Linking Our Libraries

Browsing Books: Old Mill State Park

Welcome back! We have more books to share with you today. We are the Central Minnesota Libraries Exchange, a multitype library system serving all types of libraries. This season we are suggesting books you might enjoy for our Goodreads group: Armchair Travel to Minnesota State Parks. We give you a prompt connected to each state park, and you find a book to fulfill the challenge. You can use one of our suggestions, and you should feel free to read any book! Old Mill State Park was found...

Browsing Books: Rice Lake State Park

Welcome back! Let's find some new books this week. We are the Central Minnesota Libraries Exchange, a multitype system serving all types of libraries. This season we are suggesting books you might enjoy for our Goodreads group: Armchair Travel to Minnesota State Parks. We give you a prompt connected to each state park, and you find a book to fulfill the challenge. You can use one of our suggestions, and you should feel free to read any book! Rice Lake State Park was another park establ...

Browsing Books: Frontenac State Park

This season we are suggesting books you might enjoy for our Goodreads group: Armchair Travel to Minnesota State Parks. We give you a prompt connected to each state park, and you find a book to fulfill the challenge. You can use one of our suggestions, and you should feel free to read any book! Frontenac State Park was founded in 1957.  This park is known as a wonderful place for bird watching! It's one of the best spots in the country to view birds migrating in the spring and fall. More ...

Browsing Books: Maplewood State Park

Maplewood State Park was established in 1963. This park has a five-mile Prairie Restoration Auto Tour to enjoy. Drive along the scenic route to observe the wildlife: the park is host to 150 bird species and 50 species of mammals. Let's celebrate that with a book about a road trip. We give you links to each of these books on our show notes page, taking you to Amazon.com. If you click on any of them, and buy anything at all - including a nice book - Amazon will send us a small percent of th...

Browsing Books: Glendalough State Park

The land of Glendalough State Park was first purchased as a summer retreat, but On Earth Day, 1990, this largely natural and undeveloped property was donated to The Nature Conservancy. On June 10, 1992, the deed was transferred to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources for use as a state park.  Glendalough is home to abundant populations of white-tailed deer, raccoon, red fox, and smaller mammals. The park also offers excellent birdwatching for a variety of species of prairie, wetla...

Browsing Books: Franz Jevne State Park

This season we are suggesting books you might enjoy for our Goodreads group: Armchair Travel to Minnesota State Parks. We give you a prompt connected to each state park, and you find a book to fulfill the challenge. You can use one of our suggestions, and you should feel free to read any book! Franz Jevne State Park was first designated as a Wayside park in 1967; in 1969 it was adjusted to be a state park. For this prompt, read a book about a character with two names, or with a changed id...

Browsing Books: Split Rock Creek State Park

Welcome back to Browsing Books! Let's explore some summer time reading. We are the Central Minnesota Libraries Exchange, a multitype system serving all types of libraries. This season we are suggesting books you might enjoy for our Goodreads group: Armchair Travel to Minnesota State Parks. We give you a prompt connected to each state park, and you find a book to fulfill the challenge. You can use one of our suggestions, and you should feel free to read any book! Split Rock Creek State ...

Browsing Books: Red River Valley State Recreation Area

Welcome to a summer of good reading – and good state parks! This season we are suggesting books you might enjoy for our Goodreads group: Armchair Travel to Minnesota State Parks. We give you a prompt connected to each state park, and you find a book to fulfill the challenge. You can use one of our suggestions, and you should feel free to read any book! Red River Valley State Recreation Area was established in 2000. https://www.dnr.state.mn.us/state_par... Celebrate the frequent question...

Browsing Books: Moose Lake State Park

Welcome to a summer of good reading - and good state parks! We are the Central Minnesota Libraries Exchange, a multitype library system serving all types of libraries. This season we are suggesting books you might enjoy for our Goodreads group: Armchair Travel to Minnesota State Parks. We give you a prompt connected to each state park, and you find a book to fulfill the challenge. You can use one of our suggestions, and you should feel free to read any book! Moose Lake park was starte...

Browsing Books: Beaver Creek Valley State Park

We are the Central Minnesota Libraries Exchange, a multitype library system serving all types of libraries. This season we are suggesting books you might enjoy for our Goodreads group: Armchair Travel to Minnesota State Parks. We give you a prompt connected to each state park, and you find a book to fulfill the challenge. You can use one of our suggestions, and you should feel free to read any book! Beaver Creek Valley State Park was established in 1937. There are a lot of activities to ...

