Let’s read together in January!

so many books, so little time!

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!!

Information Literacy is International!

Sharing ideas is fun!

 

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!

 

Guest Blogger: Networking For Fun (And a Job!)

networking = chatting with interesting people!

 

(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.

CFP: The Future of Librarianship: Exploring what’s next for the Academic Librarian

they are ready to hang on your every idea!

Academic librarians – here is a chance for you to submit your work to the LACUNY Institute conference, happening May 12, 2017.

Do you have thoughts about the future? Do you want to share them with your colleagues? Consider submitting a proposal!

If you have not submitted a conference proposal before, or just want someone to discuss ideas or look at a draft – let us know! At CMLE Headquarters, we are here to help!

CMLE Google Groups: A place to talk shop with your colleagues!

Let’s discuss library things!

One of the main things we hear from our members is that they work alone, and that they feel alone in a lot of the things they do in their libraries. As we found in the needs assessment, most of you are solos or working in a library with fewer than five people. And it can be tough to be alone!

At CMLE Headquarters, we want to help you connect to your colleagues. Having someone else to talk about ideas with you, to share in the issues you are all facing, and to ask questions from someone else who knows about the situations you are in can be really helpful!

So we have established a variety of online forums for you to talk, to share ideas, and to celebrate the assorted successes you have in your library! Need to ask for book recommendations? Do it here! Want an example of a useful lesson plan? Ask here! Have a charming story of an adorable patron? Share it here!