Tag Archives: Macalester college

Conference

Recap of the 2019 LibTech Conference!

We were lucky enough to be able to present again at the LibTech Conference at Macalester College this year! We gave a joint presentation with Sarah and Zach from Minitex. CMLE talked about how we were able to teach ourselves podcasting and the Minitex staff talked about their experience teaching themselves how to make videos.

We also attended several great sessions throughout the day. Mary learned about creating Moodle classes and I got to hear about one academic library’s experience with their VR equipment. This conference is so informative and filled with friendly library people from all over the country.

Chatting about books, making new friends!

While we were at the conference, we were able to record some episodes of our Book Bites mini podcast with conference attendees! We did have to overcome a few small equipment challenges, but podcasting onsite is always such a great learning experience, and it was worth it because we were able to meet a bunch of interesting library people!

You may remember last year at the LibTech conference, the library on campus was unveiling their recently renovated makerspace. I was so excited to go back and check it out to see how it had changed! There were so many fun things to try out and look at, I ended up staying for quite awhile!

  • Such an inviting space!
  • So many available tools!
  • Chill out with the help of VR!
  • New projects in the Idea Lab this year!

We definitely recommend this conference to anyone working in a library and dealing with technology. Thanks to our co-presenters for an awesome experience!

Visits

Visit to Macalester College’s Library

CMLE was so happy to present at the 2018 LibTech Conference in March! (We got to talk about our adventures in podcasting!) This conference takes place at Macalester College and of course, we were so excited to check out their library!

As we entered the library, the staff there were so friendly and welcoming and acknowledged that they had been dealing with excited librarians all day. We began to look around and right away noticed some excellent features designed to meet the needs of this academic library’s community.

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Also located on the first floor were several spaces that could be adjusted to meet the needs of students or faculty:

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Of course, we were extra excited to see their newly renovated second floor space! We had heard the library had incorporated some Maker space ideas along with adding collaborative learning spaces and even a meditation chair! And we were not disappointed:

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We appreciated the staff member that spoke to us about all the work that went into renovating the floor. Hearing about all the collections that needed to be relocated, the collaborations with different departments, and even how the ceiling needed to be redone, we were even more impressed with everything!

Once we were able to tear ourselves away from the Idea Lab (it wasn’t easy) we got to admire the rest of the floor.

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And finally, we got to see the meditation chair! Of course the schedule was packed and we didn’t get to experience the chair itself, but the person currently meditating looked extremely cozy and at peace! Meditation has so many health benefits and it’s fantastic to see the library providing these opportunities for self-care.

 

Well, we clearly enjoyed our visit to the DeWitt Wallace Library at Macalester College. This library is reaching out to their students and community in a variety of awesome ways and showing that libraries contain SO MUCH MORE than “just” books!

Have we been to visit your library yet? We would love to come see all the great ways you are connecting with your community! Email us at admin@cmle.org and we’ll setup a time that works for you! 🙂