Browsing Books: Lake Bronson State Park

We are the Central Minnesota Libraries Exchange, a multitype library system serving all types of libraries. This season we are suggesting books you might enjoy for our Goodreads group: Armchair Travel to Minnesota State Parks. We give you a prompt connected to each state park, and you find a book to fulfill the challenge. You can use one of our suggestions, and you should feel free to read any book! You can find our full show notes page here, with the titles we share here and links to a...

Browsing Books: Flandrau State Park

This season we are suggesting books you might enjoy for our Goodreads group: Armchair Travel to Minnesota State Parks. We give you a prompt connected to each state park, and you find a book to fulfill the challenge. You can use one of our suggestions, and you should feel free to read any book! In this week’s discussion, we are exploring the Flandrau State Park This is another park established in 1937. "During part of the 1940s, the camp was used as a World War II German prisoner-of-war c...

Browsing Books: Gooseberry Falls State Park

This season we are suggesting books you might enjoy for our Goodreads group: Armchair Travel to Minnesota State Parks. We give you a prompt connected to each state park, and you find a book to fulfill the challenge. You can use one of our suggestions, and you should feel free to read any book! You can find our show notes page here. In this week’s discussion, we are exploring Gooseberry Falls, one of the most popular parks in the state. https://www.dnr.state.mn.us/state_par... In additi...

Browsing Books: Camden State Park

Camden State Park was established in 1935.  Today, mink, raccoons, songbirds, hawks, coyotes, and a large winter herd of whitetail deer flourish in the park. Bass and bluegill are found in Brawner Lake, and brown trout are stocked in the Redwood River each year. Read a book about fishing or with a fish on the cover! You can find our full show notes page here, with links to all the books we discuss today.  

Browsing Books: Blue Mounds State Park

This season we are suggesting books you might enjoy for our Goodreads group: Armchair Travel to Minnesota State Parks. We give you a prompt connected to each state park, and you find a book to fulfill the challenge. You can use one of our suggestions, and you should feel free to read any book! Check out our show notes page here, with links to all the books we share today. In this week’s discussion, we are exploring the Blue Mounds State Park. It was established in 1937. Prickly pear c...

Browsing Books: Zippel Bay State Park

We are the Central Minnesota Libraries Exchange, a multitype library system serving all types of libraries. You can read our show notes page, with the books we share here today. This season we are suggesting books you might enjoy for our Goodreads group: Armchair Travel to Minnesota State Parks. We give you a prompt connected to each state park, and you find a book to fulfill the challenge. You can use one of our suggestions, and you should feel free to read any book! Zippel Bay park w...

Browsing Books: Glacial Lakes State Park

We are the Central Minnesota Libraries Exchange, a multitype library system serving all types of libraries. You can find our show notes page here, with links to the books we are sharing today. This season we are suggesting books you might enjoy for our Goodreads group: Armchair Travel to Minnesota State Parks. We give you a prompt connected to each state park, and you find a book to fulfill the challenge. You can use one of our suggestions, and you should feel free to read any book! Gl...

Browsing Books: Lake Bemidji State Park

We are the Central Minnesota Libraries Exchange, a multitype library system serving all types of libraries. You can find our show notes page here, with links to all of the books we are sharing this week. This season we are suggesting books you might enjoy for our Goodreads group: Armchair Travel to Minnesota State Parks. We give you a prompt connected to each state park, and you find a book to fulfill the challenge. You can use one of our suggestions, and you should feel free to read an...

Browsing Books: Upper Sioux Agency State Park

This season we are suggesting books you might enjoy for our Goodreads group: Armchair Travel to Minnesota State Parks. We give you a prompt connected to each state park, and you find a book to fulfill the challenge. You can use one of our suggestions, and you should feel free to read any book! You can find our show notes page here, with links to the books we shared today. In this week’s discussion, we are exploring the Upper Sioux Agency State Park, established in 1963. “The park cover...

Browsing Books: Banning State Park

This season we are suggesting books you might enjoy for our Goodreads group: Armchair Travel to Minnesota State Parks. We give you a prompt connected to each state park, and you find a book to fulfill the challenge. You can use one of our suggestions, and you should feel free to read any book! Check out our show notes page here. We give you links to all the books we shared in this episode. Banning State Park was established in 1963. “September 1, 1894, the great Hinckley forest fire swe...

