Librarian of Congress Visits Taylor Community Library

On Saturday morning the Taylor Community Library hosted Librarian of Congress Dr. Carla Hayden. She visited to present Library Director Theresa Powers with books from the Library of Congress and to celebrate March as National Reading Month. Assistant Library Director Vanessa Verdun Morris opened story time for Dr. Hayden and U.S. Congresswoman Debbie Dingell. State Rep. Erika Geiss was also in attendance. The library was full and the Taylor library staff did a beautiful job with the event. 

MLA Advocacy - March 22, 2018

Michigan voters in November will elect a new governor, secretary of state, attorney general, Michigan supreme court justices, and both state and federal senators and representatives. This means that elected officials as well as candidates will spend considerable time campaigning throughout the next eight months. When the final weeks of lame duck session roll around we will be watching closely for any legislation impacting our libraries.

A number of ballot proposals will be decided in November as well. Here is a detailed outline of the proposal process and the questions we should expect to see this fall. This document is provided by MLA lobby firm GCSI.

Executive Director's Desk - March 8, 2018

NIS Insurance Start Date Adjusted to July 1, 2018

MLA has partnered with National Insurance Services, Inc. (NIS) to provide another resource for affordable health care coverage to member library staff. We have been waiting patiently for this benefit to begin. When we initiated this program in 2017 it was a much simpler process than it is currently. We fully expected plans and rates in place by January 1 of this year.

President's Update - March 8, 2018

Special libraries, public libraries, academic libraries, school libraries. Those of us working in libraries tend to classify library types into divisions. I guess it's in our nature to organize information. But an interesting thing to note is that most of the general public, including most legislators, don't see those divides. They are pro-libraries (hopefully) and they see us all as one. That's good news, I think, and that is part of why the MLA mission is to support all libraries in Michigan.

MLA Advocacy - February 22, 2018

The Budget Process Begins

Governor Rick Snyder proposed his 2019 budget. Library funding remains pretty much unchanged from 2018. This is step one in the budget process. Both the House and Senate will make their own recommendations. Any differences between the chambers are decided in conference committee. The proposed budget then heads back to the governor for his signature.

Library Protection for Narcan Use

Senate Bills 828 and 829 were introduced today by Senator Rick Jones and Senator Margaret O’Brien. MLA worked with the Library of Michigan and Michigan Department of Education to help craft this legislation providing libraries with protection from civil and criminal liability when administering life-saving Narcan in the result of an opioid drug overdose at the library. Currently Good Samaritan laws protect individuals from prosecution but as governmental entities libraries could technically be held liable if something went wrong. Our goal is to have libraries treated much like school districts. We appreciate the Senators’ support of this important life-saving legislation.