The 2010 MCLS Annual Report is now online in two formats, PDF and interactive swf.  See: http://mcls.org/cms/sitem.cfm/about/

What if you could offer your patrons access to 7 million books with the click of a mouse? Imagine an easy patron-initiated resource-sharing service with visible shelf status. Other states have done it, and Indiana can too! MCLS Executive Director Randy Dykhuis and other MCLS staff are scheduled to present at four of the Indiana …Read more »

Holy cow. A year has passed already?!? When a staff member mentioned to me that we were coming up on our first year anniversary, that was my reaction. It’s true that the older I get, the faster the years fly by, but even so, I look back to February 15, 2010 and wonder where the …Read more »

Mea culpa. Yes, I made a mistake during my update at last week’s annual membership meeting. During my recitation of the past year’s events and actions, I should have prominently featured the change in our membership structure and dues that will be effective July 2011. I’ve heard from some of you that you felt blindsided …Read more »

Last week was a historic one for MLC. On Tuesday, the membership voted 68-1 to combine with INCOLSA, and the following day the INCOLSA membership approved the same resolution 153-29. We are grateful for the overwhelmingly positive votes and are eager to begin working together as the Midwest Collaborative for Library Services. MCLS will officially …Read more »

The International Coalition of Library Consortia (ICOLC) has issued a new document, Statement on the Global Economic Crisis and Its Impact on Consortial Licenses. MLC has been active with ICOLC for many years and is one of the signatories to the statement. Libraries all around the world are feeling the pinch of the global financial …Read more »

MLC’s delegates to OCLC’s Members Council have prepared an analysis of OCLC’s recently announced new policy on transfer and use of WorldCat records. Greetings! As your elected delegates to OCLC Members Council, we wanted to draw your immediate attention to the major changes that OCLC has made to its Policy for Use and Transfer of …Read more »

At MLC’s annual meeting on October 3, I talked about the changes that our OCLC members will experience with the new service model that OCLC announced a couple weeks ago. If you work in a library that uses any OCLC service, the new service model will have an impact on you, and it will affect …Read more »

Last Friday, 85 folks from MLC member libraries and staff gathered at Lansing Community College’s West Campus to hear about community-building activities in libraries. Chrystie Hill got the day off with an enthusiastic talk about the work libraries are doing to build a greater sense of community. Her thesis is that libraries are not just …Read more »

We are happy and proud to announce that Ruth has been selected to be an ALA Copyright Scholar. The ALA Office for Information Technology Policy has chosen the Copyright Scholars for this year, and Ruth is one of eight new scholars. For the next two years, Ruth will devote a portion of her time to …Read more »