Contents:
News | Executive Director | Training | Special Offers | MeL
MCLS announced in a press release on March 14 that Randy Dykhuis will be retiring at the end of the year. Randy has been the Executive Director of MCLS since its creation in 2010. Prior to that, he served as the Executive Director of the Michigan Library Consortium (MLC) for 15 years. He helped craft the formation of MCLS, which came about through the combination of MLC and the Indiana Cooperative Library Services Authority (INCOLSA). Both MLC and INCOLSA were formed in 1974 to promote resource sharing, develop online bibliographic management, and present training and continuing education for their respective memberships. MCLS continued those traditions as a two-state consortium while moving in significant new directions. Board President Eva Davis stated, “Randy’s leadership and vision laid the foundation for the success of MCLS, and his ability to execute our strategy has resulted in the high-performing organization we are today. We have Randy to thank for laying this groundwork as we move into the next phase of MCLS’s evolution.”
Libraries Read: 1 Book is an annual "library community read" project focusing on professional development. Library staff are encouraged to join together, across state lines and library types, to read and discuss the same book.
Last year's process of inviting YOU, our community, to submit titles for consideration was such a success, we'd like to do it again! We hope that by opening the submission process to a wide group of library professionals, we’ll discover the perfect book to read together! Please read more and find out how to submit titles by April 16 for this year's Libraries Read: 1 Book.
Read more and submit title suggestions>>
Twitter Chat about digital library cardsJoin us on April 19 for this month's Third Thursday Twitter Chat, Digital library cards: How and why, with Assistant Director of Library Services Eric Mims from Mishawaka-Penn-Harris Public Library, Mishawaka, IN. Eric will talk about MPHPL's decisions and policies in issuing digital library cards to students. Use the hashtag #MCLSchat.
New to Twitter? Here are instructions.
Registration is now OPEN! Reserve your space for the 5th Annual Great Lakes Resource Sharing Conference at the Hilton Garden Inn in Perrysburg, OH on June 7 & 8, 2018.
George Needham will be this year's keynote speaker. He will discuss the roots of interlibrary loan in the early 20th century, consider the impact of technology in the forms of the MARC record, OCLC, and the web, and then look at what forms resource sharing may take in the years to come.
One more date available to Michigan library staff for training on facilitation skills!In partnership with the Library of Michigan and MCLS, presenters from We Can Work It Out, LLC will lead one-day trainings across Michigan, which will include learning theory, practice of skills, and peer feedback. These trainings are open to all staff of Michigan libraries, with a particular focus on those who have gone through The Harwood Institute Public Innovators labs, with the purpose of helping you increase skills and knowledge necessary to ensure successful community engagement projects in your local communities. At just $40 per person including lunch, these events are a great opportunity to receive high-value training at a great-value price.
There is still time to register for the final training, May 7 at Traverse Area District Library in Traverse City.
In early 2017, MCLS Group Purchasing issued a call for Product Advisory Librarians (PALs). At the time, we had a vague idea that you, our members, could help us do a better job of determining potential new vendors or products, and we could, in turn, provide you a secure place to discuss these products and vendors with us and with each other. With one year behind us, we want to share the results of our collaboration.
Last month, I argued that the predictions and fears for artificial intelligence (AI) to have anything resembling real human intelligence are wildly over the top. AI today and into the future is highly unlikely “to understand the physical world well enough to make predictions about basic aspects of it – to observe one thing and then use background knowledge to figure out what other things must also be true. Another way of saying that machines don’t have common sense.”[1]
What we know today as AI is very far from intelligent, which makes most of the forecasts in articles like “Libraries in the Age of Artificial Intelligence” written by Ben Johnson, which appeared in the January/February issue of Computers in Libraries, off-base. But Johnson is not alone. Many very smart people kind of lose their heads when they write about AI. They worry about self-aware AI, which will result in an alien intelligence that could turn on humanity. Think Skynet in the Terminator movies or the Cylons in Battlestar Galactica. My view of all of that is close to economist Andrew McAfee who said in a 2013 TED talk, “There is no shortage of dystopian visions about what happens when our machines become self-aware, and they decide to rise up and coordinate attacks against us. I'm going to start worrying about those the day my computer becomes aware of my printer.”
There is a second thesis related to AI that contains more than a kernel of truth.
For more information, visit our upcoming workshops and events page. If you have any questions, please contact training@mcls.org.
MCLS and Taylor & Francis are pleased to expand our partnership to include Taylor & Francis’s eJournal collections. A group purchase will begin if there is enough interest. If you would like more information or to join the purchase, contact Chrystal Babbitt at services@mcls.org or (800) 530-9019 ext 401.
MCLS has partnered with ACM, ACS, Credo, and Wiley to offer special discounts on eBook purchases. These offers expire soon, so check them out today.
The schedule for the 2018 MeLCat Users Days has been finalized. Watch for details and registration information coming soon! The half-day meetings provide a great opportunity to meet with MeLCat help staff, and a chance to compare notes with other libraries about all things MeLCat and RIDES.
July 23, Dearborn Heights Caroline Kennedy Library
July 24, Grace A Dow Memorial Library, Midland
July 24, Kent District Library
July 25, East Lansing Public Library
July 25, Ypsilanti District Library
July 26, Kalamazoo Public Library
July 26, Rochester Hills Public Library
July 31, Northern Michigan University
August 1, Traverse Area District Library
Send your MeLCat questions to the MeLCat Help staff at melcathelp@mcls.org.
The MeL project is funded by the Federal Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) via the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) through the Library of Michigan, part of the Michigan Department of Education. Additional funding is provided by the State of Michigan.
