Tag Archives: Linking our Libraries

CMLE, Communication

Episode 207 Strategic Planning

Wikimedia Strategic planning 09

This week we are talking about Strategic Planning.

Did everyone panic a little bit there? No need!

Strategic Planning is one of those things that sounds scary and hard and like it will take you a huge amount of time. But really, it’s just thinking about the future and what you want to do in your library. Generally strategic plans will be about three to five years. After that point, it becomes tougher to know what is going to be happening in your library and in the world around you. The idea is that it is a long term plan. Shorter time periods are tactical plans, or project plans.

(We are working on a new Strategic Plan here at CMLE; so if you are in our geographic region expect that we will be asking you for your ideas as we create and modify plans to help serve our community!)

Today we are going to do a quick overview of the steps involved in Strategic Planning. Your planning process may be more complex, or may be more compressed – you should work on it the way that makes sense for your library and for your community. There are a lot of different ways to create a good plan; but these steps will get you there!

Contents on our full information page:
  • Introduction
  • Background
  • Guest Host Kathy Parker
  • Books We are Reading
  • Conclusion
  • Sample Plans
  • 30 Sample Vision Statements
  • 50 Sample Mission Statements

 

Want to listen to an episode?

  • You can download an app, subscribe to “Linking Our Libraries” and all episodes will appear on your phone – it’s so easy!
    • Apps we like include Pocket Casts, iTunes, and Stitcher.
    • Download any of these, search for “Linking Our Libraries” and hit Subscribe.
    • If it is not readily available, just enter this RSS feed: http://libraries.blubrry.com/feed/podcast/.
  • Or, you can stream an episode right now on your computer by going to our streaming page, by clicking here.

Whatever tool you use, we hope you enjoy it! Thanks for listening, and sharing ideas on libraries!

Want to talk with us about this topic? Do you, your staff, or your organization need training in this topic? Want to write a policy, or develop a program? We are here for you!
Click here to get started!
Communication, Tech, Training

CMLE Resources: Get Started Podcasting

We hope that you have been enjoying CMLE’s podcasts: Linking Our Libraries and Reading With Libraries! We have so much fun sharing library training information and exploring different book genres with you. We’ve also learned (and continue to learn!) a ton about the process of putting together a podcast.

So we thought we should share some of that knowledge with you! There are several great library podcasts out there in addition to ours; check out this post that lists a few of them. But what if you want to start your own? We’ve compiled a list with photos and affiliate links to Amazon (if you make any purchases through these, a small portion is donated to CMLE!) to help show you the supplies we use for our podcast. When we were first starting, we wished for a list like this to help take some of the guesswork out of it!

(Note: there are definitely alternative ways to podcast, and your taste or need for equipment may be different than ours. We are not experts but felt the need to share what we have learned!)

  • Download your software. We use Audacity (it’s free!) for recording and editing and winLAME for converting the audio files into mP3 format.
  • You will need a host for your audio files, and we use LibSyn which works nicely with our WordPress website. LibSyn also allows you to embed audio players into your website and social media platforms. 

Decide on your mic, and make sure you purchase any accessories needed! We use a Samson C01 Condenser Microphone and are pleased with how it works. You will also need to order an XLR cable to connect your mic to the phantom power source. Our mixer contains phantom power. Also pictured is our Samson SP01 Condenser Microphone Shockmount.

Below is the way we situate our mics. We updated the mic stands we use and purchased these desktop adjustable models. They are more portable and easier to see over than our old stands. Another component of this picture is the pop filter. We use DragonPad Pop Filters.

Finally, this is the mixer that we use. You may not need one with this many capabilities, but since we want to be able to record from four mics at once, we needed a mixer with space to plug in four mics. Keep in mind that you’ll need a USB cord to connect the mixer to your computer! The mixer we use is the Behringer Xenyx 1204 USB and it contains phantom power which we need to power the mics. We definitely do not know even half of this mixer’s full capabilities but hope to continue learning more!

Please let us know if you have any questions about this process and we will answer them to the best of our ability! We are not podcasting experts but enjoy continuing to learn all the neat capabilities that our equipment can do for us!

And of course, don’t miss our podcasts Linking Our Libraries and Reading With Libraries and our mini podcast, Book Bites!

We love sharing library and book information and connecting with our awesome community. And a GIANT thank you to all our members who have been Guest Hosts on the show! 🙂

Podcast

Linking Our Libraries Episode 204: Library Friends and Volunteers

This week we are talking about people who like libraries allllmooost as much as we do! Does your library have a Friends group? A PTA? A volunteer group? Something else? Any of these can be just great for you, and can really help to make your library life easier.

There are subtle shades of differences in these groups. Generally, a PTA group is focused on helping the school as a whole, but can be working on the library as an occasional or regular part of the work they already do. Volunteers are nice people who come do tasks for us, so library staff can be utilized in helping patrons more directly, or in carrying out tasks that only staff can do. Friends are usually an organized group working in conjunction with the library – ideally not being told what to do, or setting too many Byzantine rules on the library either. In all these relationships, patience and proceeding from a starting place of good intentions given and assumed will help make them work out!

