Entry Filed under: Annual Meeting, Open source software, Technology
Daniel Chudnov, Information Technology Specialist in the Office of Strategic Initiatives at the Library of Congress, will be the keynote speaker at MLC’s 2008 Annual Meeting, “Open Source, Open Libraries,” on Friday, October 3, 2008, in Lansing. To register online for the program, go to MLC’s Workshop Registration page.
We’re excited about Mr. Chudnov keynoting our “Open Source, Open Libraries” program. Among his many accomplishments, he started the oss4lib weblog and listserv in 1999 to promote open source software in libraries.
In addition to Mr. Chudnov, we have an impressive line-up of Michigan library staff talking about their successes using open source software. Steve Sowder and Terry Robertson of Andrews University will present on their experiences with open source Eprints for their university’s digital repository. John Rucker, Bill Ott, and Mark Szidik will highlight a few of their open source favorites for libraries.
For further information, see MLC’s News and Announcements.
August 29th, 2008
Ruth Dukelow
Entry Filed under: Miscellaneous
Over the course of many months, the leadership of Michigan Library Consortium and INCOLSA have been discussing ways in which we can collaborate to improve service and reduce costs for our members. We are pleased to announce that starting in October INCOLSA members will have access to the sizable e-resources collection of MLC. The combined purchasing power of the two organizations will allow both to offer more value to their member libraries.
You can read the news release for additional details on the combined group purchasing service. For more information, please refer to the Frequently Asked Questions document on the MLC website.
August 15th, 2008
Randy Dykhuis
Entry Filed under: ILS, News, Open source software, Technology
The Michigan Library Consortium (MLC) is thrilled to announce that Branch District Library is our first Michigan Evergreen library to migrate to the open-source Evergreen software. Their new catalog is part of Michigan Evergreen, Michigan’s open-source ILS project. Migrations for the remaining Michigan Evergreen pilot libraries are scheduled for this fall: Grand Rapids Public Library on September 29, Niles District Library on October 6, and Traverse Area District Library on November 10.
“Congratulations to the staff at Branch District Library for taking the plunge and becoming the first public library in Michigan to migrate to Evergreen,” said Randy Dykhuis, MLC Executive Director. “We at MLC are very pleased to be involved in the project.” MLC staff Evette Atkin, Ruth Dukelow, and Elaine Ross worked with the Grand Rapids Public Library and with Equinox Software, Inc., to convert and migrate Branch District Library’s records to the new Michigan Evergreen shared catalog.
“W00T! Nothing exploded!” said Evette Atkin, Systems Librarian for the Michigan Evergreen project. “With the amazing staff at Branch District Library, Equinox, and Grand Rapids Public Library, the migration was a success, and every minor speed bump will aid us making each migration smoother. Thank you so much to Branch District Library for being our first library to go live!”
John Rucker, the point person for the Michigan Evergreen migration at Branch District Library, said, “The level of service and responsiveness we have received from both Equinox and the staff at Michigan Library Consortium has far exceeded our expectations based on past experience with other vendors. There were a number little glitches to work out in the first couple of days and these were promptly resolved, sometimes in just minutes. We already knew that we and our patrons would be getting a superior library system, but it’s a pleasant surprise, indeed, to have this high level of customer service.”
In addition to migrations, MLC staff are responsible for providing training and support to the Michigan Evergreen libraries. “Training in Evergreen is proving to be a challenging experience, but I am pleased with its overall stability,” said Elaine Ross. “Trainees seem to learn very quickly and easily.”
After the pilot libraries have migrated this fall, the Michigan Evergreen project will be opened to other libraries who wish to join the shared catalog. To schedule a demo of Michigan Evergreen at your library, please contact 800-530-9019 Evette Atkin (ext. 152), Elaine Ross (ext. 153), or Ruth Dukelow (ext. 121). For ongoing information on the Michigan Evergreen project, see the Michigan Evergreen blog and the Michigan Libraries Wiki page.