Browsing Books: George Crosby Manitou State Park

This season we are suggesting books you might enjoy for our Goodreads group: Armchair Travel to Minnesota State Parks. We give you a prompt connected to each state park, and you find a book to fulfill the challenge. You can use one of our suggestions, and you should feel free to read any book! George Crosby Manitou park was established in 1955. https://www.dnr.state.mn.us/state_par... The campsites here need to be hiked to, either from the Superior Hiking Trail or after leaving your c...

Browsing Books: Forestville Mystery Cave State Park

This season we are suggesting books you might enjoy for our Goodreads group: Armchair Travel to Minnesota State Parks. We give you a prompt connected to each state park, and you find a book to fulfill the challenge. You can use one of our suggestions, and you should feel free to read any book! Forestville/Mystery Cave park was established in 1963. https://www.dnr.state.mn.us/state_par…  There are the remnants of an old town here that you can visit. Enjoy the exploration by reading a boo...

Browsing Books: Bear Head Lake State Park

We like books; we like parks - and Minnesota is lucky to have both of them! Join our Goodreads book challenge: Armchair Travel to Minnesota State Parks. We give you a link to each state park, a short fact, and a prompt for you to find a book. You find it, and read a book, and then tell us all about it. In this podcast, we give you a few suggestions for books to fit a prompt for each park. Try one of these books, or find one of your own to enjoy! Bear Head Lake was established in 1961. ...

Browsing Books: Sibley State Park

We like books; we like parks - and Minnesota is lucky to have both of them! Join our Goodreads book challenge: Armchair Travel to Minnesota State Parks. We give you a link to each state park, a short fact, and a prompt for you to find a book. You find it, and read a book, and then tell us all about it. In this podcast, we give you a few suggestions for books to fit a prompt for each park. Try one of these books, or find one of your own to enjoy! Sibley State Park was established in 191...

Episode 610: Digital Citizenship

Welcome back to our final episode in Season Six of Linking Our Libraries! Thanks so much for working with us all season. If you are interested in getting clock hours for the work we are doing here, check out our website cmle.org, for our continuing education opportunities! This week we look at one of the big skills in school library work: digital citizenship. Check out our full show notes page for all the links This week we have a returning Guest Host, Bethany Kauffman, Media Specialist ...

Episode 609: Attending Conferences

Welcome back to Season Six of Linking Our Libraries! Check out our full show notes page here. This week we look at a skill that adds fun to your life: attending conferences! There are so many good things out there for you to consider, and attending conferences can be tough. We’ll talk about some strategies for getting the most out of your conference! This week our Guest Host is Jennifer Hill, who is the St. Michael Elementary School Media Specialist and teaches at St Cloud State Univer...

Episode 608: Genealogy

Welcome back to Season Six of Linking Our Libraries! Check out our show notes page, to get links to some other useful resources, and the links for the books we discuss this week. This week we look at a skill used in a lot of libraries: Genealogy work! This week we have a new Guest Host: Wendy Sykes from the Great River Regional Library System. Genealogy is the study of families and lineages. You can look at your own family, or at people from your community. In our multitype system, ...

Episode 607: Connecting with Students

Welcome back to Season Six of Linking Our Libraries! Click on our show notes page here, to get links to other resources and links to the books we shared this week. This week we look at strategies you can use to connect with students! You can use these ideas in schools, or in any type of library. Our purpose in every library is always to connect our community to information, and we have some suggestions for getting that done! Our Guest Host this week is Audrey, with a flair for technol...

Episode 606: Marketing the Library

Welcome back to Season Six of Linking Our Libraries! Check out our full show notes page here, to get links to other resources and links to the books we shared this week. This week we look at a skill every library needs to be using: marketing. Fundamentally, our jobs in libraries are all about connecting our materials, programs, and services with our community members. Marketing tools can give you a good strategy for making that happen. We have two Guest Hosts this week: Kate Wallace an...

Episode 605: Starting a New Job or Keeping Your Job Fresh

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 ...

Episode 604: Services For Patrons With Learning Differences

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 th...

Episode 603: Integrating Tech with Literacy Education

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...

Episode 602: Professional Development

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.

Episode 601: Working With Teachers

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 connectin...

Book Bites: The Abominable

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 Chamoni...

Book Bites: Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norell

Book Bites: The Prodigy

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 o...

Book Bites: Food on the Move

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 pl...

Book Bites: Influence: Science and Practice

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 complia...

