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News | Executive Director | Training | Special Offers | MeL
Welcome to our newest MCLS member libraries!MCLS welcomes the five libraries that have joined since February 2022:
Earlham College, IN
Hillsdale Community Library, MI
Parkview Health, IN
Peninsula Community Library, MI
Richland Township Library, MI
We are so glad to have you as members!
MCLS includes more than 600 member libraries across Indiana and Michigan. Is YOUR library receiving all the benefits of membership? Find out by checking our member list, or visit our website for more information and to access our online membership application!
Register today for the 2022 Michigan Digital Preservation Network Member Summit on June 9The virtual MDPN conference is fast approaching! It will take place via Zoom on June 9 from 9:45am - 3:15pm Eastern (8:45am - 2:15pm Central). Attendees can register via the MCLS store. Registration is just $10.
This conference includes an excellent lineup of presenters discussing a range of topics, including benchmarking and assessment with the DPC RAM, file transfer and packaging with DART, crafting an “elevator pitch” for digital preservation funding and buy-in, and more! The Summit also features sessions to introduce attendees to digital preservation and why it’s important to protecting our cultural memory content. Finally, we'll have news to share about the MDPN membership, software updates from our partners at LOCKSS, and our new logo! We’re especially excited to have Elvia Arroyo-Ramírez, Digital Archivist for University Archives at the University of California, Irvine as our keynote speaker, discussing elements of her sold-out workshop “Reframing Digital Preservation Through an Anti-Racist Lens,” which she co-led with Sofia Leung in January and March 2022. You can view the full schedule, including all presenters and talk abstracts, via Sched.
Questions about the event or registration? Contact MDPN Coordinator Chelsea Denault at denaultc@mcls.org. We look forward to seeing you June 9!
The Michigan Digital Preservation Network is a statewide initiative dedicated to building an affordable, accessible, and community-centered approach to digital preservation for cultural memory organizations of all sizes and technical abilities across Michigan. The MDPN is a program of the Midwest Collaborative for Library Services. Support for the MDPN is provided by the Library of Michigan and the Institute of Museum and Library Services. To learn more about the MDPN, visit our website.
As we shared last month, MCLS will transition to ConsortiaManager (CM) as its subscription management system in July 2022. CM is a commercial product specific to consortia and used worldwide by more than 40 consortia. It offers numerous benefits to both MCLS members and MCLS staff, including improved data management, robust reporting capabilities, and more opportunities for members to engage with their subscription information.
To facilitate this transition and the required data migration, the current MCLS subscription system, MemberBuild, will be unavailable from June 20 through July 4. This means all activity for July subscriptions must be completed in our systems by June 17. Please help us wrap up July renewals by finalizing your renewal decisions by the Friday, June 17 deadline.
Also, make plans to attend the ConsortiaManager training session on Wednesday, July 13, 11am-noon Eastern (10-11am Central). Conducted by CM staff, this training will be recorded and made available to members. A second live session will take place in September. This is your opportunity to see how CM works and learn from a system expert. MCLS staff will be in the session as well. Register today!
New MCLS phone numbers coming in JulyNext month, MCLS will be getting new phone numbers! Our main numbers, (517) 394-2420 and toll-free (800) 530-9019, will remain the same, but all group phone numbers (e.g. Training, MeLCat Help, MeL eResources Help, etc.) and staff direct numbers will be changing.
The changes will happen on July 1, 2022. Once the new phone numbers are in effect, our website Contact page will be updated. We will also post an update to our electronic mailing lists and update each staff member's phone number in their email signatures. Keep an eye out for our new numbers in July! We look forward to hearing from you via our new phone system.
School libraries already received their renewal emails in early May, and emails will be sent to Directors, Primary Contacts, and Billing Contacts for all other member libraries in early June. This email simply notifies your institution that the membership orders will be generated soon and that the invoice for your annual membership dues will be emailed to the Billing Contact designated for your institution. If you would like to make a change to your membership, have any staff contact updates to report, would like a purchase order number to be used for your renewal, or have any special requests, please reply to the renewal email as soon as possible. Otherwise, be on the lookout for your emailed membership invoice to pay by the date due shown.
For any questions you may have (such as, “Who is our Billing Contact? Who is our Primary Contact?” etc.) or to notify us of contact updates, please email membership@mcls.org or call Gwen Haviland at (800) 530-9019 ext 406.
As you may recall from previous newsletters, MCLS was awarded American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) monies by the Library of Michigan to support the digital content needs of publicly funded academic libraries in Michigan, including universities, community colleges, and Michigan's three tribal colleges. Across the nation, APRA monies for libraries were funneled to states via the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS).
Orders are coming in and money is getting spent! The deadline for spending the funds is July 15, 2022. If your library has not made a product selection yet and you would like more information and guidance, please contact Stephanie Davis at (800) 530-9019 ext 401 or daviss@mcls.org.
