Tag Archives: Librarian

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

Educational Trends: Why Edcamp?

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EdcampTake control of your learning!

The Edcamp Foundation was formed in December 2011 to assist teachers and other stakeholders in organizing edcamps. The vision of the Edcamp Foundation is to “promote organic, participant-driven professional development for K-12 educators worldwide.”

What is an edcamp?  It is a low-cost/free user-generated conference designed to promote professional development for K-12 educators. Edcamps operate without keynote speakers or vendor booths. Sessions are planned the day of the event, as participants volunteer to be presenters on a topic of their choosing.  This process encourages attendees to join or lead a peer conversation that meets their professional needs and/or interests.  Technology is a common area of interest along with pedagogy and practical examples in instructional use of modern tools. If you would like to learn more about edcamps, Edutopia recently posted an article (April 2013) titled, Why Edcamps? It provides additional information regarding the basic structure outlined in the edcamp model and highlights what makes these events unique to other conferences. Click here to read the full article.

Would you like to participate? Educamp is coming to the Twin Cities on October 12th.  Click here to learn more about this Minnesota event.

If you have participated in one of the more than 250 edcamp events that have occurred over the last 3 years; we would like to hear from you.  Feel free to share your experience with our followers in the comment section below!

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

2013: Where Have the Media Specialists Gone?

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Some rights reserved by Taber Andrew
Some rights reserved by Taber Andrew

This is the third year I have been pulling the Minnesota Department of Education data and studying the slow decline of school library media specialists in our twelve county region. I have no answers for fixing this problem, but sharing the data is my attempt to engage people in helping me think of solutions. If there is inadequate media specialist staffing in high schools, are students going to be prepared with the skills they need to be successful in college? Will middle schoolers be prepared to do high school work, and when students have no library program at school, are they simply going to the public library for assistance? Are the public libraries funded or staffed to absorb this work on a large scale? Everyone is stretched for resources, so we all need to do our part. So, without further ado, here is data for Aitkin, Benton, Chisago, Isanti, Kanabec, Mille Lacs, Morrison, Pine, Sherburne, Stearns, Todd and Wright counties. Please use the comment field in this post as needed.

  • 53 individual schools (28 percent) in Central MN have no licensed media specialist (compared to 48 last year)
  • 25 schools (47 percent) percent of the 53 schools are middle, secondary or high schools
  • 28 elementary schools have no media specialist, yet we are hell bent on demonstrating reading proficiency by 3rd grade!
  • Fourteen of our school districts have no media specialist in any school in the district at all (compared to nine last year)
  • The great news is that 32 percent of our schools have a full time media specialist. Let’s applaud those school administrators for understanding the value of maintaining a professionally staffed media center.

CMLE will use this data in its advocacy work, in targeting its programming, and in working statewide to bring attention to this growing problem. We all need to think about how we can change this trend so that all students have the benefit of a well-maintained, relevant, and properly staffed school media center.

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

Retirements or Staffing Changes?

Some rights reserved by ferasdelaing
Some rights reserved by ferasdelaing

This 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 cmle@stcloudstate.edu and use subject line Staffing Changes.

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.

Academic, Check this out:, General, Public, Special

HSLM Workshop and Annual Meeting 2013

easelpad OfficeDepot
Image provided by Office Depot

Jonathan Koffel, Clinical Information Librarian at the UMN Bio-Medical Library, will be presenting a workshop on Evidence Based Practice: A Refresher for Librarians, Friday, May 31st, 2013.

The goal of the session is to help librarians solidify and expand their own evidence based practice skills. It will cover 1) Why evidence based practice is important, 2) How to interpret core statistical measures and figures and 3) How to critically appraise cohort studies, randomized controlled trials, and systematic reviews. Attendees will have the chance to work in small groups to critically appraise example articles and practice what they have learned.

Registration: This event is co-sponsored by Health Sciences Libraries of Minnesota (HSLM) and Metropolitan State University’s Library and Information Service. Free to members or $25 to join! Click here for more information or including registration.

  •  The HSLM Annual Meeting will be held in the afternoon. Beverages, a light continental breakfast and lunch will be provided.

Location: Metropolitan State University Library & Learning Center Ecolab Room (Library 302), St. Paul Campus, 645 East Seventh Street St. Paul, MN 55106

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

What Not to Say to a Librarian!

Image from the Brassy Librarian
Image from the Brassy Librarian

Recently, I was amused to read a post on A Librarian’s Lists and Letters blog by none other than Brassy Librarian. As I read her post,  I wanted to yell “ So True”! Inevitably, when I tell people I am a librarian, I get weird comments back and I’ll bet you do too! And yes, males still seem to be hopeful that you might be the naughty librarian too! What was just as much  fun as reading the post was reading the comments that followed; almost like a librarian’s support group! Certainly not scholarly in nature, but a good chance to feel the lighthearted support of others in the profession,  and add to the love too!

Read this amusing post at http://www.ittybittyurl.com/TF9.