August 11th, 2008
Ruth Dukelow
Entry Filed under: General Interest, Miscellaneous
What is your library worth to you?
How much would you pay out-of-pocket for your library services?
Check out this Maine State Library site!
http://www.maine.gov/msl/services/calculator.htm
August 11th, 2008
Sue Alt
Entry Filed under: MeL, Miscellaneous
The Michigan eLibrary and Gale are extremely pleased to announce that the partnership with Consumers Union of the United States, Inc. has been revised to continue to offer Consumer Reports titles in full-text – but now with no embargo. Through this newly revised license agreement, users will no longer have to wait 90 days to read current issues of Consumer Reports titles on MeL.
Consumer Reports titles can be found in the following MeL resources: General OneFile, Academic OneFile, Health Reference Center Academic, Business & Company Resource Center, General Reference Center Gold, among others. Full-text for current issues is available without embargo for current MeL users beginning now!
This is an exciting opportunity to introduce your patrons to a very popular resource and to show them all the great things that MeL has to offer!
August 7th, 2008
Suzanne
Entry Filed under: General Interest
Smart Poodle Publishing has announced its writing contest for librarians, “What I Wish Everyone Knew About Librarians.” The contest is open to librarians of public, private and school/university libraries in the United States and who are legal residents of the United States.
First prize is $500. See the press release for details.
Wouldn’t it be fun if a librarian from Michigan won?
July 30th, 2008
Ruth Dukelow
Entry Filed under: Copyright
The Center for Social Media, American University School of Communication, has published a Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Online Video. Click here to download full report in PDF.
The Code was developed by a committee of copyright scholars under the chairmanship of Peter Jaszi and Patricia Aufderheide. The document developed by the committee is a code of best practices that helps creators, online providers, copyright holders, and others interested in the making of online video interpret the copyright doctrine of fair use.
The Code sets forth five possible applications of fair use to online videomaking.
1. Commenting on or critiquing of copyrighted material.
2. Using copyrighted material for illustration or example.
3. Capturing copyrighted material incidentally or accidentally.
4. Reproducing, reposting, or quoting in order to memorialize, preserve, or rescue an experience, an event, or a cultural phenomenon.
5. Copying, reposting, and recirculating a work or part of a work for purposes of launching a discussion.
This is a well-written document that will be useful to schools and libraries in determining whether their uses of copyrighted materials in online videos fall within fair use. For links to other useful materials on copyright, see MLC’s Copyright Links web page.
July 8th, 2008
Ruth Dukelow
Entry Filed under: Cataloging
It looks like RDA (Resource Description and Access) has been delayed again. Check out Karen Coyle’s blog post.
MLC member librarians heard an earlier update on RDA at our Technical Services Conference in April this year. We’ll post further update information as available.
July 7th, 2008
Ruth Dukelow
Entry Filed under: MeL
The Michigan Library Consortium is pleased to announce that we have recently added three new MeL Database trainers:
Elaine Erickson
Director
Ironwood Carnegie Library
Ironwood (western UP)
Kevin McDonough
Reference and Electronic Services Librarian
Northern Michigan University
Marquette (central UP)
Karen Becknell
retired from Lamphere Schools
residing in Farmington Hills (Detroit metro area)
Each of these new trainers is enthusiastic and skilled, and each will bring unique experiences to our training program and give us better geographic coverage.
Welcome aboard to all!
MLC provides free training for the MeL databases under contract to the Library of Michigan. For information on scheduling free MeL Database training for your library staff, contact MLC.
June 5th, 2008
Suzanne
Entry Filed under: Cataloging
MLC is offering a five-day Name Authority (NACO) training program on July 14-18, 2008. This program will include a review of the MARC21 Authority Format, as well as in-depth, hands-on exercises involving Chapters 22 - 26.
To attend this training, your institution needs to become a participating member of NACO. For information on applying to become a NACO member, contact Heather Thomas at thomash@mlcnet.org.
For further information and to register online, go to MLC’s Registration page.
June 3rd, 2008
Ruth Dukelow
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