The MiALA 2018 Conference Programming Committee is seeking additional reviewers for presentation proposals. Proposals will be available to reviewers from December 18, 2017 – January 18, 2018. Reviewers must be individual or student members of MiALA and will need to commit to spending between 2-5 hours to review and score proposals using an online form. If interested and able to commit to this timeline, please fill out the MiALA 2018 Programming Committee: Reviewer Recruitment Form by Friday, December 8, 2017.
 
Selected reviewers will be notified by December 15, 2017. For questions about the review process or reviewer selection, please contact Christine Tobias at tobiasc@msu.edu. Questions about the MiALA 2018 Annual Conference can be sent to conference@miala.org.
 

SAVE THE DATE!
Michigan Academic Library Association (MiALA) Annual Conference 2018
Preconference: ACRL Standards Workshop

Planning, Assessing, and Communicating Library Impact: Putting the Standards for Libraries in Higher Education into Action
May 16, 2018
Michigan State University Libraries
East Lansing, MI

Description
Libraries in higher education are increasingly required to demonstrate their value and document their contributions to overall institutional effectiveness. The Standards for Libraries in Higher Education is a framework for library planning and assessment that can be used for a variety of circumstances including annual planning, program review, and accreditation self-study. Through presentation, discussion, and group activities, learn how to use the Standards to communicate your library’s impact.

REGISTRATION BEGINS IN FEBRUARY 2018. LIMITED TO 40 PARTICIPANTS. PRICE = TBD

Michigan State University
Robin Ford

Montcalm Community College Library
Katie Arwood

North Central Michigan College
Stephanie Davis

North Central Michigan College
Beth Lieberman

MCLS
Nancy Kirkpatrick

Western Michigan University
Geri Rinna

University of Maine at Augusta
Thomas Magnuson

MCLS
Chrystal Babbitt

SAGE Publications
Lori Bond
 

Happy December, MiALA members! I hope everyone had a happy Thanksgiving, and is ready for the final rush towards the end of the semester. I have enjoyed the first half of the year being MiALA president, and am ready to take on the second half of the year!

I was lucky enough to be able to attend the MiALA Assessment Interest Group Pop-Up at the University of Michigan on November 3^rd. This was an excellent pop up conference, with great speakers, wonderful networking opportunities, and takeaways I plan to implement in my own teaching and assessment. It was well organized and well planned, and I would like to thank the Assessment IG for planning such a great pop up. If you have the chance to attend a pop up, please check them out! If you are a member of an interest group and are interested in exploring planning a pop up conference, we would love to hear from you. We have some processes and documentation that you can check out here that outlines the process to plan a pop up (or any number of events!)

In that vein, I am also looking forward to hearing about the most recent pop up event, held November 30^th, entitled “Librarians and Vendors, Colleagues in Collections,” hosted by our eResources Interest Group. It sounds like it will be a great event, and on a critical topic for librarians. (By the time you get this, it will have happened just a day or two before!) Thank you to LeAnne Rumler, eResources IG chair, and Patrick Roth, eResources IG chair-elect, for their work on this pop up.

We have some exciting events and opportunities in the works, including partnerships with other state organizations, programming initiatives, and the opportunity to network with other MiALA members across the state. Looking forward, I am hoping that you will all join us at the MiALA Annual Conference, May 17-18^th, to be held at the Kellogg Center on Michigan State University’s campus. I know the Conference Committee, chaired by Rachel Minkin, have been hard at work, and I am excited to take advantage of all they have put together (including a preconference!)

In the meantime, if you have any questions or concerns, do not hesitate to reach out to me or the MiALA board. You can email us at board@miala.org. We would love to hear from you!
 

SUSTAINABILITY IN ACADEMIC LIBRARIES

May 17-18, 2018
Kellogg Center at Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI
 
MiALA invites you and your colleagues to submit presentation proposals for the 3rd annual conference to be held May 17-18, 2018 in East Lansing. Please consider sharing your innovations, creative endeavors, and practical solutions for Sustainability in Academic Librarianship. How do we sustain ourselves within the profession? How do we sustain our libraries and institutions? How do we work (or what is our obligation) environmentally and socially? How do we sustain our community?

