Michigan Library Association

Note From Debbie

March 28, 2024

How do you show your community your value and importance? How do you know your local libraries have impact? How do you document the economic benefits, the educational benefits, the social benefits and the health and well-being benefits that your library contributes into making your community the thriving and dynamic places that they are?

As Kate Pohjola Andrade from the Woodlands Library Cooperative stated at our most recent Advocacy Hour, collecting appropriate data is the key to knowing the answer to any of these questions – from a national, statewide or local perspective.

MLA Connect Webinar: Library Privacy Act Amendments

Tuesday, March 16, 2021
10:00 – 11:00am

Learn about recent amendments to the Library Privacy Act that have the potential to affect how libraries report crime, interact with law enforcement, interact with each other, and to underscore the seriousness of maintaining patron privacy. This session will go through the new amendments and discuss how they may affect existing library practices. This is presented as an in-depth follow-up to the Library of Michigan’s 1/27/21 Library Law Spotlight. Attendance at both events is not required.

View Webinar Recording

Right To Read Screening Launch Event

All Michigan students deserve the freedom to learn - and it starts with a foundation of reading. Children need schools to prepare them for a diverse and rapidly changing world.

Say Yes to Getting Involved With MLA! The 2023-2024 Call for Ambassadors is Open

The Call for Ambassador online signup for 2024-2025 workgroups and committees is now open! Applications are accepted through April 26, 2024. Learn more and apply at milibraries.org/get-involved.

We invite you to take advantage of this opportunity to make a difference in the Michigan library community, develop your leadership skills, grow your network, and represent MLA. We hope you say YES! If you're interested in growing personally or professionally, we have a place for you!

MLA Connect Advocacy Hour: Intellectual Freedom: When the Challenges Are Truly Political

When a book or materials challenge is made by people with legitimate interests in the outcome, however difficult it is to discuss, there will be an outcome in line with the First Amendment and your library's values. However, there is an entirely different class of book bans that are political, politicized, and performative which must be understood in order to be properly engaged.

For public libraries, these challenges are used to attack the library's funding, its staff, or even its existence. In school libraries, these performative and politicized challenges seem to attack or negate the students the books represent. In order to face these unusual types of challenges, library leaders in both public and school settings need to see that these challenges are more expansive than previous intellectual freedom fights - and need to be prepared to engage them on multiple fronts at once.

Join MLA and MAME for a discussion with EveryLibrary Executive Director John Chrastka about ways to anticipate and answer highly politicized challenges with integrity to your mission and compassion for the community or students your library serves.

View Coffee Hour Recording

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