MLA Equity Fund Grant Awardees Announced

MLA Equity Fund Grants aim to reduce financial barriers to professional development opportunities and support individuals currently underrepresented in the library profession. It is our pleasure to announce the recipients of MLA's Equity Fund Grants! We are pleased to announce that Loretta Hunter, Wayne County Community College Library; Sandra De La Cruz Tello, Kalamazoo Public Library; and Mary Higginbottom-Johnson, Muskegon Area District Library have been awarded grant funds.

Thank you to MLA's 2021-2022 Ambassadors

MLA is lucky to have so many dedicated professionals step up to serve on our workgroups and committees and be ambassadors of the association. They show commitment to their communities, their libraries, their patrons, the library profession and the Michigan Library Association every day. Thank you once again to all of those who have volunteered to be ambassadors of MLA and share their experience and expertise with the entire library community.

Thank you to MLA's Directors!

The MLA Board is saying goodbye to four amazing, dedicated, and passionate leaders and we want to send a special thank you acknowledging all of the work they have done to support MLA and the Michigan library community. We want to acknowledge Jennifer Dean, U-M Flint Thompson Library, Loretta Hunter,Wayne County Community College Library, Mollie Freier, Lydia M. Olson Library, Northern Michigan University, and Jessica Keyser, Grosse Pointe Public Library.

MLA’s Equity, Diversity, Accessibility and Belonging Journey 2019-2022. We're in it for the long haul.

A journey is one that takes time, focus and energy. Since 2019, MLA has been intentionally and consciously on a journey to address equity, diversity, accessibility and belonging, and “we are in it for the long haul.” Our board, staff and ambassadors have been instrumental in keeping this front and center for the past 3 years in all that we do, in all decisions we make, and in our daily work to address the inequities that are inherent in our society. By digging deeper to examine the root causes of these inequities, MLA has become a more innovative and responsive organization with each passing day.

HB 5097 Moves Forward to Ban Race and Gender Stereotyping in the Classroom – Challenging Intellectual Freedom

In early June, the Senate Education and Career Readiness Committee took up House Bill 5097, which was first introduced by Rep. Andrew Beeler (R-Fort Gratiot), and referred it to the committee of the whole. The legislation would ban “race and gender stereotyping” from the classroom. Two Democratic members of the committee walked out of the committee meeting in protest. 

Letter From Ryan

Michigan library friends,

This time of year is about refreshment, regrowth, and renewal. After two-plus years of a pandemic, signs of encouragement grow stronger with each return of a familiar library program or activity, and with each return to our spaces by a patron. MLA is leading the charge to both welcome back and introduce anew to our communities, the value of recent additions to our spaces and collections through the MI-83 project where libraries, courtesy of ARPA funding, received new technology and digital content. The MI Library is Now marketing campaign can be utilized by all of us as another tool to welcome back folks to Michigan libraries. Take advantage of these resources and modify the message uniquely for your community.