Tag Archives: Libraries

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

From the Director

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This fiscal year concludes on June 30, 2013, and it has been a whirlwind of change and transitions in Central MN Libraries Exchange (CMLE)!  It’s good to look back over the year, while also looking forward to next year and exciting new possibilities! I’ve included a few highlights as a warm up to writing year-end reports soon:

  • Beginning last July, CMLE vowed to Refocus, Retool, and Evolve at the conclusion of its strategic planning process. The Governing Board helped us make some hard decisions. The most significant one was the sunsetting of our physical interlibrary loan service after a 10 year downward spiral in usage. Costs for providing the service have not decreased, so the cost/benefit analysis spoke loudly to all involved. We continue to assist users of that service in finding alternate ways to order interlibrary loans.
  • The Board got even more excited about the results of an opportunity analysis for CMLE, some of which you experienced this year.
  • Beginning in September, we replaced our quarterly newsletter and began to use our  weekly communication streams including our Weekly Review email messages, our blog posts, Facebook and Twitter. The first month we made this change, we went from 62 hits on our blog to 584! News on the street was that our users loved this change and we loved the new freedom and immediacy that a blogging platform provided to us. By January, we more than doubled our September blog hits at 1,506!
  • We offered two popular e-book events in the fall; one for academics, one for K-12 media personnel. We also continued our Bridging Information Literacy Across Libraries initiative work, including a college student survey to 400 students, and beginning development of a video.
  • Kate Bessey left CMLE in January to return to her librarian role at Rasmussen College.
  • Michelle Kiley began as our invaluable new Information Specialist upon Kate’s departure.
  • I took a six week medical leave of absence to replace a very worn out hip in mid-February. Ouch, but much better now!
  • Upon my return we initiated seven Quick Question Polls (QQP’s) on various topics to gather data to help us refocus our programming in FY14.
  • In early June, I will return to the orthopedic workshop for a new knee. I know, it’s been a tough year!  Michelle proved her ability to hold down the fort during my first leave, and will valiantly do the same this summer.

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 year-end reports, discount agreements, internal system updates, program planning, and  our commitments to library conference planning too. So, it might seem a  bit sad, but our Weekly Review and associated blog posts will be on a short hiatus during the summer months, but we will be back in the Fall! We will continue to wrap our arms around the glut of library news and opportunity, distill it down to an easy to digest format, and write it up again for you starting in September. We remain committed to offering tips, shortcuts and application ideas too. According to one of our QQP’s, many of you will be gearing down a bit in your professional  summer reading too, so we hope this little blip in service gives everyone a refreshing “breather”. Watch your email in the event that something significant happens this summer that we feel a need to share immediately. Otherwise, enjoy quiet moments of summer serenity curled up with a good book under a big shady tree. Summer is a great time to renew and refresh. See you online in the Fall!

Didn’t have time to read any of our blog posts this year? Go to http://cmleinfofeed.wordpress.com/ and meander through this year’s posts!

 
CMLE Director, Patricia Post
CMLE Director, Patricia Post
 
  Patricia Post, Director
  Central MN Libraries Exchange (CMLE)
  A Minnesota Multitype Library System
  St. Cloud State University, Miller Center 130-D
  720 4th Ave. So.
  St. Cloud, MN  56301-4498
 
  Phone: 320-308-4779  Fax: 320-308-5131
  E-mail: papost@stcloudstate.edu 
Academic, Check this out:, General, Public, School Media Specialist, Special

The Beloved Book Deconstructed

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Tired, Dusty and Tattered! Photo by Roger Salz and retrieved from Flickr. Used under Creative Commons license.
Tired, Dusty and Tattered! Photo by Roger Salz and retrieved from Flickr. Used under Creative Commons license.

My mother worked in a library for more 36 years before retiring and then re-entering the workforce to work in yet another library. And, throughout the last ten years, each member of my immediate family, including myself, has worked in a library. So to me the sight and smell of books brings back a host of familial memories. But I never really understood what created the unique scents of a book/book collection. I always suspected it was a concoction consisting of one part ink to two parts paper-lovingly combined with a pinch of dust.  Did you know AbeBooks, a subsidiary of Amazon.com Inc., created a short video answering this very question. Click here to listen to their explanation.

In addition, if you are a hardback collector or book enthusiast, here is list of other quick videos you might finding interesting:

  • How to identify a first edition book (link)
  • Book collecting Guide (link) -10 videos

Tip: If you participate in student/class orientations for a library, consider using the video about The Parts of a Book to supplement your presentation.

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

Recommended EdTech Tool: Ngram Viewer

Image retrieved from Google some rights reserved
Image retrieved from Google Images       some rights reserved

A CMLE member librarian, representing our special library types, suggested an educational technology tool called Ngram Viewer, a subsidiary of Google Research.  It illustrates (often in table or graph format) how a word or phase has been used over time including its root, compositions, use in parts of speech and so on.

In May, David Brooks, a political and cultural commentator, wrote an article in the New York Times Opinion Section on how this tool can be used to identify social and cultural paradigm shifts. Click here to read the full article, What Our Words Tell Us.

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

Recommended EdTech Tool: Capture U.S. History

Image by BigTallGuy some rights reserved
Image by BigTallGuy some rights reserved

This week CMLE highlights a  free EdTech Tool to use in your library that encapsulates the United States (U.S.) in pictures (image gallery).  The Measuring America—People, Places and Our Economy site was created from the U.S. Census Bureau’s collection of historic photographs of enumerators, advertising, household scenes, buildings and technology. The images are searchable by decade from 1790 to 2010. Click Here to access the free historic images.

Note,  the tab titled Through the Decades: Fast Facts provides a “popular culture context” that paints a statistical and cultural portrait of the U.S..  This online timeline highlights the innovations, events and icons through the decades. Click here to access fast facts.

Tip: This EdTech Tool could be a wonderful resource for you to assist teacher(s) in your building or school that assign an annual decades or U.S. history project. 

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

BBQ Books for Summer 2013!

Image by by Lbrymuer some rights reserved
Image by Lbrymuer some rights reserved

Celebrate National Barbecue Month this May!

In honor of summer, CMLE is serving-up an article by Publisher Weekly. Here is a list of must have, Standout Barbecue Books of Summer 2013 for your next cookout.  Click here to read the full article. Learn about the tools of the trade, flavorful sauces, grilling tips from the pros and more.

Tip: Create an impromptu display in your library focusing on your summer cooking/grilling book collection. Don’t forget props like spatulas, gingham fabric or even plastic food from a child’s play-set you might already have in your play box.