Friday Grab Bag, August 28, 2020

The Friday Grab Bag is a weekly series that highlights fun, unique, and interesting happenings in Colorado libraries, and includes news from the Colorado State Library.

Speaking of fun – since there are so many libraries in Colorado creating take and make activities, we’re creating a way to share ideas, supply lists, etc. to avoid reinventing the wheel and make it easy to exchange ideas and promising practices. If you’d like to share your take and make activities with other colleagues around the state, complete this form, and/or join us on Monday, August 31 at 2:00 pm for a Take and Make Activities Sharing Session. Once responses start coming in, we’ll share the link to the resulting–and growing–database of Colorado take and make activities. Stay tuned for that!

Let’s open the Friday Grab Bag!

Virtual Cons & Fests

Join Poudre River Public Library District  on August 29-30 from the comfort of your laptop or smartphone for the first ever VIRTUAL Fort Collins Comic Con, a fun, locally organized, affordable Con experience in Northern Colorado that encourages literacy and access to art and culture. This year FC3 will attempt to take over the world through Zoom alongside voice actors Maurice LaMarche and Rob Paulsen (also known as Pinky and The Brain). Click HERE to register.

The 9th annual Yampa Valley Crane Festival takes place on its traditional end-of-summer weekend (September 3-6), but it’s virtual this year. The Colorado Crane Conservation Coalition and Bud Werner Memorial Library have teamed up to produce a series of fun and educational videos about Greater Sandhill Cranes and other bird- and nature-related topics around the Yampa Valley and Northwest Colorado. In addition, some of the most popular crane festival events have been turned into recorded sessions for your enjoyment and education. Click HERE for free access to the virtual Yampa Valley Crane Festival videos starting on September 3.

Boulder Public Library’s Bee Boulder Festival is online this year on September 12 from 10:00 am – 2:00 pm. Enjoy pollinator-themed education and activities, live music with Jeff & Paige, workshops on supporting pollinators, organic weed control, native plants and gardening. Click HERE to register.

Kitchen Creations

Mesa County Libraries presents Virtual Kids Club: Cooks and Books. Join library assistant Logan in making treats inspired by food from your favorite books. Head over to the library’s Youtube channel and make  Wonka’s Fabulous Fudge, Pippi Longstocking Pancakes, Harry Potter Butterbeer, and Lord of the Rings Lembas Bread.

High Plains Library District invites you to meet monthly with baking and kitchen enthusiasts to share and learn the techniques and art of baking! The Baking Circle meets on the first Saturday of the month from 2:00-3:00 pm. Each meeting will cover a different topic. All experience levels welcome! Ages 12+.

Make baking a family affair with Clearview Library District’s Family Cooking Challenge: Cupcakes. Join the library on their YouTube channel on September 4 at 4:00 pm to learn more about the items that are in the take-home kit. Like many popular cooking shows, your challenge is to get creative as a family and add a special ingredient of your choice to the recipe! Kits will be available for pickup beginning August 31 and will include ingredients, instructions, and recipes, contingent on registration.

At the Academy

Fair Use and Remote Teaching | September 22 @ 2:00 pm
Join CU Boulder University Libraries to learn about provisions under copyright law that can give you greater knowledge and confidence in leveraging and sharing teaching materials in an online classroom environment. In addition to learning key laws and best practices, discuss example scenarios that will demonstrate fair use justifications for the virtual classroom. If you have your own scenario you’d like to be discussed, email it to melissa.cantrell@colorado.edu before September 14th for consideration.

Colorado School of Mines’ Arthur Lakes Library hosts Town and Gown Fall 2020- Deadliest Enemy: Our War Against Killer Germs on September 16 from 12:00-2:00 pm. Participants are invited to join online for a discussion of the book Deadliest Enemy: Our War Against Killer Germs by Michael Osterholm and Mark Olshaker, past pandemics, from HIV to COVID-19, and how to deal with them.

Learning for All

Everyday Library Leadership Series: Positive Influence: Earning Trust and Respect | September 21 @ 12:00 pm
Why is positive influence the most valuable tool that any leader can wield? Positive influence is more important than power and authority. It’s about how you treat people every day, all the time, regardless of their behavior or your status and position in your library. This workshop provides an introduction to Rapport, Information, and the Active Model so you can change the ratio of criticism vs. praise, improve flexibility in communication, and increase investment in workplace relationships.

