The director and staff of the McKune Memorial Library (aka Chelsea District Library) would like to invite a special day exclusively for our library peers:

Shawn Personke
Community Relations and Development Coordinator
221 S. Main Street
Chelsea, MI  48118
734.475.8732
chelsea.lib.mi.us

What a cool idea! Thanks for the invitation Shawn!

The library helps support educational outreach programming, has both hard copy and web resources available, houses Arab American genealogical information, and serves as a resource for scholars researching information about Arab Americans.

The building’s interior includes beautiful tile work, a great view of the inside of the dome, and multi-media displays showcasing Arab American’s contributions. A large interactive map of the Arab world greats visitors in the main hall.

MLC is pleased that the Museum has joined OCLC as a full cataloging member. Now, through the Museum’s OCLC participation, its collections will become available to a world-wide audience through OpenWorldCat, WorldCat.org, and WorldCat Resource Sharing.

Arab American National Museum website.

The Tuesday evening event at MLA was dinner and tours of the newly built Southfield Public Library.  The library building is exceptional and, even better, the library was packed full of patrons – reading, using the computers, enjoying the facility – really wonderful to see!

The children’s and teens area was WOW – World of Wonder.  The teens’ area is set up like a kid’s club, with low lights, computer stations, tables with TV screens, and stacks of CDs and DVDs.  Almost every seat was taken.

The childrens’ area has a patterned rug with symbols to follow to find various areas: a leaf to go the Treehouse (complete with fireplace and fireflies), a crown to go to the castle (with a plush throne and a sleeping, snoring dragon), a space rocket to go the space room (with a green screen for kids to dance in front of and show up on the large screen TVs inside the space capsule), and stars leading to the Battle of Books wall.  There’s even a whole Seuss area – with original Seuss art and a gigantic Cat in the Hat.  Plus tons of computers, print stations, and private study rooms.  What a fantastic childrens’ library!

I have to admit that I spent so much time in the childrens’ room that I never did get to the third floor to see the floating boardroom – it was too fun to leave.  [In my defense, I did notice Sheryl Mase from the Library of Michigan playing in the childrens' room too.....so I wasn't the only one!]

It is so great to get out to see wonderful Michigan libraries in action.  Good job – MLA – on a lovely special event!

Nancy’s blog covers her travels to libraries around the state and other library news. It’s great to have a state librarian who is in tune with new technology – plus it’s fun for the rest of us to see the photos and to hear what is going on in libraries around the state. Yay, Nancy, and welcome to the blogosphere!

I’ve added State Librarian of Michigan to our blogroll. If your library’s blog is not yet on our blogroll, please email me your blog’s URL, and I’ll be happy to add.

For the workshop at WMU, I added Google Book Search copyright issues to the copyright workshop. Yesterday I attended our Library Blogs and RSS workshops at MLC taught by Kathy Petlewski. I realize that I need to add blog/RSS copyright issues to the copyright workshop before I teach it again on March 30.

When I was a kid, we used to have home visitation every couple of years by the elders and deacons of the church. It was a solemn occasion. I hope that the visits I make to libraries around Michigan don’t inspire the same mixture of dread, apprehension, and curiosity as those visits by the representatives from the church.

In the last couple of weeks, I’ve been out to Calvin College, Grand Valley State University, Aquinas College, Cornerstone University, and Grand Rapids Public Library. While common themes emerge and the questions I ask tend to be similar, every visit is unique and in some respects unpredictable. For example, who could have known that I’d find myself in a tiny, darkened ofice in the Aquinas College library, wedged between two of the liveliest librarians that I’ve met in a long time? It was dark because either Francine or Shellie didn’t want the “life-sucking fluorescent lights” turned on. Actually I think there was a good reason why we met and chatted with only a very low incandescent bulb burning, but I don’t remember what it was. In any case, I learned a lot about their library, the challenges they face, and the anticipation they have for their new library.

Or that I’d get to enjoy an improbably warm October day by walking through a new sculpture garden at Cornerstone University. All with Christian themes and all created by a local Grand Rapids artist, the sculptures were impressive and touching. I especially liked “The Fall.” Very imaginative. Quite moving. Gail’s depth of feeling for the institution was evident as she showed me around and as we talked about her library and the challenges they face.

That’s about the way it goes everywhere. In every case, I’m welcomed. I’m told what a great job MLC is doing, with special kudos to one or two specific MLC staff members. And we talk about how things are going for them, how they think MLC can serve them better, and what worries them.

That last question, what worries them, is one of my favorites. It helps me see where MLC might better serve their needs and how we can position ourselves for providing better service to them. For MLC to stay vital and to keep energized, we need to shift with the environment. When MLC was formed the environment was shifting to automate cataloging. When I started at MLC, the environment was shifting to make library consortia influential players in online purchases. Now the environment seems to be shifting again. But the signs are hard to read, and it’s hard to know exactly where we go next.

When that happens and I’m not exactly sure what’s next for MLC, I know it’s time to get out and start talking to our members. MLC exists for only one reason: to provide important and needed services to its members. And I know that when we listen, we can serve better. That’s why I make the visits.

But you aren’t required to wait for me to darken your doorway. I’d love to hear from you. All comments on our blog are read. Let me know what you worry about. Maybe MLC can help.