It is so nice to have people around who want to help, so as library people we should make sure we use them effectively so they have a good experience. You can find all kinds of information about developing a Friends group in your library, no matter how big or small you are; and you can find some good training information to be sure your Friends feel confident in their roles.

Contents on our full information page:

  • Intro
  • Background
  • Friends
  • Volunteers
  • Guest Host
  • Books We are Reading
  • Conclusion
  • Additional Resources
Want to listen to an episode?
  • You can download an app, subscribe to “Linking Our Libraries” and all episodes will appear on your phone – it’s so easy!
    • Apps we like include Pocket Casts, iTunes, and Stitcher.
    • Download any of these, search for “Linking Our Libraries” and hit Subscribe.
    • If it is not readily available, just enter this RSS feed: http://libraries.blubrry.com/feed/podcast/.
  • Or, you can stream an episode right now on your computer by going to our streaming page, by clicking here.

Whatever tool you use, we hope you enjoy it! Thanks for listening, and sharing ideas on libraries!

Want to talk with us about this topic? Do you, your staff, or your organization need training in this topic? Want to write a policy, or develop a program? We are here for you!
Click here to get started!
CMLE, Communication

Linking Our Libraries Podcast: Episode 202 Instructional Design

Welcome to the second episode of Season Two of CMLE’s podcast: Linking Our Libraries!

This week our topic is Instructional Design.

A big part of the work you do in any library is to provide instruction in all kinds of things to our patrons. It shows us that no matter how broad and wonderfully diverse our profession is (we are! It’s what makes us special!), most of what we do is really similar.

No matter what kind of library, or archive, or museum, or history center you might work in – our fundamental mission is to serve our community. And one of the main ways we serve people is to instruct them in all kinds of stuff. The specifics of what the content of instruction will be in your library will depend on your materials and your community needs. But the basics of instruction are the same across all of us!

Listen to this week’s episode here, or check out our page where we have all of the resources we discuss during the episode.

Happy listening! 🙂

CMLE, Communication

CMLE Resources: Linking Our Libraries Podcast

As we all prepare for a new semester to get started, and are wrapping up our Summer Fun Library Tour series, it’s good to get back in touch with library resources. And at CMLE, we are filled with all kinds of great things for you!

Each week, we will draw your attention to one of the many resources available to you from CMLE Headquarters. Our mission is to help build connections between members, across all types of libraries. We exist to share information across libraries (and archives, and museums, and history centers) – and we are always looking for more ways to make that happen! Check out our Subscribe To Us! page, for information on subscribing to all our stuff.

We will keep changing and providing new types of information and new formats, to meet the needs of our members. If you have a topic you want to learn more about – tell us! If you have a format you like to use to get information – let us know! Our entire purpose is to connect our 300+ members to each other, and to provide all kinds of professional information to make your jobs better.

One of our strategies for sharing information is to podcast it! Linking Our Libraries is our podcast, created at CMLE HQ. Each Thursday we talk about a different topic that may be helpful to our members – and to anyone across the Library and Information Science profession. (We like you all!) We talk for about 20 minutes, sharing professional information, maybe talking about some libraries, maybe chatting with a Guest Host.

We also have a short segment where we share books we are reading. We have heard from many of you that this is a favorite part; so stay tuned for an upcoming book-themed podcast! (Oh – maybe there should have been a spoiler alert tag before that? Well: Spoiler! New podcast is coming up this fall!)

The whole thing is deliberately cheerful in tone ( we laugh a lot!); and we keep each topic at a pretty introductory level. Libraries are fun places! So if you know nothing about the topic of the week – this is for you! If you need a refresher – this is for you! If you like to hear about the neat things happening across the profession – this is for you! Do you just want to support libraries? Again: this is for you!

Each episode also has a podcast page with our notes from the episode, links to everything we discussed, and often links to other material on our topic. If a topic is useful to you, we want to be sure you have access to the information in any format that works for you!

The all-important part of podcasting:
How do you actually listen to it??

Want to listen to an episode? We make it easy for you!

  • You can download an app, subscribe to “Linking Our Libraries” and all episodes will appear on your phone/tablet – it’s so easy!
    • Apps we like include Pocket Casts, iTunes, and Stitcher. 
    • Download any of these, search for “Linking Our Libraries” and hit Subscribe.
    • If it is not readily available, just enter this RSS feed: http://libraries.blubrry.com/feed/podcast/.
  • Or, you can stream an episode right now on your computer by going to our streaming page, by clicking here.

Whatever tool you use, we hope you enjoy it! Thanks for listening, and sharing ideas on libraries!

Do you want to talk with us about a topic? Could you use a helping hand in your library? We want to help! Tell us about it here, and let’s get started.