Last week was a historic one for MLC. On Tuesday, the membership voted 68-1 to combine with INCOLSA, and the following day the INCOLSA membership approved the same resolution 153-29. We are grateful for the overwhelmingly positive votes and are eager to begin working together as the Midwest Collaborative for Library Services. MCLS will officially begin business on February 15, 2010.

As we move forward as a combined organization, I look forward to continuing the good work that both organizations have done and expanding services in both states. INCOLSA and MLC both have histories of encouraging and facilitating resource sharing and interlibrary cooperation. That will continue and become stronger. We expect to use our new combined membership to forge new and better terms for our group licenses. We will explore how to leverage our membership to expand resource sharing options for residents of both states. In short, we want to work with libraries of all sizes and types in both states to make library collections more available and access to information resources, no matter the format or location, easier.

We thank all of you for the votes of confidence and will work hard to justify your trust in the new MCLS.