Contents:
News | Training | Special Offers | MeL | RIDES
The MCLS Board of Directors met for their annual retreat on November 3 and 4. During the retreat, the meeting’s facilitator, Marnie Maxwell of Maxwell Associates, used the SOAR strategic planning framework to examine the organization’s Strengths, Opportunities, Aspirations, and Results. Maxwell led the Board through several exercises designed to foster discussion about the value and services that MCLS brings to its members. The conversations covered many topics including library science and continuing education, information literacy, inter-agency cooperation, and community engagement. The Board will use the outcomes from the retreat as a source for discourse and action at their 2017 meetings.
The Board elected new officers at the meeting. For 2017, Eva Davis, Director at Canton Public Library, will be Board chair. Vice-chair will be Brad Eden, Dean of Library Services at Valparaiso University, and Matthew Shaw, Dean of University Libraries at Ball State University will be Board secretary. Newly elected representatives Edra Waterman, Director at Hamilton East Public Library in Noblesville, Indiana and Alison Greenlee, Librarian at The Henry Ford in Dearborn, Michigan joined current members for the retreat.
See photos of the Board retreat on our Facebook page>>
As a recipient of an MCLS scholarship, I attended The Harwood Institute/ALA Public Innovators Lab for Librarians workshop in October. It was an intense 2 ½ days in Atlanta, GA! We spent time in the workshop going over the concepts of “turning outward,” and how we can use our roles in our communities to be a voice for the community. We first need to understand our communities. We then need to make the conscious decision to turn outward to make intentional judgements and choices. The process of change in a community doesn’t happen all at once, but we, as librarians, can be the change agents in our communities.
MCLS will host a day-long, multi-state event that will take place both in Lansing, Michigan and Indianapolis, Indiana. Speakers and participants will interact both in-person and remotely. The summit will feature a BIBFRAME overview and update from Beacher Wiggins (Director for Acquisitions and Bibliographic Access, Library of Congress) and a presentation from Linked Data industry leader Zepheira on the implications for libraries.
This summit is an opportunity for librarians to explore the possibilities of what a fully integrated Linked Data world means for libraries and our communities. This event will also provide updates and presentations exploring what is already happening to make that possibility a reality.
Thank you to all of the member representatives who attended the business session of the annual meeting! The bylaws revisions passed unanimously and are now available for viewing on our website. Stay tuned for a more in depth recap of the annual meeting in our January newsletter.
MCLS will continue to facilitate opportunities for libraries to support one another in community engagement efforts in 2017. Join us for a free and open discussion in Indiana or Michigan in March. This is a great opportunity to share your success stories, or get tips and advice on how your library can create deeper relationships with the communities you serve. These discussions are for all types of libraries.
Are you thinking about expanding your collections beyond the traditional? From fishing poles to Roombas, what sorts of "things" can you circulate? Let's chat about it on Twitter on December 15 at 2pm Eastern (1pm Central), using the hashtag #MCLSchat. This is part of our ongoing Third Thursday Twitter Chat series.
Upcoming chats:
If you missed November's Twitter chat on "Team building," and you want to read the archive, or if you need directions for participating in the upcoming chat, Read more>>
The MCLS office will be closed the following days for the 2016 Holiday Season:
Please mark your calendars for our annual eJournal meeting in the Lansing office from 9am to 3pm Eastern on Thursday, March 30, 2017.
If you have never attended the eJournal meeting, we encourage you to come. It’s a great time to speak with your colleagues regarding eJournals and other resources, as well as to learn what others are doing in their libraries with electronic information.
Our whole next semester of workshops, January - June 2017, is now up online and ready to accept registrations! A brochure will be mailed to our member libraries in early December, or visit our website!
For more information or to see our whole semester of workshops, visit our upcoming workshops and events page. If you have any questions, please contact training@mcls.org.
This month, MCLS has partnered with our vendors to share our bibliotheca Black Friday deal, as well as MCLS membership discounts on library supplies and equipment, Infogroup’s ReferenceUSA, and TumbleWeed Press resources.
For more information or to request a quote for any of our offers, please contact Chrystal Babbitt and Megan Bauerle at services@mcls.org or 800-530-9019 ext 401.
From Black Friday through December 30, 2016, save 30% off list price on Tattle-Tape™ Security Strip B1 tags and Tattle-Tape™ Security Strip B2 tags! Plus, purchase at least three boxes, or 3,000, B1 or B2 strips to receive a gift from MCLS, while supplies last. Be sure to post on Facebook or tweet us a picture of your present!
MCLS has negotiated discounts for you with several library supplies and equipment vendors, including Brodart, Demco, and The Library Store. To receive your discount codes, please contact us at services@mcls.org or 800-530-9019 ext 401.
Offering a full-service platform, ReferenceUSA helps library patrons create marketing plans, conduct competitive analysis, raise funds, and locate people. Our database selections and real-time access to more than 46 million businesses, 254 million consumers, new businesses, new homeowners and movers, make research easy and fast!
TumbleWeed Press specializes in providing products that help schools and public libraries bring curated collections of eBooks and audiobooks to their students and school-age patrons. For elementary students, TumbleWeed Press features TumbleBookLibrary Premium, which contains over 1,000 resources for getting children reading, including animated picture books, graphic novels, chapter books, math stories, and educational games. Best of all, TumbleWeed Press books are always available to everyone in your library with no time limits or wait lists! Check out these and other TumbleWeed Press products on their MCLS vendor page.
Ten Pulitzer Prizes. Four Emmy Awards. One hundred and sixty-nine years of coverage. The first issue of the Detroit Free Press came hot off the presses on May 5, 1831 as The Democratic Free Press and Michigan Intelligencer, before Michigan had even entered statehood. This historic newspaper was first in many ways: First U.S. newspaper to print a regular Sunday edition. First U.S. newspaper to publish court testimony. It sent reporters to Civil War battlefields to describe the action, set up a Washington bureau to report on politics, and was the first American newspaper published in Europe when it began a London edition in 1881.
Discover more today with early subscriber discounts now through December 30, 2016.
In November, the Orion Township Public Library successfully migrated to a direct connection between their Polaris system to the MeLCat INN-Reach resource sharing system. To accommodate the change, and minimize downtime, the Orion Township MeLCat Agency code has been changed from zv192 to zv692. This change streamlines not only staff workflows by allowing all MeLCat activity to be processed via their Polaris system, but also enhances their users’ experience by integrating local and MeLCat requests and checkouts in a single, familiar location. In addition, any local changes in item availability are now reflected in real-time within the MeLCat catalog.
This direct connection is possible through newly developed Direct to INN-Reach APIs, eliminating the need for an intermediate Direct Consortial Borrowing (DCB) system. Watch for updates on broader API availability!
Debbi Schaubman, MCLS Shared Library Systems Manager, will be attending several Michigan library cooperative member meetings along with other MeLCat staff. These conversations will be an opportunity for MeLCat libraries to ask questions, express concerns, and find out the latest MeLCat news.
MeLCat questions and comments should be sent to 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.
There will be no RIDES service on Monday, December 26, 2016 or Monday, January 2, 2017.
If there are days other than these when you would normally receive service but your library will be closed, let us know via the RIDES Assistance form, select the Closing Information option.
Closures should be reported no more than 14 days in advance.
RIDES questions and comments should be sent to the RIDES Assistance form.
