Tag Archives: Librarian

Academic, General, Public, School Media Specialist, Special

Podcast recap of ALA Conference

In case you weren’t able to attend ALA’s 2016 Annual Conference and Exhibition in Orlando, Florida that took place in June, take a listen to this podcast!

Host Phil Morehart presents Episode Four of ALA’s Dewey Decibal podcast series that hopes to bring the convention to you. The podcast features interviews with a variety of staffers and speakers, including Peter Coyl and Michael Eric Dyson. Hosts also interview some of the 16,000 librarians and library professionals right from the conference floor, where they speak about their experience and the role they play in the world of libraries. Hearing the background noise and excitement in the voices of the attendees help to transport you to the energy of the conference.

Don’t miss Episode Five of the Dewey Decibal series, now available, with a focus on library architecture and design.

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!

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

Retirements or Staffing Changes?

Spring LambThis is the time of year we ask for your help in identifying retirements or staffing changes that will happen at the end of this academic year. Unfortunately, if we are not made aware of these changes, we often  have no way of telling that we need to make contact with  new recruits in the Fall. Sometimes locations simply fall off of our radar as a result of these communication breakdowns.  Needless to say, we also want to  give recognition to  proud retirees too! They have worked hard and deserve some recognition before the end of the year. Thanks in advance for any information you can provide about changes in your setting or in other settings. Once you give us the tip, we are happy to track down the details! Send email to admin@cmle.org.

P.S. We would be happy to shine the light on other staff accomplishments too, so don’t be shy about sharing those too. Did someone get promoted or receive a special award?  Use the same email address, use subject line Staff Accomplishments. We will compile and share through our communication streams soon.

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Academic, General, Public, School Media Specialist, Special

What is a librarian?

I have a plan. (187/365)Warning: this post is more than two sentences long…

Librarians are at the most critical time in history to define themselves. Yet there appears to be an ongoing  struggle to find clarity/passion  around  core functions or even a desire to get real about “owning” the fantastic set of skills that librarians possess!

Library users just want help, on their terms. They are not necessarily interested in all of the cool ways that librarians manipulate the world of information, even though we very much want them to care! They just want great service for all of their needs; and one stop works best in their busy lives! But, how well does this work when librarians hold on to traditional models of what an academic, public, and school librarian do for the user? Is it possible that librarians are willing to serve the user as long as the user need fits nicely within the realm they reside in?

In our search for staying relevant and moving towards the library of the future, the library workplace  is becoming much more demanding, requiring broader skill sets. This change in expectations often causes discomfort and some even question whether an MLS is what is needed in the field!

I recently read a great blog post called What is a Librarian? on the LITA blog which examines this topic, and it is worth a read. My favorite quote from the piece is this…. “If you care about information and want to do good with it, that’s enough for me. Others are free to put more rigorous constraints on the profession if they want, but in order for libraries to survive I think we should be more focused on letting people in than on keeping people out.” Amen!  Oh wait, there is more…

In a related  post titled MLS Required, Barbara Fister writes….”… when undergraduates ask about library school I try to be realistic – jobs aren’t plentiful, the pay isn’t great, some organizations are pretty toxic. Getting a foot in the door is really hard. You will have relatives who will repeatedly use the phrase “buggy whips” and laugh. But if you do apply to library school, don’t do it because libraries feel like safe places. Get good advising, try things that you feel ill-prepared to do, challenge yourself. Because those challenges will keep coming and you might as well get the hang of it.”

Patricia-

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Academic, General, Public, School Media Specialist, Special

Getting book recommendations: Librarians vs. Algorithms

< - InformationWhat book should I read next?

This is a question that many of us ask ourselves everyday. In the end, who do you turn to for an answer to that question? A Librarian? Or the computer algorithms of Amazon or Goodreads? This debate is the crux of the discussion in a recent article by Jessica Leber. In it she talks about Library book recommendation services that are springing up across the country. “[L]ibraians believe that human tastes and discretion are still relevant, even as automated algorithms are influencing an increasing portion of the media we consume…” Leber puts a book recommendation service, offered at the Brooklyn Public Library, to the test against Goodreads. In the end she suggests that the debate “… may be less about the method and more about the motive. One is commercial, the other is not.”

Where is your next book recommendation coming from?

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