Michigan’s FY24 State Budget

On June 28, Michigan’s Fiscal Year 2024 state budget was approved. Even with hard work and many communications with state legislators from our members, MLA staff, Board, and lobbyist, State Aid to Libraries has remained flat. At the request of the Michigan Department of Education (MDE), the library pilot program was cut even though we requested that the boilerplate language be changed to include all counties. We were happy to see that there was a special appropriation of $100,000 for new learning pods in the Hazel Park District Library. We must all keep working and communicating the needs of our public libraries, now even more than ever.

Note From Keeley

July 25, 2024

At a recent MLA event, a Mentorship Program participant sought me out to thank me for introducing them to their mentor. Hearing their feedback made me so glad to be a part of this organization and inspired me to start thinking about why mentorship matters.

Being a mentee is an opportunity to grow and learn from someone more experienced in your field, but it’s so much more than that. A mentor helps you clarify and be accountable for your goals; more informally, a mentor is a trusted listener who is there to encourage you when your work gets difficult (and, as we all know, the work has been especially difficult the last few years). Mentors bring with them years of connections, expanding your professional network, as well as the kind of institutional knowledge that you often don’t pick up in school. A mentor offers insight into potential career paths, projects, and educational options. The mentor-mentee relationship is flexible, personal, and confidential in a way that a classroom generally isn’t.