October is Michigan Library Appreciation Month

Get ready to celebrate Michigan Library Appreciation Month! This October we are celebrating Michigan libraries and library staff and highlighting all the many ways libraries serve their communities.

Annual Member Meeting Notice

Notice is hereby given to MLA members that the Annual Meeting will take place during MLA 2022 Annual Conference at the Blue Water Convention Center in Port Huron on Thursday, October 20, 2022, from 4:00 – 5:00 PM.

Note From Ryan

Intellectual freedom and access to information are core to librarianship, and we all play important roles in maintaining both within our respective libraries. Targeted banning efforts over the past year or two across the country and now punctuated recently in Michigan libraries, illuminate the real-life consequences of coordinated efforts to limit freedom and patrons’ right to read. The events at Hillsdale, Patmos, and many others bring home the need for you, your organization, and your stakeholders to be prepared on how to respond to challenges, and how to positively and confidently project not an argument or defense—but a patron’s right to read—and the vital responsibility of libraries to uphold that.

Michigan Library Millages August Election Results

Check out our roundup of the August 2, 2022 election results for millage issues on ballots around the state. There were 48 millage questions on the ballots and 43 of these passed. We are proud of the library boards, staff, and supporters for their work on these campaigns and their dedication to supporting their libraries. The Library of Michigan provides a listing of Public Library Millage Election Results from 2010 to the present. View the results (pdf)

Patmos Library Millage

August 5, 2022

The Michigan Library Association stands in solidarity with the Patmos Library Board of Trustees on the decision to retain a small collection of LGBTQIA+ materials on their library shelves. We are equally disheartened to learn that continued funding for the library was defeated on the August primary ballot because the library would not remove these materials. 

We recognize that individuals have the right and responsibility to make decisions about what materials are suitable for themselves and their own families. We also stand united with the majority of the Patmos Library Board, and with librarians across the nation in upholding our Constitutional protections. The freedom to read is guaranteed by the Constitution. No one has the right to make rules restricting what other people read or to make decisions for other families. Freedom only exists when individuals can make their own choices. When a book is banned by those who want to censor voices they don’t agree with, our democracy itself is threatened.

MI Right to Read - Intellectual Freedom Fact Sheet

MI Right to Read is an MLA initiative coordinated through the leadership of the Intellectual Freedom Task Force to protect the right to read in Michigan. Visit MIRighttoRead.com today to join the coalition. View resources to assist libraries with first amendment challenges at milibraries.org/intellectual-freedom-toolkit.