Tag Archives: software

Check this out:, General, School Media Specialist

CMLE Featured Service: North Star Library Consortium

money and savingsAre you looking for discount pricing on Destiny software and its associated subscriptions? Budgets continue to be tight, and there is a need to find solutions to manage school library collections!

Destiny is a state-of-the-art software solution that supports K-12 students and staff in the classroom, media center, or from home. Its higher-end, school-specific functionality is typically priced outside of the reach of small districts, unless they have access to a consortial buy. The North Star Library Consortium is a statewide opportunity open to any school media centers.  Its “hosted solution pricing”  offers affordability and support to even the smallest school districts!

Why? Consider the following efficiencies…

  • It is not necessary, but we strongly encourage all schools in a district to join the Consortium at the same time. Do you have high schools students reading at a middle school level, or vice versa? Within the Consortium, media specialists within a district can see all parts of the district’s collections, work together to share materials or solve problems, or assist each other with software tweaks too.This elevates the role of the school media center and its staff.
  • Membership in the Consortium also provides access to over 200 other schools on a discussion list using the very same product, solving the same problems. For media specialists/paras who have been working in acute isolation, this can be energizing, and offers a huge layer of support in their daily work.
  • Lacking tech support? By having the software hosted and maintained at Region 1 in Moorhead, MN, media specialists no longer have to rely on assistance from over-burdened tech staff in their district. Region 1 staff backs up Consortium data every two hours and attends to software updates too.

The full Consortium is currently represented by 110 districts, with 240 individual sites.  Over 2.8 million library titles are managed through this system, with an estimated value of $58 million, serving 182,716 patrons. Seventeen CMLE school districts and 42 schools are part of the North Star Library Consortium and include: Sartell, Rocori, East Central, Melrose, Aitkin, Long Prairie/Grey Eagle, Cathedral-John XXIII, North Branch, Kimball, Monticello, Paynesville, Becker, Maple Lake, McGregor, Royalton, Eden Valley-Watkins, and Osakis.

Interest in getting a bid? Go to http://bit.ly/1GuHtyN to see all of the schools in the Consortium and to access the process for requesting a bid for joining. Note: Requesting a bid does not obligate you to join, but it can give you the information to do some possible tweaking on your budget!

This is one possible solution. Have you found other cost-effective solutions for managing your school library collections? Interested in other CMLE services? Additional information can be found on our website.

Image credit: http://tinyurl.com/peod3sf, licensed under CC BY 2.0
Academic, General, Public, School Media Specialist, Special

Version 2.0 needed for early eBook conversions

155HWhen you think about eBooks do you think of a book or software? Software!?!

That’s the idea behind Benjamin Denckla’s editorial on Publishing Perspectives about the need for a version 2.0 of eBooks. “Software has bugs that need to be fixed,” he argues, and “Software needs to evolve as its environment changes.”

In particular his discussion centers around eBook conversions, taking a book a publisher owns and converting it to eBook format. Denckla argues that those early, cheap, low-quality book conversions were needed to fill the market, but now publishers “should do a high-quality second conversion.”

The discussion is interesting and well worth the read!

Image credit: http://gratisography.com/, licensed under CC0 1.0
General, School Media Specialist

CMLE Featured Service: North Star Library Consortium

Are you looking for great pricing on a hosted software solution to manage your library collection? CMLE became aware of needs in this area several years ago. Some schools with extremely tight budgets were contemplating a return to their card catalogs, which is simply not acceptable anymore. There was a serious need to find solutions to jump start school library collections again!

Destiny is a state-of-the-art software solution that supports K-12 students and staff in the classroom, media center, or from home. Its higher-end, school-specific functionality is typically priced outside of the reach of small districts, unless they have access to a consortial buy. The North Star Library Consortium is now a statewide opportunity open to any school media centers. By working collaboratively with other multitype library systems  over several years to get a group of 110 districts, and 230 individual school sites, we are able to keep the pricing formula which offers affordability to even the smallest school districts.

It is not necessary, but we strongly encourage all schools in a district to join the Consortium at the same time. In this way, media specialists within a district can see all parts of the district’s collections, work together to solve problems, or assist each other with software tweaks too. And, by being part of the Consortium, these people also have over 200 other schools on a listserv using the very same product, solving the same problems. For media specialists who have been working in acute isolation, this can be energizing, and offers a huge layer of support in their daily work. By having the software hosted and maintained at Region 1 in Moorhead, MN, media specialists no longer have to rely on assistance from over-burdened tech staff in their district. Region 1 staff backs up Consortium data every two hours and attends to software updates too.

The full Consortium is currently represented by 110 districts, with 230 individual sites.  Over 2.7 million library titles are managed through this system, with an estimated value of $57 million, serving over 172,000 patrons. The following CMLE school districts (and associated number of school sites) are now part of the North Star Library Consortium, with interest from others in the region as budgets and staffing allows. NSLC members from the CMLE region include:

Image by 401 (K) 2013. Retrieved from Flickr. Used under Creative Commons' licensing.
Image by 401 (K) 2013. Retrieved from Flickr. Used under Creative Commons’ licensing.
  • Sartell (4 schools)
  • Rocori (5)
  • East Central (2)
  • Melrose (2)
  • Aitkin (2)
  • Long Prairie/Grey Eagle (2)
  • Cathedral-John XXIII (1)
  • North Branch (4)
  • Kimball (2)
  • Monticello (4)
  • Paynesville (2)
  • Becker (4)
  • Maple Lake (2)
  • McGregor (1)
  • Royalton (2)
  • Eden Valley Watkins (2)
  • Osakis (1)

Go to http://nslc.pbworks.com/w/page/12282518/FrontPage to see all of the schools in the Consortium and to access the process for requesting a bid for joining. Note: Requesting a bid does not obligate you to join, but it can give you the information to do some possible tweaking on your budget!

This is one possible solution. Have you found other cost-effective solutions for managing your school library collections? Interested in other CMLE services? Additional information can be found on our website.