Tag Archives: Patricia Post

Academic, General, Public, School Media Specialist, Special

From the Director: My last official CMLE blog post!

In case you haven’t heard, August 31 is my last day with CMLE. If a new Executive Director is hired by August 15th, I will work with them for two weeks to help get them grounded in the culture of our region, and the current work of CMLE. I tend to always look forward, so the person following me need not worry that I am looking over their shoulder. The very cool thing about my job (and CMLE), is that any number of things can and should change, and services can be done differently, or benefit from a new perspective. After all, libraries are in a world of change!

IMG_0553As I review my working career, it is eclectic and  colorful, and I expect retirement will be no different.   In scanning my bucket list recently, I realized that I’ve always wanted to be a children’s librarian, but never was, so recently I created a Children’s Little Free Library at my Alex lake place. I now wear the proud title of the Cottage Grove Resort Children’s Librarian, which satisfies my bucket list!

My 14 years at CMLE is the longest I have ever stayed in a job!  Recently, I did a blog post about taking stock, which seemed like a good idea at this point.
What has been hardest? Funding is number one. The multitypes were created through MN Statute, and there are no provisions for multitype funding increases (even though expenses increase), so funding can stagnate for 15 years. And to get an increase, we need to troop down to the State Capitol and make the case, which is just plain hard and often uncomfortable. Part of the job though.
What has brought me joy? The programming has been the fun part. I am proud to say that I have stayed energized and active right up until the end, which has always been a goal of mine. I know our readers like brief, so here are the items that “hit a 10” on my Joy Meter while the CMLE Executive Director!
  • Favorite! In 2003, I secured 22,000 new, free books from Scholastic Library Publishing for CMLE member libraries, some who had a zero book budget!
  •  In 2008 the MN multitypes launched 23 Things on a Stick, a  self-paced, online learning program. Other iterations of the program followed, but coaching our members through the program was sheer fun and a great relationship builder as we learned together.
  • By investing time in collaborative work with NLLN and Region 1, in  2008, CMLE was able to invite schools to join the North Star Library Consortium.  This important development leveled the playing field for all school media centers in our region, a sweet moment!
  • In 2012, CMLE ended its 30+ year newsletter and began its online publishing and social media work. Needless to say, this decision was an instant success for readers and CMLE staff! The energy involved in reviewing hundreds of news items, then producing 10-15 pieces each week is very satisfying.
  • My work in recent years with hosting social events at the MLA and ITEM Conferences. The first year I took the somber ITEM dinner event and re-created it into a Mexican Cantina, with a festive, fast-paced night of taco bar, and crazy, fun trivia, was a golden moment indeed!
  • Each spring, I hear from people feeling inadequate or unsure of their leadership skills. In 2016, we offered the Supervisor Nuts & Bolts Workshop; a smashing success in helping attendees to be better leaders! Exciting to see the light-bulb moments and renewed energy…
  • And, finally, some CMLE events are focused on enjoyment and networking. Guest authors to our events starting in 2002 have included: Pete Hautman, Faith Sullivan, John Coy, Doug Ohman, Nathan Jorgenson, Will Weaver, Annette Atkins, Julie Kramer, Catherine Friend, Buffy Hamilton, Jonathan Friesen, Paddy O’Brien and Erin Hart, Jess Lourey (I know I have forgotten a few). Food, books, authors and prizes always produce joy in most librarians!

But enough of me….I want to personally thank you for your support and friendship over the years. It has been a privilege to serve you. Best wishes for an amazing future. Keep doing what you do best, know what brings you joy, and find ways to do more of that!

Thanks to social media, I will continue to see many of you online, and of course at library events too! I will always consider you friends. No goodbyes, just later!
Patricia-
This past blog post will get you all caught up with my retirement and the search for a new Executive Director too!
Academic, General, Public, School Media Specialist, Special

From the Director: I am retiring!

PPphotoWell, no beating around the bush, the time has come for me to retire as Executive Director of CMLE. I am acutely aware that the moment I publish this, there is no turning back! An odd feeling.

This whole process of retiring is very strange ….intense excitement one moment about future plans, dread about all that needs to happen before my last day, and even tears (I am not a crier) when people start sending me mushy messages. Quite honestly, it reminds me to take critical moments to tell others how much they mean to me. It can really shore someone up when they feel spent and all used up. Tell them why you value them in your life.

You have nothing to fear as I leave; you are in good hands. The CMLE Search Committee is excellent, I am an ex-officio member of it, and we will post my position on 16 job boards during the first week in May. You are my peeps, I have worked hard to build CMLE, and I will do my best to ensure that CMLE services stay in place.