Participation from librarians, library staff, LIS students, and administrators from all types of academic libraries is encouraged.
 
Proposals for presentations, panels, workshops, or facilitated discussions (40 minutes), mini-presentations (20 minutes), or lightning talks (10 minutes) can be submitted using the online submission form and must be received by Friday, December 15, 2017. The primary contact listed on each proposal will receive a message indicating receipt of the proposal when it is submitted and decisions on all proposals will be communicated to the primary contact by Friday, January 26, 2018.
 
Questions about proposals can be sent to the Programming Coordinator, Christine Tobias (tobiasc@msu.edu). Questions about the conference in general can be sent to conference@miala.org.

Chaired by Dean Julie Garrison of Western Michigan University, the MiALA Advocacy Committee includes library staff across all types of libraries and with varied backgrounds and interests. We would love to hear from you and your advocacy stories.
- Respectfully submitted by Rachel M. Minkin

I am Barbara Begin Campbell, MLS, Coordinator for the Educational Resources Lab at Oakland University. We are the Curriculum Materials Center for  the School of Education and Human Services, housing PreK-12 literature and curriculum materials. I see an increasing lack of basic information literacy skills in our pre-service teachers and hope to work with partners to bring attention to the importance of vibrant school library programs and professional Librarians.

I’m Stephanie D. Davis, Librarian/Director at North Central Michigan College in Petoskey. I am serving on the MiALA Advocacy Committee to help find ways to improve information literacy skills among high school and college students through library collaboration and cooperation.
I'm Clayton Hayes, Digital Publishing/STEM Librarian at Wayne State University. I joined the Advocacy Committee because I believe that, as academic librarians, we should be invested in all of the libraries our students can and should have access to throughout their lives.  

I am Beth Martin, Head of Professional Programs with Grand Valley State University. Currently I serve on the MiALA Board as one of the Publicly Funded University representatives and I am the liaison to the Advocacy Committee. In my role, I report back to the board the needs and decisions of the Advocacy Committee. On a personal level, I have, for as long as I can remember, advocated for others who for whatever reason felt they could not be heard. Access to information is critical and making sure our communities have the access they need to be informed citizens is one of my passions. I enjoy working with the Advocacy Committee and plan to continue even after my service on the MiALA Board has come to an end.

Rachel here. I never thought of myself as an advocate but as one of the initial steering members of MiALA, I realized that my interest and drive to promote and celebrate academic libraries and library staff IS advocacy. I enjoy working at the national level as well, strengthening the ties between MiALA (an ACRL chapter) with ACRL Chapters Council and ACRL Membership, both of which I chair.

I am Samantha Minnis, MLIS, a manager in the Operations and User Services department at Grand Valley State University. I got involved with the MI-ALA advocacy committee because of my passion for libraries and my desire to be active and engaged. I’m lucky enough to see on a daily basis the impact academic libraries have on students’ learning and experience during college. I want to work with the rest of the committee to support and promote that work, and to help others advocate for themselves and their libraries.

Hi, I'm Terence O'Neill. I work with Michigan State University Libraries as the Entrepreneurship Librarian, and I'm deeply interested in how libraries work as part of the larger systems we have. The Advocacy Group is an extension of that interest, as we get to help libraries create better connections to dynamic elements of those systems: state and national legislation, home institutions, and other libraries.

I'm Corinne Jessica Thompson, Adjunct Librarian at Monroe County Community College. I am part of the MiALA Advocacy Committee because I believe academic librarians have an important role to play across the overall library and librarian advocacy landscapes. 

I am Tom Volkening, the Engineering Librarian at Michigan State University.  I joined the Advocacy Committee because I believe that librarians from all types of institutions should support each other in order to fulfill our respective missions.

Julie Garrison is the Dean of Libraries at Western Michigan University. She joined the Advocacy Committee to champion issues of broad importance to academic libraries.