Last month, I argued that the predictions and fears for artificial intelligence (AI) to have anything resembling real human intelligence are wildly over the top. AI today and into the future is highly unlikely “to understand the physical world well enough to make predictions about basic aspects of it – to observe one thing and …Read more »

In early 2017, MCLS Group Purchasing issued a call for Product Advisory Librarians (PALs). At the time, we had a vague idea that you, our members, could help us do a better job of determining potential new vendors or products, and we could, in turn, provide you a secure place to discuss those products and …Read more »

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE March 14, 2018 LANSING, March 14, 2018 – Midwest Collaborative for Library Services (MCLS) announced today that Randy Dykhuis, Executive Director, will retire from his position effective December 31, 2018. Dykhuis has been the Executive Director of MCLS since its creation in 2010. Prior to that, he served as the Executive Director …Read more »

ar•ti•fi•cial : humanly contrived often on a natural model : MAN-MADE in•tel•li•gence : the ability to learn or understand or to deal with new or trying situations; (2): the ability to apply knowledge to objective criteria When you think about artificial anything, what do you usually think about? Artificial sweetener with its slightly metallic taste …Read more »

John Sterbenz has been employed at the Kresge Business Administration Library at The University of Michigan since 1992, joining its librarian ranks in 1998. He has spent over 18 years serving in various Technical Services roles at the library, including as manager of the unit since 2000. In 2016, he was promoted to the rank …Read more »

Richard C. Harwood is founder and president of The Harwood Institute for Public Innovation, a nonpartisan, independent nonprofit that teaches, coaches, and inspires people and organizations to solve pressing problems and change how communities work together. Under his leadership, the Institute’s tools and approaches for deepening impact and change have spread to thousands of communities …Read more »

Dawn Olmsted Swanson is the Head of Technical Services and Metadata, Lead Librarian, at Kettering University Library in Flint, MI. She has a bachelor’s degree from University of Michigan, Flint and an MLIS from Wayne State University. In her spare time, she is actively involved in her church as well as Boy Scouts of America …Read more »

Consortia are fragile. Consortia are also resilient. Just like libraries. Unfortunately, for each of us, it only takes a small group, or even one individual, to threaten an organization that took years to build. We saw that in Michigan a few years ago, when a fringe band of ideologues nearly managed to shut down Troy …Read more »

The end of one year and the beginning of the next always seem to spark a certain pensiveness for me. I look back at the year that’s just ending and think about our accomplishments and our “might have beens”. 2017 saw plenty of them. I have a grab-bag of topics that came up in the …Read more »

Do you have a new idea or success story to share? Program proposals for GLRSC 2018 are being accepted through Jan. 12 on any of the following topic areas: Resource Sharing Best Practices, Marketing Services, Electronic Resources and Resource Sharing, Workflow Improvements, Cooperative Collection Development, Consortial or Group Purchasing, Purchase on Demand, Delivery Solutions, Data-Driven …Read more »