Many of you have meant the world to me over the years.  If we can take a moment to be honest, we’ve been through lots of hard times together, and a few good times too. Funding and politics are the hard pieces, no doubt. We have struggled together with that.

I will leave a clean camp; great infrastructure, a fantastic Governing Board, and a healthy work environment,  which will hopefully provide an easy start for my successor. Want to help CMLE find a new Director? See the link at the end of this post and point people to our jobs website, created for just this purpose! I love WordPress…

So, if you know me at all, you know I am a list person! So, without further fanfare and very little mush:

My Top Ten Reasons to Retire at the End of August, 2016

10.  First, in my defense, I have been in this job for 14 years, enough of my ideas already!

9.    I will be turning 63 in June, so I am entitled, right?

8.    I have three elderly parents and at times, I am the parent which is just so very odd and draining.

7.     Seven wee grandchildren (ages 3 months to 9 yrs) who would really value time with their Memaw. I have current requests from them to teach bread baking, help them sew dream pillows, work with Makey Makey kits, teach them lettering, and of course, read more stories.

6.     My husband of 43 years has already been retired for five years, and is more than ready to spend some fun time with me, free of pressing workloads and deadlines.

5.      I have taken stock of my reading list, and truth be told, I will need at least 20 years to buck through my current backlog! And there will be more, time to get crackin…

4.      A brassy little banty chicken named Chocolate, appears to get physically abusive within her flock, and my granddaughter Livi thinks I may be able to turn this bad behavior around. I have found a chicken stroller which may suit Chocolate and provide some much-needed timeout, but consistency will be key 11709453_10104420818481207_2406412224484831875_nwith this fowl misbehavior. I am on it!

3.      My life is too complicated, I am too plugged in, and I have way too much stuff. We will be doing an online auction to get rid of most of it. Then, into a much smaller house on the homestead of my daughter, her husband and their three little girls in the Princeton area. Yes, Chocolate lives there too.

2.      All of my bionic parts (two hips and a knee) hate the cold. No more Minnesota winters for this gal!

And finally, the top reason to retire is a need for diversity. The CMLE Director has had the first name of Patricia now for 31 years (Patricia Peterson before me). It may be time to see if someone with a different name wants to take the helm, right?!

Thanks for being my colleagues, for your kind words of praise and encouragement, which often helped me gauge if we were heading in the right direction. And, when I was dashing down to the State Capitol to testify on your behalf, to be your voice, you provided great fodder for my testimony too. It’s been great, but it is time to help tend a flock of chickens, keep some bees, bake some bread, plant wildflowers, and read only the very best books! Speaking of…I need to add the newly published Selected Letters of Laura Ingalls Wilder to my reading list, which just came out in March! See, it just keeps growing….

People interested in the CMLE Executive Director position should visit www.cmlejobs.com

Academic, General, Public, School Media Specialist, Special

From the Director: My Tribute to Librarians

My new phone case in honor of National Library Week!
My new iPhone case in honor of past and present library systems!

I couldn’t let National Library Week end without taking a moment to reflect on what libraries mean to me. As a child, our little town did not have a public library (still doesn’t), and there was no school library, so the bookmobile came to main street every two weeks. I always checked out the maximum number of books, and even though I tried to ration, I was always done at least a week before the bookmobile lumbered back into town. Finally, the bookmobile librarian put me out of my misery and quietly lifted the limit for me and we were both happier. She was my hero. During junior high, I discovered the school media center, and spent every moment there that I could. The librarian liked me and was nice to me. In high school, I almost got expelled for cutting classes until the school librarian vouched for the fact that I was in the media center reading during my missed class! I guess the principal simply didn’t have the heart to expel me for my innocent love affair with books. When my three children were small, I opened a daycare center. Every day we had story time. The first time I saw a child lock onto the book I was reading with fierce attentiveness, I was hooked. That pure channel between the child’s brain and the story was exactly where I wanted to be! Until that electric moment, I wasn’t sure of what I wanted to be when I grew up. Shortly after this in 1993 or so, I logged onto the Internet (no easy feat at that time), surfed on over to a special collection of aboriginal art in Australia (a bucket list destination), and felt the intoxicating power of remote digital collections too. So, when I started college at age 35, I knew very clearly that I was on a path to be a librarian, and have never looked back. Graduate school in Chicago gave me ample opportunity to visit and use some of the finest research libraries in the world. The deal was sealed; I was completely smitten.

I honor and commend all types of librarians during National Library Week. You make important contributions to people’s lives, some who have little, others who are more fortunate. You help build an informed citizenry, but I am preaching to the choir here! Well done library friends; you rock!

Patricia Post
CMLE Executive Director

Image credit: Photo by Patricia Post