Library people: We all know our patrons use Wikipedia. We use Wikipedia. It’s a pretty awesome tool! But it can be better!! We are passing on some information about strategies you can use to help Wikipedia to be better and more accurate.
Try it for yourself! Set up a Wikipedia event in your library! Use this as a starting point to make our of our frequently-used resources to be stronger!
Continue reading Libraries improving Wikipedia: Are you in??
As we close out an interesting 2016, CMLE is moving ahead with our book groups! If you have time over your holiday celebrations, you might check out our latest additions to our book groups. As always, this is a low-key opportunity to read books; so read and join in the comments, read the discussion questions, or just read the book and think thoughts to yourself and chat with your colleagues about the latest picks. Whatever works best for you is fine! (We are library people; we just like to read!)
For the CMLE Professional selection, in January we are going with How to Win Friends and Influence People. It seemed like a good choice for January, when many of us are working on our New Year’s resolutions, and thinking about ways to improve our work lives. Dale Carnegie’s book is a classic, and can help to jump-start all of us in making new relationships. At CMLE Headquarters, building relationships around our system, and across the profession, is our main goal! So let’s all make this a part of our daily work.
Of course, we also have a “for fun” book selection in the Enjoying Books group. This month we are going with The Ice Queen by Alice Hoffman. As always, our book pick has a librarian as the main character. We are moving through different genres each month, and in this literary fiction book you have the chance to look at all kinds of imagery of fire and ice. Have you read any of her other books? It would be interesting to see what kinds of themes and symbolism carry over across her many novels!
Enjoy your holiday! Enjoy your reading! And come back to us in January – ready to do some great library work!!
As library people, we spend a lot of time thinking about Information Literacy. It is our role to help members of our communities to learn about the information they need – not just to train them to look things up. Our jobs in this area are increasing as we see the numbers of people who can not identify fake news from real news. And of course, this is a much larger and broader topic – impacting things we do all the time.
Library people around the world are also working on this issue, and working to connect information with their communities served. If you would like an opportunity to go talk with some of your international colleagues, submit a proposal to the Fifth European Conference on Information Literacy. It will be held from 18-21 September 2017 in Saint-Malo France.
Although I have not been to this conference, I have talked with people who went in past years and really enjoyed it! I have worked as a reviewer of the proposals, and they sound interesting – useful in all kinds of libraries.
Even if you are not able to attend this conference, or not this year at least (it moves to different locations across Europe each year!); it is good to know that the issues we are looking at in our libraries are the same issues library people everywhere work with in their libraries. You may keep your eyes on the presenters, to see what kinds of topics they discuss to get strategy ideas for yourself. And these are people you could contact to see ask questions about their ideas and their programs!
If you are interested in submitting a proposal, but not sure where to start – contact us here at CMLE Headquarters. We can help you put your ideas into words, and into a format that shows off the work you are doing!
Read about the conference, and the many different topics they will be discussing, after the break! Don’t be bashful about reaching out to your colleagues across the profession – we are all here to help each other, and to make our libraries better!
(Today’s Guest Blogger is Dorice Moylan, Reference & Instruction Librarian at the Frederick S. Pardee Management Library, Boston University Questrom School of Business)
Networking is necessary, not just at the start of your career, but throughout it. There are many levels but it can be as easy as being yourself.
When it comes to your job search, whether your first professional position after library school, or any search after that, networking is an important aspect. Visions of large hotel function rooms with eager faces and stacks of business cards come to mind, from networking sessions that I attended years ago when starting my personal training business. This environment isn’t ideal for many people, and can be pretty unproductive when the only thing in common between attendees is that everyone is starting their own small business of some type. Continue reading Guest Blogger: Networking For Fun (And a Job!)
Contact: Anne Holland, 720-974-5876
Community Engagement Manager
aholland@spacescience.org
The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation Provides Public Libraries 1.26 Million Solar Viewing Glasses for the 2017 Solar Eclipse
BOULDER, Colo.–December 16, 2016– The Space Science Institute (SSI) was awarded a grant from the Moore Foundation that will provide 1.26 million solar viewing glasses and other resources for 1,500 public libraries across the nation. They will serve as centers for eclipse education and viewing for their communities. The libraries will be selected through a registration process managed by the STAR Library Education Network (STAR_Net) and its NASA@ My Library project. The project team includes staff at SSI’s National Center for Interactive Learning. The Project Director is Dr. Paul Dusenbery (Director of NCIL). Andrew Fraknoi (Chair of the Astronomy Department, Foothill College), Dennis Schatz (Senior Advisor, Pacific Science Center), and Douglas Duncan (Director of the University of Colorado’s Fiske Planetarium) are co-directors. Continue reading Get glasses for the Great American Eclipse!
Central Minnesota Libraries Exchange 