Thank you to everyone who attended this year’s Spring eResources Meeting in April. Approximately 50 library staff members, representing both Indiana and Michigan, participated in the virtual event that featured presentations from vendors and information on MCLS offerings and services. Participants heard from the American Chemical Society, Elsevier, and Oxford University Press.
Discussion regarding pricing dominated the dialogue. Open access was another frequent topic. As a result of the day’s conversations, MCLS will convene a fall meeting with members about needs and interests related to open access. Look for details of this opportunity in a future newsletter.
At their May 6 meeting, the MCLS Board of Directors accepted MCLS’s FY23 budget, which includes investments we will make using some reserve funds to foster innovation and advance diversity, equity, inclusion, justice, and accessibility (which we abbreviate as DEIJA) for the libraries we serve, the broader library community, and library users.
This month, I’ll share some information about several initiatives in which I invite and encourage you to get involved; contact me at garrisons@mcls.org to learn how.
Launch of Essential Workplace Skills tutorials!We are excited to begin offering our Essential Workplace Skills (previously called Soft Skills) workshops in a new, self-paced tutorial format through Niche Academy! Several of these reformatted courses are open for registration as of June 1, 2022. Though they have been renamed and are different in format, the content remains the same.
The courses available for registration now are:
Essential Workplace Skills: Introduction to Accountability at Work COMING SOON!
Essential Workplace Skills: Introduction to Critical Thinking Skills
Essential Workplace Skills: Introduction to Emotional Intelligence COMING SOON!
Essential Workplace Skills: Introduction to Thriving in the Midst of Change NEW!
Essential Workplace Skills: Introduction to Workplace Etiquette
The Essential Workplace Skills tutorials will remain free to all staff of our MCLS member libraries, and will be easier than ever to access and complete around your own schedule! A Certificate of Completion showing the number of hours (CEUs/LEUs) earned is available to download upon successful completion of these tutorials.
We will offer a Certificate of Library Staff Development in Essential Workplace Skills, and previously completed MCLS Soft Skills live and on-demand courses will continue to qualify. To learn about our Essential Workplace Skills Certificate, visit our website.
To register for any of our workshops visit our Workshop and Event Registration page. Please email Gwen Haviland at training@mcls.org with any questions.
Visit our MCLS Store for the full Summer/Fall 2022 semester of training workshop offerings!
For more information or to see all upcoming workshops, visit our workshop and event registration page. If you have any questions, please contact us at training@mcls.org.
MCLS has negotiated discounts with several library supplies and equipment vendors on behalf of our members. These vendors include Brodart, Demco, Ingram, The Library Store, Kapco, Office Depot, Barcodes, Inc., and Vernon Library Supplies. You can find more information on discounts and how to order on each vendor’s page.
Ideas are the fuel of research, and moving ideas along from conception to an end product requires organization. EndNote helps in all stages: collaborating with colleagues, assisting with document note-taking, conducting literature reviews, and creating bibliography references. With EndNote, researchers can manage the process more effectively and efficiently.
MCLS offers libraries the option to subscribe to EndNote on an annual basis or make a one-time perpetual access purchase, with multiple user levels available. Contact Group Purchasing at services@mcls.org or (800) 530-9019 ext 401 for a quote or more information.
Four MCLS member libraries came together in 2021 to form Overdrive for Michigan Academics (OMiA). As stated in the group Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), "collaboration, transparency, responsibility, trust and inclusiveness represent the shared values of OMiA." Founding members are Alpena Community College, Glen Oaks Community College, Grand Valley State University, and Kirtland Community College. Each library pays a fee based on its FTE. Funds include monies for shared content and Overdrive platform fees as well as an MCLS charge. Together the participating libraries develop the joint collection, focusing on student academic needs and leisure reading to promote lifelong learning.
The OMiA collection was launched in early 2022 and looks to build its membership moving forward. Efforts are also underway to develop an Overdrive group for Indiana academic libraries. Interested libraries are encouraged to reach out to Group Purchasing for a quote and more information at services@mcls.org or (800) 530-9019 ext 401.
The Michigan eLibrary has been selected by the Michigan Association of Intermediate School Administrators (MAISA) to receive the MAISA Education Fellows Award for the 2021-2022 year. This award is given each year to an individual or organization who, among other qualities, places service above self-interest; advocates for the programs and services of public education; has shown leadership in support of public education, and has performed public service on behalf of MAISA, ISDs or K-12 education.
The award will be presented to our very own Ann Kaskinen at the MAISA Summer Conference later this month. We are so glad to see Ann's tireless work integrating MeL into the K-12 community being recognized. Congratulations Ann and MeL!
MCLS staff has spent the last few months working with staff from four new libraries to get them up and running on MeLCat. We are pleased to announce that two of these libraries went live on MeLCat in May!
Is your library interested in joining MeLCat? Applications to join are always welcome, and you can find more information on our website.
MeLCat is a statewide multi-type library resource sharing program. MeL was made possible in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services. Additional funding is provided by the State of Michigan and the Library of Michigan Foundation.
