. Summer is a great time to retool, renew and refresh. See you in the Fall!

Didn’t have time to read all of our blog posts this year? No problem, no guilt. Go to https://cmle.org/ and notice the blog post archives in the right frame of the page. Select the month you missed, and meander through this year’s posts! Many of the posts are timeless, so better late than never….

 Tash reading on the beach
Image credit: http://tinyurl.com/mogarhq, licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
Academic, General, Public, School Media Specialist, Special

From the Director

PPphotoI cannot believe we are once again staring down the end of another academic year!  My social media world reminds me that many of you are pushing through grueling testing in the K-12 schools, enduring exhausting budgeting exercises when there simply isn’t enough money, and yes, some of you are defending your jobs too. Welcome to spring in library land. Oh wait, I forgot pending legislation!

Legislatively, it doesn’t help that although the state has a wonderful budget surplus of $1.8 billion for the first time in years,  funding to K-12 education AND libraries will probably not happen in any meaningful way this year (I don’t equate the current 1% increase for K-12 education meaningful). There are many opinions about why this might be. Last year,  the heavy price tag to the state for all-day kindergarten did us no favors. And, the Governor’s push for statewide Pre-K this year, may have pushed too far, and fueled the legislator’s need to block the Governor on yet another pricey education improvement. Personally, I am not sure we were quite ready for another budget item of this size, and I am not sure the schools were ready for it either. Unfortunately, all education related funding (including libraries and multitype systems) get punished when all of our requests are included in a big old education omnibus bill. When things get adversarial, unfortunately we all lose! And, let’s not forget the students, what price will they pay?

On a positive note, I also see good things this time of year!

  • Summer reading lists and hammock plans are growing,
  • We only see snow showers occasionally each week, and
  • Great summer events like the MidMN EdCamp in St. Cloud are taking on an exciting life of their own. CMLE is a sponsor of this event, and we are hoping to see you there!
  • And, I see that 152 people in Central MN took time out of busy schedules to participate in our 2015 CMLE Needs Assessment. To those people, thank you; we are prepared to suit up and serve the expressed needs of the majority of respondents!

Doing a Needs Assessment is an emotional roller coaster much like a legislative session!  As you can imagine, trying to determine and/or serve the needs of almost 800 people in 320 locations is a tall order, and you can only ask for the information if you are brave enough to face it! We are happy to see that 85% of our audience is receiving our weekly email that acts as a launching pad for important library information. Help us discover who we might be missing. We saw few surprises in your use of social media, but still think Twitter is underutilized as a collaboration tool  with colleagues. Our Tech Bits and Ideas category of information was rated highest which fulfilled our hunch this year when we added it to the Weekly Review lineup. The open ended questions are the hardest….we hear worried, isolated, and exhausted voices in some of those responses. CMLE will continue to listen, support you,  and respond! Thank you for the important work you do in Minnesota libraryland and watch for the next installment of Needs Assessment data next week. Did you miss this weeks results?

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