Archive for August, 2009
MLC is pleased to announce that Megan Dudek is the newest member of MLC’s Michigan Evergreen team. Megan will be responsible for providing training and support services to Michigan Evergreen libraries.
Megan comes to MLC from the East Lansing Public Library where she worked for six years in circulation and interlibrary loan, including experience in ILS migration. Megan received her library degree from Wayne State University and her undergraduate degree in Interdisciplinary Studies in Humanities from Michigan State University.
Welcome Megan!
August 17th, 2009
Register online for MLC’s Annual Meeting and Special Program, featuring R. David Lankes, Friday, October 2, 2009, at LCC West in Lansing.
Lankes’ keynote is “The Times They Are A’Changin’ – the Logic of Participatory Librarianship,” a discussion of how library service should match how people build knowledge. He also discusses the obligation and power of libraries participating in their communities and society as a whole. The keynote will be followed by a panel of local librarians reacting to Dr. Lankes’ presentation.
After lunch, we will reconvene for the MLC Annual Meeting, which will include an update on the merger between MLC and INCOLSA, followed by the Director’s Annual Report and business meeting.
AGENDA
9:00 a.m. Registration
9:30 a.m. – 12:00 Noon
Welcome – Randy Dykhuis, MLC Executive Director
Keynote – R. David Lankes, “The Times They Are A’Changin’ – the Logic of Participatory Librarianship”
“Reactor” Panel – Colleen Hyslop, MSU Libraries; Larry Neal, Clinton-Macomb Public Library; Anne Heidemann, Canton Public Library
12:00 Noon – 1:00 p.m. Lunch
1:00 p.m. – 2:30 p.m. Annual Meeting
Merger Update – MLC and INCOLSA Board members
Director’s Annual Report – Randy Dykhuis
MLC Business Meeting
August 14th, 2009
Today, MLA launched its new advocacy website, Michigan Libraries for the Future.
MLA President, Larry Neal, writes:
“Today as part of MLA’s Leadership Orientation we have officially launched our new advocacy website. It will serve as an easy way for library advocates to send their message to Lansing. By clicking on the “Write Your Legislator” button they can send a customized e-mail message to their legislators. I hope I can count on every library in Michigan to link to the website so people will act on our request. You will also be able to ‘Tell A Friend’ and forward the alerts to build a strong grassroots network with friends, trustees and library patrons.
“For those of you who serve on boards or know of boards that would be willing to support our position, there is a full resolution on the Press Kit page that you can use and tailor to your needs. I challenge any of you to read it without getting upset about the fact that we have to spend any of our time doing this in the first place.
“Next steps will include providing a downloadable bookmark, targeted points of view, and sample letters to the editor. I will send out further messages as these tools become available shortly. Also, be sure to join the 200 and growing fans of MLA’s Facebook page and sign up for tweets from our new Twitter service (links on new website)!
“Further, plans are coming together for our rally on the steps of the State Capital on Thursday, September 10. The time is 10 a.m. Attire is anything RED (thanks for the idea Bryon Sitler). Also, please contact me if you are able to bring your bookmobile. I keep hearing about how passionate people are about our profession and what we do. I hope to see lots of you and members of your community there. We will not let Lansing “shush” us. We will be heard.
“And last, but not least, as our list of supporters grows, I would like to thank the Michigan Library Consortium for its support, partnership and commitment to this major campaign to protect the Library of Michigan and MeL/MeLCat.”
August 14th, 2009
Today MLC and INCOLSA jointly issued this press release:
Lansing, MI – August 12, 2009 – Building on the collaborative relationship of the past year, the Michigan Library Consortium (MLC) and INCOLSA, Inc., announced that they have entered into a formal investigation to merge the two organizations.
A merger design team consisting of MLC Executive Director Randy Dykhuis, INCOLSA Interim Executive Director Marnie Maxwell, and three members each from the INCOLSA Executive Committee and the MLC Board of Directors met at the end of July to establish a process for the merger. The due diligence process is underway. The timeline calls for a Memorandum of Understanding to be approved by both governing boards in mid-November.
