To help library staff understand, track, and maintain their own well-being in a challenging 2020, MCLS and our Board of Directors are offering a brief confidential survey from The Wellbeing Lab. Just take the survey by November 10, and receive a customized report and well-being plan tailored for you. I usually use this space to …Read more »

On behalf of everyone at the Midwest Collaborative for Library Services (MCLS), I’d like to welcome you to the Michigan Library Association (MLA) 2020 Annual Conference. We are pleased to support MLA in offering you the best online conference experience possible, at this time when so many, including our staff, would much prefer being together …Read more »

Controlled Digital Lending (CDL) is an emerging approach for libraries to legally lend digital copies of in-copyright print books. Though there is some controversy around CDL, it holds promise to help readers get to content they need when access to physical collections may be very limited. Some libraries and digital collections have already been using …Read more »

By an overwhelming majority vote, our member representatives elected the proposed slate of board members. The elected slate includes: Academic Library Representative (Indiana) – Denise Shorey, Director of Library Services, Franklin College Special Library Representative (Indiana) – Patricia A. Lunsford, Librarian, Franciscan Health Lafayette At-Large Library Representative (Michigan) – Kate Pohjola Andrade, Director, Woodlands Library …Read more »

John Sterbenz has been an instructor with MCLS (and previously, MLC) for 15 years. He has taught several OCLC classes and Excel workshops in the past and currently teaches the ever-popular MARC: An Introduction along with MeLCat Cataloging and Advanced MeLCat Cataloging. We featured John in the MCLS newsletter back in March 2018. Now seemed …Read more »

The MCLS Board of Directors has accepted the Nominating Committee’s proposed slate of candidates for the five seats with terms expiring at the end of December 2020. Electronic voting to approve the slate of candidates begins on Sept. 16. All Member Representatives should receive an email on Sept. 16 with voting instructions. Votes will be …Read more »

This month, Michigan Digital Preservation Network (MDPN) Coordinator Chelsea Denault and I will highlight recent work and next steps toward forming the MDPN as a community of members and set of resources for libraries, archives, museums, historical societies, and other cultural heritage organizations throughout Michigan. I may be speaking for us through this piece, but …Read more »

In August 2019, the MCLS Board of Directors authorized MCLS to make a strategic investment in and become involved with Project ReShare, a new approach to resource sharing for consortia and the libraries we serve. It’s hard to believe we’re already almost a year into that work! Version 1.0 will be available this month, and …Read more »

This month, the Collaborating Partners (Michigan Cooperative Directors Association, Library of Michigan, Midwest Collaborative for Library Services, Michigan Library Association, Michigan Association of Media in Education, and Michigan Academic Libraries Association) are offering Creating Inclusive Libraries: Gender and Sexuality Awareness, a series of three online events designed to inform libraries about how to better serve …Read more »

Continued killings of Black Americans are an acutely painful reminder of systemic racism in our country, and leave many difficult questions. To me, the two most important questions are: What can I do? What can we do? Our country’s history regarding race and racism is an extremely difficult thing for many white people to talk …Read more »