Linking Our Libraries

Welcome back to Season Six of Linking Our Libraries!

Check on our show notes page here, to get the links to other resources, and links to the books we discussed.

This week we look at a skill so many of us will use: starting a new job! When you are new in the library, it can be tough to figure out what you are supposed to be doing, who you are supposed to talk with, and what is going on around you. After you have been there for a while, it’s important to keep working on helping your job to stay fresh. You really don’t want to be one of those people who count down to retirement in the next ten years, while doing nothing more than sitting around complaining.

We have two Guest Hosts this week: Stephanie Schlangen and Glen Irvin, who are technology integration coaches from Sauk Rapids-Rice HS.

This week we look at services for patrons with learning differences - a skill important in any library.

You can find our show notes page here, with links to all kinds of resources and links to the books we shared.

This week we have a returning Guest Host, director of the libraries at St. Benedict's College and St John’s University: Kathy Parker.

Libraries are places filled with information. It’s our job as library people to connect that information - the relevant, useful stuff - to the needs of our community members.

I think that over the years, we are becoming better at reaching out to patrons where they are - not insisting they confirm to our expectations of how they should want to receive information from us.

It’s a skill we can all improve on, and there are always new strategies to learn about that will help you to provide the best service to your community members. And the challenges people can have in connecting with our information are probably much broader than you are first imagining, so keep working to improve that connection!

This week we look at strategies you can use to connect technology with literacy skills!

Check our show notes page, to get links to all the resources and links to the books we discussed.

Welcome to our Guest Host Jason Menth, Technology Integrationist at Talahi Community School in St Cloud, MN!

Schools are all about building good literacy skills for students, and the library is an important part of that work! Sure, there are probably a bunch of good books to read - and that’s important. And then, what else can we provide to help kids build their literacy skills?

A few tech tools can go a long way toward encouraging kids to connect with reading, to find some books they enjoy, and to improve performance in school and beyond!

Our full shownotes page is here. We have links to other resources, and to the books we shared this week!

This week we look at ideas about professional development for library people. We are a fast-moving and ever-changing profession. People who are not keeping up with professional development get left behind - and nobody wants that!

This week we have a returning Guest Host, Leah Larson, LSTA Coordinator at the Minnesota State Library Services.

We are so happy to be with you again, as we start Season Six of Linking Our Libraries!

You can get our full show notes page here, with links to all the other resources, and links to the books we shared this week.

This week we will work through one of the most important skills for a school library or media center staffer: connecting your services with the teachers in your school. Even if you are not in a school library right now, these partnership skills will always be useful in connecting with your community members and stakeholders.

Our Guest Host this week is Amy Moe, who can share her experience and suggestions on this topic from her time as an Instructional Technology Specialist at Pine Meadow Elementary school!

Book Bites are quick looks at a book from our Guest Host readers. Try a new book this week!

And this week our Guest Host is admiring the book The Abominable: A Novel, by Dan Simmons. "It's 1924 and the race to summit the world's highest mountain has been brought to a terrified pause by the shocking disappearance of George Mallory and Sandy Irvine high on the shoulder of Mt. Everest. By the following year, three climbers -- a British poet and veteran of the Great War, a young French Chamonix guide, and an idealistic young American -- find a way to take their shot at the top. They arrange funding from the grieving Lady Bromley, whose son also disappeared on Mt. Everest in 1924. Young Bromley must be dead, but his mother refuses to believe it and pays the trio to bring him home. "

Subscribe to our newsletter, our social media, and our podcasts to stay up to date on all kinds of great stuff! We serve 300+ libraries of all types, and are always ready to talk about libraries and books.

Book Bites are quick looks at a book from our Guest Host readers. Try a new book this week!

And this week our Guest Host is admiring the book The Prodigy: A Biography of William James Sidis, America's Greatest Child Prodigy, by Amy Wallace.

(From Publishers Weekly) "The son of a brilliant Russian-immigrant psychologist associated with William James, Sidis (18981944) was reading the N.Y. Times at 18 months, typewriting at three and entered Harvard at age 11. His phenomenal memory, powers of concentration and reasoning, and breadth of interests astounded his school teachers."

Subscribe to our newsletter, our social media, and our podcasts to stay up to date on all kinds of great stuff! We serve 300+ libraries of all types, and are always ready to talk about libraries and books.

Book Bites are quick looks at a book from our Guest Host readers. Try a new book this week!

This week our Guest Host admires the book: Food on the Move: Dining on the Legendary Railway Journeys of the World, by Sharon Hudgins

"All aboard for a delicious ride on nine legendary railway journeys! Meals associated with train travel have been an important ingredient of railway history for more than a century—from dinners in dining cars to lunches at station buffets and foods purchased from platform vendors. For many travelers, the experience of eating on a railway journey is often a highlight of the trip, a major part of the “romance of the rails.”"

Subscribe to our newsletter, our social media, and our podcasts to stay up to date on all kinds of great stuff! We serve 300+ libraries of all types, and are always ready to talk about libraries and books.

Book Bites are quick looks at a book from our Guest Host readers. Try a new book this week!

This week our Guest Host admires the book Influence: Science and Practice, by Robert B. Cialdini. @RobertCialdini

"Written in a narrative style combined with scholarly research, Cialdini combines evidence from experimental work with the techniques and strategies he gathered while working as a salesperson, fundraiser, advertiser, and in other positions inside organizations that commonly use compliance tactics to get us to say “yes.” Widely used in classes, as well as sold to people operating successfully in the business world, the eagerly awaited revision of Influence reminds the reader of the power of persuasion."

Subscribe to our newsletter, our social media, and our podcasts to stay up to date on all kinds of great stuff! We serve 300+ libraries of all types, and are always ready to talk about libraries and books.