Register online now for the MCLS program, “Marketing the Public Library,” to be held at the MCLS Offices in Indianapolis on Thursday, April 21, 2011.  This special, one-time only program features Kathy Dempsey, author of The Accidental Library Marketer, and Jennifer Pearson of OCLC’s “Geek the Library” campaign. The program will begin with Jennifer’s presentation …Read more »

Register today to attend the ASPIN Supervisory Skills series hosted by MCLS at our Indianapolis office. The ASPIN Supervisory Skills series covers critical skills supervisors need to perform such as leadership, delegation, problem analysis, conflict, communication, team building, effective supervision, and time management. Participants may register for individual days or the full certificate program. Participants …Read more »

Michigan Evergreen, Michigan’s open-source shared ILS, will be featured in three programs at the Evergreen International Conference 2011 to be held in Decatur, GA, April 27-30. MCLS staff, Evette Atkin and Megan Dudek, are presenting “We the People: Governing Our Shared Evergreen System,” and Jeff Godin from Michigan Evergreen member library, TADL, is presenting two …Read more »

The MCLS Board of Directors held their quarterly meeting on Thursday, February 17, 2011, at the MCLS offices in Indianapolis.  MCLS Board meetings are divided between Indiana and Michigan locations. The Board education portion of the February meeting, “MCLS Environment,” focused on Academic Libraries of Indiana (ALI). Two ALI members on our board, Janet Fore …Read more »

The Midwest Collaborative for Library Services (MCLS) is pleased to announce that two new libraries are migrating in March to Michigan Evergreen, our shared open-source ILS project. The Darcy Library of Beulah will go live on March 17, and Barryton Public Library will go live on March 18. Both libraries are migrating from NuGen systems. …Read more »

We are thrilled to announce that MeLCat, Michigan’s statewide resource-sharing system, received over one million requests in 2010, making MeLCat the first INN-Reach system to break a million requests in a single calendar year.  At the end of December 2010, MeLCat had received 1,049,653 requests and had filled 931,812 loans, achieving an impressive fill rate …Read more »

Because Michigan State University has cancelled classes for tomorrow, the MCLS Lansing office will be closed on Wednesday, February 2.  We expect to re-open on Thursday, February 3. [Pursuant to our procedures manual, MCLS closes when MSU cancels classes due to inclement weather.]

The February 2011 issue of MCLS News is now available online.  See this issue for the latest updates on vendor trials and discounts, special programs and workshops, MCLS staff changes, Evergreen, MeL and more. MCLS News is an online publication of the Midwest Collaborative for Library Services (MCLS) for member libraries. For back issues, see …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 »

MCLS is pleased to welcome Christina Parrish as our newest staff member. Christina comes to MCLS from the Bloomfield Township Water Department. She will be working on group subscriptions as an MCLS Member Services Representative with Diana Mitchell and Brian Austin. Christina is a 2008 graduate of Eastern Michigan University with a Bachelor of Science …Read more »