Book Bites: Because Internet

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 Because Internet: Understanding the New Rules of Language, by Gretchen McCulloch. @GretchenAMcC "Language is humanity's most spectacular open-source project, and the internet is making our language change faster and in more interesting ways than ever before. Internet conversations are structured by the shape of our apps and platforms, from the grammar of st...

Book Bites: Michael Perry 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 books by author Michael Perry. His most popular book is Population: 485- Meeting Your Neighbors One Siren at a Time. "Welcome to New Auburn, Wisconsin, where the local vigilante is a farmer's wife armed with a pistol and a Bible, the most senior member of the volunteer fire department is a cross-eyed butcher with one kidney and two ex-wives (both of whom work at ...

Book Bites: Jane Hawk series

Book Bites are quick looks at a book from our Guest Host readers. Try a new book this week! This week our Guest Host is admiring the Dean Koontz series about Jane Hawk. The first book in the series is The Silent Corner. "“I very much need to be dead.” These are the chilling words left behind by a man who had everything to live for—but took his own life. In the aftermath, his widow, Jane Hawk, does what all her grief, fear, and fury demand: find the truth, no matter what. People of ...

Book Bites: The Silver Eyes- Live from Comic Con

Book Bites are quick looks at a book from our Guest Host readers. Try a new book this week! This week's episode was recorded live on site at the Great River Library System's Comic Con event! Today we admire the book The Silver Eyes (Five Nights At Freddy's #1), by Scott Cawthon. "Ten years after the horrific murders at Freddy Fazbear's Pizza that ripped their town apart, Charlie, whose father owned the restaurant, and her childhood friends reunite on the anniversary of the tragedy and fi...

Happiness in Libraries 102

Welcome to Happiness in Libraries bonus episode! Each month we are looking at a few stories about happy things that happen in libraries, or happy things that libraries contribute to their communities. You can get links to all of the stories we shared on our website. And if you have happy library stories of your own, send them to us! We are at [email protected], and would like to hear from you.

Book Bites: Comics by Clyde - Live from Comic Con

Book Bites are quick looks at a book from our Guest Host readers. Try a new book this week! This week's show was recorded live at the Great River Library System's Comic Con event. Clyde talks about his work with comics, and with his comic podcasting! 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 Atlas Shrugged - Live from Comic Con

Book Bites are quick looks at a book from our Guest Host readers. Try a new book this week! Today’s book is Atlas Shrugged, by Ayn Rand. "Who is John Galt? When he says that he will stop the motor of the world, is he a destroyer or a liberator? Why does he have to fight his battles not against his enemies but against those who need him most? Why does he fight his hardest battle against the woman he loves? You will know the answer to these questions when you discover the reason behind the...

Book Bites: Crank

Book Bites are quick looks at a book from our Guest Host readers. Try a new book this week! Here is our newest book, recorded live at Great River library's Comic Con event: Crank, by Ellen Hopkins "Kristina Georgia Snow is the perfect daughter: gifted high-school junior, quiet, never any trouble. But on a trip to visit her absentee father, she meets a boy who introduces her to crank. At first she finds it freeing, but soon Kristina's personality disappears inside the drug. What began as a...

Book Bites: The Great Gatsby

Book Bites are quick looks at a book from our Guest Host readers. Try a new book this week! Today’s book is The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald. "Jay Gatsby is the man who has everything. But one thing will always be out of his reach. Everybody who is anybody is seen at his glittering parties. Day and night his Long Island mansion buzzes with bright young things drinking, dancing, and debating his mysterious character. For Gatsby---young, handsome, and fabulously rich---always seems...

Library Happiness Episode 101

Welcome to Happiness in Libraries! Each month we are looking at a few stories about happy things that happen in libraries, or happy things that libraries contribute to their communities.   We are in the Central Minnesota Libraries Exchange. We are a multitype library system, and that means we are here to help all 300+ of our members. They are school libraries, public, academic, and special libraries. So they all serve different communities, and overlapping groups of people. Libraries a...

Book Bites: Cod

Book Bites are quick looks at a book from our Guest Host readers. Try a new book this week! Today’s book is Cod: A Biography of the Fish that Changed the World, by Mark Kurlansky. "Cod, it turns out, is the reason Europeans set sail across the Atlantic, and it is the only reason they could. What did the Vikings eat in icy Greenland and on the five expeditions to America recorded in the Icelandic sagas? Cod, frozen and dried in the frosty air, then broken into pieces and eaten like hardtac...