Everyday Library Leadership Series: The Organizational Map: What’s Different About Leadership | September 21 @ 1:00 pm
How is leadership different from management, supervision, and professional and technical work? Why do years of successful workplace experience not automatically translate into leadership expertise? And why is leadership something that can be learned and practiced regardless of your role in your library? Join this webinar to find out how to spend more time at the leadership level, take productive risks, and better identify leadership skills in others.

Everyday Library Leadership Series: Library Leadership Ethics | September 21 @ 2:00 pm
Develop, follow and share your own code of ethics, learn to walk the talk, and help your workplace develop a code of ethics that is practiced in word and deed. This workshop provides an introduction to  Library Leadership, and covers the basic principles of transparency, privacy, fairness and access to information as well as the importance of due process.

Museums and Libraries in the News

Tales from the Tread: Creating community connections | Steamboat Pilot
Through exhibits, research, education and events, the Tread of Pioneers Museum creates opportunities to hear from and learn first-hand from local residents, past and present, and serve as a conduit for Ute Indian cultural appreciation in the community, through the Ute people themselves.

Kirkland Museum of Fine & Decorative Art Reopens | YourHub (Denver Post)
After a temporary closure, Kirkland Museum of Fine & Decorative Art is welcoming visitors back to enjoy one of Denver’s favorite museums.

Six ways the library can help with at-home education | The Tribune
Many parents are considering at-home education, perhaps for the first time. If that’s the route you take, Pikes Peak Library District is committed to providing the resources you need for academic success.

Pikes Pick: Find a pen pal through library | The Gazette
Pikes Peak Library District’s Rockrimmon Library is starting PPLD Pen Pals in September for those who are 19 and older. You can register online at PPLD.org or in person.

DAR dedicates tree at library | The Mountain Mail
The Chipeta Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution donated a box elder tree to the Salida Regional Library on August 22 as part of the organization’s state-wide community service project to celebrate DAR’s 125th anniversary in Colorado.

Grants & Funding

IMLS Funding Opportunities for FY 2021
Summer is drawing to an end and it’s time to think about writing IMLS grant applications. Notices of Funding Opportunity for two library and six museum grant programs are now available via the link above.

What’s New at the Colorado State Library

Learning Opportunities

Trauma-Informed Skills for Online Learning Acceleration Webinar

Girls Who Code Colorado Webinar

  • September 16 @ 4:00 pm
  • Register at: GWC Colorado

State Publications Blog

Library Research Service

What’s your goal here?
The first step in an outcome-based evaluation is figuring out how you define success for your program or service—what do you hope to achieve? Learn how to find your big WHY in LRS’s latest blog post.

Colorado Virtual Library

Colorado State Library at CALCON 2020
Colorado State Library staff members will present sessions throughout CALCON 2020, ranging in topics from the future of libraries, to playing well with others, to identifying and addressing community needs.

Setting the Standard Webinars
The Office of Standards and Instructional Support is hosting an ongoing virtual webinar series called Setting the Standard. Join first and third-Friday of each month from 11:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m  to stay up-to-date on high impact instructional strategies, CDE resources for teaching, and Colorado Academic Standards implementation updates.

Rocky Mountain PBS Partnership Opportunity
We’re partnering with Rocky Mountain PBS (RMPBS) to support RMPBS’ program, Colorado Classroom: Learn with Me at Home, which provides literacy lessons on Colorado PBS stations and online for kids in grades K-3..

Are you thinking of making a change this year in your job?  Check out Library Jobline for hot new library employment opportunities.

Library Director: Carnegie Public Library / Trinidad, COThe Carnegie Public Library in Trinidad CO is seeking an innovative, dynamic, and self-motivated individual to lead a team of resourceful and energetic librarians dedicated to establishing the library as a community hub. If that sounds like you, apply by August 31!

This post is part of the Spotlight on Sharing initiative, which aims to increase the visibility of resource sharing in Colorado libraries. Do you have a story from your library to share? Email Marisa Wood, mwood@coloradovirtuallibrary.org. Also, be sure to follow Colorado State Library on Twitter and Facebook.

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