Tag Archives: Update

Academic, General, Public, School Media Specialist, Special

We’ve Learned: Staffing News and Updates from Around the Region

We’ve Learned… is designed to keep our readers informed about news concerning personnel in CMLE libraries/media centers. Please keep us informed of any “happenings” regarding staff members in your area so that we can include them in the next write-up! Happenings can include: changes in staffing, awards, honors… you get the idea!

  • Robin Ewing, Associate Professor & Reference Librarian at SCSU,  received the 2012 MLA President’s Award at this year’s MLA Conference. Way to go, Robin! Thank you for all of your hard work and dedication to the organization.
  • Please use the comments area to let us know if there are updates in your library or media center!
Academic, Public, School Media Specialist

Taking Information Literacy on the Road

Bridging Information Literacy (IL) Across Libraries has become our CMLE tag line for work we have been doing with high school media specialists and college librarians. CMLE is in a unique position to convene important conversations across library types, and IL is the first bridging topic we have chosen. The group first met in April to get acquainted and get their draft assignments. By using a wiki and email, both groups finished  draft documents by the end of May. Then, a face-t0-face meeting in July really bonded this group in ways the wiki may not have been able to do.  Initially, we were uncertain how much the groups had in common. As we talked in July however, the group acknowledged the many commonalities, and that they want to do more around this subject. They did not want to end their work!

We wanted others to hear of our “bridging experiment” and laid plans for sharing what we had learned through MLA and MEMO Conference presentations. We believe it is useful to share the process we used, some outcomes, and some exciting plans for the future. We concluded that it is not helpful to “preach to the choir”  about IL….our colleagues already get it!  Somehow, the group felt it was worth a try to reach students. To that end, we recently developed a survey for college students asking them to offer advice to younger students. Specifically, we asked “Based on your experience, if you could tell a high school student three things to help them prepare for college-level research, what would it be?” We are hopeful that younger students will heed the advice of their older peers and engage more deeply in IL . We hope to produce a short video of college students sharing their message, with quiet  supported by a librarian message, and share it broadly through You Tube.

CMLE will continue this IL work, and hope to grow the circle of involvement and engagement. In the meantime, we are on the road sharing the message, and have opened the group wiki up so others can see the draft documents.  We hope to share a polished executive summary within the next couple of months. Visit the wiki to get the draft version of the  following:

  • Media/information literacy power standards (according to three high school media specialists)
  • Typical student profiles and research frameworks for high school freshmen, sophomore, junior and senior
  • Suggested skill sets for incoming college freshmen
  • The MLA conference handout which shares key points of the work of this group, and steps going forward.

Tip: Check out the New Insights documentation on the site, which captures shifts in thinking and understanding of IL and the work of  other librarians.

Would you be interested in participating in an event where we convene a larger group of high school media specialists, college librarians, and public librarians around the topic of information literacy? Let us know in the comments….or send email to papost@stcloudstate.edu

School Media Specialist

MEMO Conference Mad Dash

The to-do lists are shrinking as the mound of miscellaneous boxed items grow as we put the finished touches on our work with this years MEMO Conference. Our presentations, the Hospitality and Local Arrangments Committee work, details around the Conference Connections Cafe, and our work with the Friday night Conference Cantina  have kept us busy. Julie Notsch, Cathedral High School has been working with us on this committee work. Cantina Night will offer some time for light hearted fun and a focus on the individual. Begin by creating  your own margarita and taco dinner by building it just the way you like it. Team trivia and drawings for  fabulous prizes will top off the evening.

We are hopeful that the turnout is good, and people are able to push work into the background, to fully enjoy the conference experience. It is fun to see people get their “batteries charged” and feel excited about their work with an infusion of new ideas!

When the conference is close to home, it is tempting to bolt for home when the breakout sessions end, but the true magic and networking happen in the hallways or in the evenings. So resist the call of your jammies, and stick around. Kate and I hope to see you all there!

Academic, General, Public, School Media Specialist, Special

CMLE Pilot Shadowing Program

CMLE provides support services to 319 libraries/media centers in twelve counties of Central Minnesota. We work with college librarians, special librarians (hospital, prison, historical socities) and public librarians. It is probably no surprise that the  largest group are our 265 media centers. All libraries have a variety of services and focus areas, but it is within the media center  group that we see the most variety. Some schools have district level media directors in addition to  media specialists in each school. Some schools have no media specialists. And, in some schools, the media specialist has a tight focus within the media center only, in other schools, the media specialist is taking the lead on moving the district into the one-to-one (1:1) computing world! And, as you can imagine, we have everything in between too!

CMLE is in a perfect position to understand these variations and identify meaningful relationships and partnerships between our different library types. And we strongly believe that all types of librarians have similar goals, yet different ways of going about the work they do. This academic year, we will be piloting a shadowing program. We believe that there is power in walking in someone elses shoes for a day; shadowing them to see what is entailed in a typical day. We will help arrange opportunities for librarians to spend a day with a different type of libraian. We believe these shadowing experiences will help us understand what we all have in common, and enable us all to speak about  libraries using one voice. We believe it is possible that all librarians may very well have the same goals; falling along the lines of education! Are you interested in a shadowing experience? Let me know at papost@stcloudstate.edu

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

Needed: Your Favorite 1:1 Links/Resources!

Is your school talking about or moving into a one-to-one computing (1:1) movement in your school? Or, are you still trying to figure out how to best grab hold of or understand this shift in education? CMLE staff are compiling a list of best practice sites, articles, and other key resources (some of you are in the current list),  and we value your opinions on this subject! We invite you to take a moment to nominate your favorite 1:1 resources (could be yours)  in the comments area following this blog post. Too many to share in the comments area? Send an email containing your favorites to cmle@stcloudstate.edu with a subject line of “1:1”. Our staff will compile the list and produce a subject guide for our 319 libraries in our twelve county region. Thanks in advance for working with us and sharing with your colleagues in Central Minnesota. We are stronger by working together!