Contents: Executive Director | News | Training | Special Offers | Vendor and Product News
I highly recommend Mastering AI by Jeremy Kahn as a comprehensive look at AI with useful information for all types of libraries. Continuing from my observations from February, May, and June 2024, here are some of my takeaways from Mastering AI. Kahn does a great job balancing potential benefits and sobering risks, as well as ethics around AI from perspectives far too numerous to list here...
Congratulations to MCLS’s newly elected board members!Via a unanimous vote in early October, MCLS member representatives elected the proposed slate of board members who will serve from Jan. 1, 2025 to Dec. 31, 2027.
The elected slate includes:
New board members will join the current board for an annual planning retreat Nov. 21-23.
Please welcome our newest member libraries!MCLS is pleased to welcome the following new members to our community:
(*Winner of the free MCLS membership drawing at the 2024 MLA Conference)
Apply by Nov. 4 for our MeLCat Support & Training Specialist position The MeLCat Support & Training Specialist is an active member of the Shared Library Systems team. You will assist with planning, implementing, and supporting MeLCat including through training. This is a full-time position reporting to the Manager of Shared Library Systems. MCLS offers generous benefits, a supportive work culture, and a hybrid work environment. The minimum compensation for this position is $24.00/hour (non-exempt).
Please read the full job description(PDF) for more information. Qualified applicants should send a cover letter and resume to jobs@mcls.org by Monday, Nov. 4, 2024 at 5 p.m. Eastern.
The MeL project was made possible in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services through the Library of Michigan.
Visit MCLS at November Conferences!MICHIGAN
Michigan Adult, Community, and Alternative Education Association (MACAE) Annual Conference
Mid-Michigan Digital Practitioners fall meeting
*The MeL project was made possible in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services through the Library of Michigan.
INDIANA
Indiana Library Federation Annual Conference
Exhibitor Booth #15 (We have great swag for you!)
Presentations:
Indiana library selects MCLS to provide consulting servicesWe are pleased to announce that Jefferson County Public Library (IN) has chosen MCLS to facilitate their Strategic Planning project, to begin this winter. We are looking forward to partnering with another member library!
Is your library looking for library-specific consultants, presenters, or facilitators? MCLS can help! Visit our webpage to read more or contact us to request a quote. Questions? Email engagement@mcls.org.
I’m delighted to join MCLS as the new eLicensing and Collection Resources (eLCR) Manager, and to work closely with member libraries, vendor partners, and MCLS staff in connecting libraries with the resources their user communities need. It is truly a privilege to carry this work forward and I’d like to thank outgoing eLCR manager, Stephanie Davis, on the great work she has done to establish and maintain active relationships and creative solutions that help us respond to member libraries’ evolving needs...
ConsortiaManager CornerOne of the services provided by MCLS is the review, negotiation, and execution of license terms with our vendor partners. We have been preparing to move to a new MCLS website and part of that project has been to move our license agreements to ConsortiaManager.
To help members locate and review license terms, we have recorded a 6-minute video that explains how to access them. You can find it here and in the notifications area at the top of your main dashboard in ConsortiaManager .
Please take a moment to watch and contact us at services@mcls.org or 517-939-1382 if you have any questions.
Linked Data Users Group: Fall 2024 All-Users Group Meeting Join MCLS’s Linked Data Users Group for our virtual, fall All-Users Meeting on Wednesday, November 13, 1 p.m. Eastern (12 p.m. Central) via Zoom. Our guest speaker is Ruth Kitchin Tillman, Cataloging Systems and Linked Data Strategist at the Penn State University Libraries. Ruth will present “Waiting for Production: Making Use of Long Liminality.”
Cataloging and metadata workers operate in a space of unrealized promise. For over a decade, we've been told, “linked data is coming, be ready!” Now we hear, “AI is coming, be ready!” Yet in our day-to-day, many of us work with data structures that are older than we are. If you're not working on the few cutting-edge projects, how can you make use of the time? What is still worth doing even if the promised future never materializes? This talk will take its grounding from research into the era of library automation and the worker experience of systems migration as well as the past decade of linked data development and experimentation.
Learn more about Ruth Kitchin Tillman at ruthtillman.com.
Visit the MCLS Store for the fall 2024 semester of training workshops and to see all workshops currently open for registration! Questions? Contact Gwen at training@mcls.org or 517-220-9950.
The MeL project was made possible in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services through the Library of Michigan.
The MCLS website has a full list of vendor partners and a searchable product list.
For a limited time*, MCLS member libraries (academic and public) can sign up for two years of access to NewspaperArchive's U.S. or Global Collections for the price of one.
With this offer, members will only have to pay 50% of their subscription rate now, and the other 50% won't be due until next year.
*Offer expires Dec. 15, 2024.
MarketLine, a product of GlobalData, is well known for its business intelligence information. Along with its expertise in business intelligence, GlobalData also offers resources to support pharma and medical intelligence for both the academic and medical library market. The Healthcare Pharma and Medical Intelligence Centre offers nine modules, including Drugs Intelligence, Trails Intelligence, Therapeutic Analysis, and Thematic Analysis. In addition to these theme specific modules, the Intelligence Centre provides insight into how social media is used by pharma and medical companies.
For trial and/or quote information, contact MCLS eLicensing and Collection Resources at services@mcls.org or 517-939-1382.
Visit the eResources page of the MCLS website for a full list of vendor partners and a searchable product list.
DOAJ webinar follow-up The Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) is a unique, growing index of about 21,000 diverse open access journals whose services and metadata are embedded in libraries across the world. On October 10, MCLS hosted a webinar with DOAJ Community Manager & Ambassador Ivonne Lujano with the purpose of sharing more about how DOAJ works with researchers, libraries, and organizations worldwide to provide services and indexing. If you couldn’t attend and would like to learn more, the webinar was recorded and can be accessed here.
DOAJ relies on contributions from libraries to run its services. We’re pleased to share that MCLS has partnered with DOAJ to offer libraries discounted rates on Basic and Sustaining support options. In addition to supporting an organization that values open research, benefits of participating include:
Benefits for basic or sustaining DOAJ support:
For information on how your institution can support DOAJ financially, reach out to MCLS eLicensing and Collection Resources at services@mcls.org or 517-939-1382.
