MLC and INCOLSA have engaged a merger consultant, FIO Partners, to work with the boards and staffs to determine whether it is in the best interests of each organization to merge operations. Our first meeting with Jane Arsenault, the lead consultant for FIO Partners, is scheduled for July 29. We expect to have more information after that meeting.
Last year, MLC and INCOLSA began to share work on some services. In September 2008, MLC extended its group licensing for databases, ejournals, and ebooks to INCOLSA members and opened up a number of new e-resources to them. This spring, with the introduction of OCLC’s new service model, we agreed to work together to implement the changes for our two states. MLC is providing billing information to INCOLSA members and INCOLSA is providing marketing information about OCLC products and services to MLC members. Exploring a merger is the next logical step.
As OCLC and the Michigan Library Consortium (MLC) continue to work in partnership on behalf of OCLC member libraries, we would like to inform you about some important changes with regard to how your library will now access support for OCLC products and services. Please be sure to share this news with staff members in your organization who use OCLC services.
OCLC customer support. MLC/OCLC members will now contact OCLC Customer Support for all questions related to support for OCLC products and services. To contact OCLC Customer Support, please email support@oclc.org or call 1-800-848-5800.
OCLC Service Hours. OCLC support professionals are available 14 hours a day, Monday – Friday, 7 a.m. – 9 p.m. Eastern Time, to assist you with your needs. They will provide answers about OCLC products and services, to help your library maximize the value of your OCLC membership.
OCLC billing. MLC will offer billing assistance to your library for OCLC products and services. To contact MLC for billing assistance, call Janet LaCross at 1-800-530-9019 extension 116, or email lacrossj@mlcnet.org.
OCLC sales. To order OCLC Cataloging subscriptions and other OCLC products and services, see OCLC’s Orders web page, To request a quote or other sales information, contact OCLC at us@oclc.org.
OCLC news. MLC is teaming up with INCOLSA and OCLC to keep you informed about the latest OCLC news. With the introduction of OCLC’s new service model, INCOLSA will provide information about new and enhanced OCLC products and services via regular updates on the MLC website, the Communique blog, and mlcinfo mailing list.
Missouri Library Network Corporation (MLNC) in cooperation with Information Today, Inc. is happy to offer reduced rates to the Internet Librarian 2009 Conference. If you register for CIL 2009 through MLNC, you’ll receive the special rate of $279 for the full 3-day conference. Discounts are also available for the Internet@Schools conference and a combination of both events. The complete conference schedule including a list of pre-conferences is available at http://www.infotoday.com/il2009/.
To receive your discount, you must return your registration with payment directly to MLNC using the form at http://www.mlnc.org/il2009.pdf no later than Wednesday, September 16, 2009.
Contact Deb Ehrstein (deb@mlnc.org, 800-969-6562, x816) with questions or for additional information.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Payment must be made to Missouri Library Network Corporation (MLNC), NOT to MLC.
The Michigan Library Consortium (MLC) is looking for a tech-savvy, problem-solving, adventurous librarian to join our Michigan Evergreen team. Michigan Evergreen is an open-source shared ILS project, with ten libraries in the shared system and more to be added in 2009-2010. This position is responsible for training and support of participating libraries on all ILS functionality (OPAC, circ, cataloging, etc.). For consideration, please submit a completed application form and your resume with salary requirements to MLC, Human Resources, 1407 Rensen Street, Suite 1, Lansing, MI 48910-3657. Position is open until filled, with applications received before July 17 given first consideration. Excellent benefits. For links to the complete position description/qualifications and to MLC’s application form, go to: http://mlcnet.org/cms/sitem.cfm/news__announcements/mejob_posting/
On June 5, the second day of MLC’s two-day Preservation Conference, Jennie Thomas, Archivist and Special Collections Librarian, will discuss her library’s vendor collaboration to assess preservation at Albion College. Through a Preservation Assistance Grant from the National Endowment of the Humanities, the assessment was completed by the Northeast Document Conservation Center in March of 2009. Jennie will discuss writing the NEH grant, the NEDCC assessment process, the recommendations that were made in the final report, and the impact on the College’s planning process for library renovation.
Also on June 5, Ann Olszewski, Archivist and Special Collections Librarian, will address “Extending the Preservation Team at the Cleveland Public Library.” Preserving rare books and unique sound recordings in the Cleveland Public Library collection has required finding specialized vendors and conservators to treat these collections. Ann will talk about working with a range of vendors, including the Northeast Document Conservation Center for rare books and photographs, the HF Group Indiana conservation department for special boxes, facsimiles, and digicover bindings for non-Roman language books, the Intermuseum Conservation Association for art and works on paper, OCLC Preservation service center for microfilm, and Safe Sound Archive for audio to digital conversion.
The theme of MLC’s Preservation Conference, “Who Are You Going to Call? Library-Vendor Partnerships in Preservation Projects,” is libraries working with preservation/conservation vendors on physical preservation projects.
Shannon Zachary, University of Michigan Library, will address “Mass Deacidification from Inside Out” at MLC’s Preservation Conference on June 4-5 2009 at the Kellogg Center in East Lansing, Michigan. Mass deacidification is precisely the sort of preservation treatment – with high demands for technology, equipment, space, and experienced staff – that makes sense for almost any library to outsource rather than attempt in-house. The University of Michigan Library has been engaged in an outsourced mass deacidification program since 1998. This talk will discuss what mass deacidification is, making decisions about what to deacidify and why, as well as work flow, risks, costs, and benefits.
Jennifer Hain Teper, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, will present “Mold Remediation in the University of Illinois’ Rare Book & Manuscript Library – Our successes and compromises.” In late September of 2007, Conservation identified mold in the storage vault of the Rare Book and Manuscript Library (RBML) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). Over the course of 8 months, the staff of the RBML, Preservation & Conservation, Library administration, and Facilities & Services worked closely to plan for and implement a remediation plan. Blackmon-Mooring-Steamatic Catastrophe (BMS CAT) was contracted to complete the cleaning of the collection materials, storage areas, and HVAC systems in a ten-week period. With the outsourced cleaning of collection materials and spaces complete since May of 2008, we have since evaluated what worked well, what compromises were made, and what we would have done differently to achieve the best result.
This promotional library video was produced by St. Johns County (Fla.) Public Library for National Library Week. I like it because it makes the concept of “database” easily understandable to library patrons in an entertaining format – especially the whirlwind summary of the databases that this library has to offer.
At four minutes, it might be a bit long to hold the attention of casual Internet-surfers (anything over two minutes and you lose them), but perfect for a captive audience at a library program or school visit. It is a fun concept – maybe someone in Michigan could produce a shorter version for a lightning tour of MeL databases? Any takers?
Kevin Driedger of the Library of Michigan will speak on “Socially Networked Preservation” at MLC’s Preservation Conference on June 4-5, 2009, at the Kellogg Center in East Lansing, Michigan. Kevin will examine how the library preservation community is currently making use of social networking, or web 2.0, technologies such as blogs and wikis. He will also explore new opportunities to make greater use of these technologies to communicate and collaborate.
Following Kevin’s talk, Jeff Moyers of National Archives Publishing Company and Eric Alstrom of Michigan State University will discuss specific preservation projects involving library-vendor partnerships.
