Michigan Library Association

Thursday, March 17, 2022 12:00 AM

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

Michiganders Encouraged to Participate in the Redistricting Process (Again!)

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Michigan’s court-ordered legislative map redrawing for seven state House districts must move forward. Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson encourages Michiganders to take part in upcoming public sessions of the Michigan Independent Citizen’s Redistricting Commission (MICRC) to redraw the seven state house districts.

2022 Michigan Library Awards Honorees

The Michigan Library Awards are brought to you by the Michigan Library Association (MLA), the Library of Michigan, the Library of Michigan Foundation, the Michigan Association for Media in Education (MAME), and the Michigan Academic Library Association (MiALA). It’s the Michigan library community's own version of the Academy Awards, the Emmys, the Grammys, and the Tonys, and the can't-miss event for recognizing Michigan's amazing library professionals and libraries.

Couldn’t attend the Michigan Library Awards in person? Grab some popcorn and watch a replay of the show on Facebook as we continue to recognize and celebrate our honorees! The recorded Michigan Library Awards program will be broadcast on MLA’s Facebook page on Thursday, November 3 at 7:00 PM.

Note From Dillon

February 22, 2023

Dillon Geshel

For MLA, the beginning of a new year is an exciting time. As we settle into another year of work in service to member libraries, we reach out with our annual Call for Ambassadors. It’s an opportunity for the organization to remind our membership about the many volunteer opportunities available, re-engage with longtime volunteers, and welcome many new faces to our work groups and committees. As a membership organization, the work and success of MLA is only made possible by a committed membership base that steps up to help us achieve our goals. From conference planning to defending the freedom to read, mentoring new leaders and so much more, MLA ambassadors transform our priorities into real value for the membership through their commitment and hard work. And guess what? MLA is ready to find an ambassador role for every interested member. Everyone is welcome, and the more folks that step up, the stronger we are as an organization.

Note From Debbie

January 25, 2024

MLA is embarking on a new and exciting chapter as we prepare to be a fully remote workforce!

As many of you know, MLA’s office lease at 3410 Belle Chase Way in Lansing will be expiring at the end of June 2024 and the MLA board has made the strategic decision not to renew our lease. While the staff has been “mostly” remote since March 2020 when the pandemic hit, we will now be going “fully” remote. With five months left, MLA staff are working tirelessly in figuring out all the big and small details of this permanent move – leasing a PO Box, making address change requests, updating business cards, renting a larger storage unit, repacking and sorting conference supplies, preparing furniture to be sold or given away, shutting off utilities, updating our remote policy, and making sure the staff have everything they need at their home offices. What to do with our copy machine might be our biggest challenge…how will we survive without it?!

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