Note From Debbie

September 26, 2024

Stronger together! That was the uniting message coming out of Washington DC this past week at the National Summit on Intellectual Freedom for 150 librarians, library association executives, representatives from the ACLU, NCAC, PFLAG, publishers, authors, the Obama Foundation, booksellers, Red Wine & Blue, advocates, and so many others. MLA was honored to have been invited, not only to represent our members and association but also to represent the International Council for Library Association Executives (ICLAE) that we are a part of.  

For over three years, since the beginning of the culture wars that have put our First Amendment Rights through unprecedented challenges, those invited to attend have been on the frontlines guarding and protecting these rights. What we came to realize in our short time together is that we all represent and speak to diverse and unique communities. But, at the end of the day, we all agreed that we must step up TOGETHER, find a common message, fight like hell, and leave egos at the door. We need to acknowledge the hard, exhausting, and daunting work, and that we have to do it anyway. 

MLA Strategic Planning Starts Soon

This fall, MLA will begin developing a new strategic direction and 3-year plan for our work to educate, advocate, and engage libraries and library workers throughout Michigan. Since 2019, MLA has been working with a healthy and robust rolling plan that is updated annually and has served us well over the past 6 years.  It is now time to gather more input, check in with our members, and re-engage our key stakeholders. As our newly contracted planning consultants state in their proposal, “After the uncertainty of the last several years and recent threats to libraries across the country, it’s a good time to celebrate success, assess what’s working, deepen members connections, and set a course for the next three plus years.” We are excited to get started.