“Our library members are challenged by the current economy, so it is in everyone’s best interest that we look for ways to control costs,” said Dykhuis. “The OCLC and group licensing cooperative initiatives between MLC and INCOLSA have been very well received by the members of both networks. Our governing boards have agreed that a merger of the two organizations is the next logical step.”
Over the next several months the merger design team will explore all aspects of the merger. “A critical component of the potential merger is gathering input from the members of both organizations,” said Maxwell. “INCOLSA and MLC will hold regional meetings later this year to ensure our members have a chance to make their voices heard as we embark on this next phase of delivering the highest quality service to our libraries.”
I’m very excited about the potential merger with INCOLSA. We still have a long way to go but so far things look promising.
We live in exceptionally uncertain times and given the changes we’ve already seen, I think it makes a lot of sense to look at a larger membership and geographic region. The merger will allow us to offer new services that will benefit libraries and library users in both states as well as create more favorable economies of scale for existing services. It’s a win-win-win proposition for our members, our members’ users, and us.
August 12th, 2009
Congratulations to Capital Area District Library staff for receiving an Honorary Mention in OverDrive’s recent outreach program contest. CADL’s ambitious Literature & Lyrics promotion employed a mix of media from in-library signage, to Facebook and MySpace pages, to ads on local TV stations, all directing the public to CADL’s downloadable media page. There, users could vote for any of a number of user-submitted music videos. Thom Jayne and the Nomads—winners of the three-month-long contest—were then invited to perform a 45-minute opening set for Sheryl Crow at Lansing’s Common Ground music festival.
Links to an overview of CADL’s promotion as well as the winning video can be found at the URLs below.
http://www.overdrive.com/products/dlr/PS-OutreachProgramWinners.asp
http://www.cadl.org/news/videos/thomjayneandthenomads.html/
August 5th, 2009
Michigan lost one of the giants of our profession when Dick Chapin passed away on July 30. Dick was director of the MSU library for nearly 30 years and moved it into the top tier of research libraries in the country. But not only was he a top-notch academic library director, Dick was a visionary and a leader for all Michigan librarians.
I never had the opportunity to work for Dick but I count myself as one of the many he touched. I first met Dick in 1986, when he was nearing the end of his career and I was at the beginning of mine. He was one of the speakers at MLA’s Leadership Academy that year. I still remember his talk and I have the book he recommended so highly. It was Max DePree’s Leadership is An Art. I won’t say it taught me everything I needed to know about leadership but it certainly set me on the path. And that was how Dick viewed his job: mentoring librarians so that they could discover on their own how to become excellent librarians.
It’s not an overstatement to say that without Dick’s guiding hand at MSU all those, Michigan libraries wouldn’t have the rich array of resources available to them through MeL and other statewide programs. He wasn’t interested in just building up MSU but he had a keen interest in working with other libraries to move the state forward. In 1974, Dick, along with Vern Pings, then dean of libraries at Wayne State University, were primarily responsible for founding the Michigan Library Consortium. I remember one of Dick’s stories about the meeting at the Kellogg Center that year. He told me that the director at the University of Michigan needed some convincing that MLC was a good idea. So he grabbed one arm; Vern Pings grabbed the other and Dick said, “C’mon we’re going to get this done.” And off they marched. So like Dick Chapin. He rarely let anything stand in his way when something important needed to be done.
Dick did not quietly disappear after retirement. He continued to keep a hand in the library world. In 1997, when the Capital Area District Library was struggling to be born, Dick jumped in and worked with us on the millage campaign committee. He wrote letters and even appeared on a local cable television show to answer questions.
I’ll always be grateful to Dick Chapin. He laid so much of the groundwork for us to build on. Without his vision and hard work, our ability to share resources, electronic and print, would be far poorer. Thanks, Dick.
August 3rd, 2009
