February is all about library love—it’s Library Lovers’ Month, and Valentine’s Day. Kokomo-Howard County Public Library The Kokomo-Howard County Public Library in Kokomo, IN is asking their patrons to go on a “Blind Date with a Book” for Valentine’s Day for their chance to win a gift certificate to a local restaurant. Teens and adults …Read more »

Do you feel like hiding in your office with the lights out when you see the TV news van pull into your library parking lot? Talking to reporters and appearing on camera can be very uncomfortable for many librarians. However, in good times and in bad, creating good relations with the media is important. The …Read more »

Register today for the following online workshops offered by MCLS in January. AACR2 meet RDA – Jan 13 (1:30-3:30pm) (NOTE: Deadline to register is noon Friday, January 9) The MeLCat visiting patron service – Jan 15 (10-11am) (FULL – waiting list available) MARC: An introduction – Jan 20-22 (9-11am) Reference triage for paraprofessionals – Jan …Read more »

Sherry Gick, Library and Instructional Technology Specialist with the Rossville Consolidated Schools in Rossville, Indiana was recently honored by two different organizations for her tweets. Sherry was named a finalist in the 2014 Edublog Awards in the “Best individual tweeter” category, as well as being named by Scholastic as one of “10 school librarians to …Read more »

It’s hard to believe but MeLCat is now 10 years old!  The first successful patron request was placed on January 10, 2005 at 12:41pm when a West Bloomfield patron requested Alice Starmore’s “The Celtic collection: Twenty-five knitwear designs for men and women” from Bloomfield Township Public Library. There were a number of key milestones in …Read more »

An Indiana library, and a Michigan library were honored with the  2014 “I Love My Librarian” award. Cherry Hamrick from the Delta Township Public Library in Lansing, Michigan, and Frances Yates of Indiana University East in Richmond, Indiana,  have been named as recipients of the prestigious Carnegie Corporation of New York/New York Times “I Love …Read more »

Greetings to all in this holiday season. Thank you for another year of dedication and hard work towards a stronger, more vibrant and engaged Midwestern library community. Our libraries do make our world a much better place. We don’t say that out loud often enough. Celebrating the holidays, the MCLS office will be closed: December …Read more »

Watch your mailboxes for the January – June 2015 MCLS training calendar. If you can’t wait for the print version to arrive, check out our online training and events list. Highlights of this term’s calendar include new classes “Rare books cataloging: An introduction“, “RDA for non-catalogers: What do I need to know?“, “HR essentials for …Read more »

Thank you to ILF for being great hosts and to everyone who stopped by our booth to say hello. The staff of MCLS weren’t just in the exhibit hall though!  Around 20 librarians participated in the pre-conference “How to Engage and Lead Change in Your Community” led by Carlton Sears of the Harwood Institute for …Read more »

Congratulations to the Indiana and Michigan Library Journal Star Libraries for 2014! Two Michigan public libraries and nine Indiana public libraries have been designated 2014 Star Libraries by Library Journal. The star ratings are based on four types of output measures of per capita use – circulation, visits, program attendance and public computer use. New …Read more »