by Randy Riley

Recently, I woke up and went to the computer to check my email and Facebook account, as I do every morning. However this particular morning I was surprised to discover this post from my nephew.

Charlotte pulled "A Light in the Attic" and “Where the Sidewalk Ends” off the shelf today. It got me thinking that it was 30ish years ago you got these for me as a Christmas gift. I wanted to thank you for helping to nurture my love of reading. Not only with books, but exposing me to comics and showing me what was possible with words and pictures. I remember when my mother helped push me into reading with comics. I remember that's when you jumped onboard and helped to guide the ship even more. Although, I believe “A Light in the Attic” was before that time and it took a couple years to fully appreciate the gift (which has never left my side). I remember you taking me to the comic book store in East Lansing and buying "Nick Fury and the Howling Commandos," telling me I had to read these great comics. You gave your money, your time and your love of reading to a geeky little kid. Now, thanks in part to you, I hope to be able to pay it forward to my wonderful daughter. What you did all those years ago really means a lot to me and I thank you. Hope to see you soon.

Wow! This message did my heart good… I had no idea whether my message about reading was resonating during all of those past family gatherings. Let this remind all of us: never underestimate the power of Shel Silverstein’s goofy, funny and poignant poems or a librarian’s authoritative power to influence others about the importance of books, reading and barrier free access to information.

My larger point is that librarians and information specialists make a difference every day - just like my nephew described. As librarians, educators and proponents of lifelong learning, we positively impact people’s lives. We know that we make a difference, but rarely do we receive the positive feedback my nephew shared with me. Sometimes we get lost in day-to-day budget or staffing challenges. Fall is conference season. Take advantage of the various opportunities these conferences provide and use them to rub shoulders with colleagues and to recharge your batteries. Fight the “good fight.” Libraries change lives, but as my nephew taught me, so do librarians.

by Sonya Schryer Norris

It's been a year now since we re-booted LM4X. We took a look at our statistics and our readership and determined which improvements to aim for in 2015.

Look forward to bi-monthly rather than quarterly editions focusing on issues such as: how the Library of Michigan (LM) can help your library and patrons, how LM can help you professionally, what LM can do for state government, and our collaborative efforts with other libraries. I'll continue to serve as editor with regular columns from State Librarian Randy Riley and contributions from LM staff.

We're also looking to share Michigan library success stories. Do you have something to share with the wider library community? We have over 2,500 subscribers. Contact me at norriss2@michigan.gov or 517-373-4457. I'd love to hear about your achievements!

As you may have caught on, the name LM4X (Library of Michigan 4 Times a Year) will no longer serve us well. Randy Riley is annoucning a naming competition. Anyone is eligible to suggest a new name. The prize is a $25 gift card to a store of your choosing. Please use this link to suggest a new name.

by Shannon White

WebJunction's library-specific courses are now available at no cost to all library staff and volunteers in Michigan.  Through the generous support of OCLC, the Gates Foundation, LM and other state libraries, WebJunction provides timely and relevant learning content to access anytime, anywhere. If you want to develop your own skills or those of your staff, library-specific self-paced courses and webinar archives can help you. 

All learners must do the following:

• Create a new account. Begin by selecting Log-in at the top right on http://learn.webjunction.org/ and then Create New Account. Once you've created your new account you can explore the catalog of library-focused self-paced courses and archived webinars.
• Certificates of completion will be available to you after you have completed any course or webinar that you enroll in from the catalog.

Come back often to this resource to see the new courses available for you to take over the next year. Contact Shannon White at whites29@michigan.gov if you have questions.

by Shauna Swantek and Sonya Schryer Norris

Putnam District Library Director Shauna Swantek has been operating a Winter Reading Program for adults and teens since 2007. It's an inexpensive, low-maintenance program that requires little staff time. The intention is to invite readers to expand their genre comfort zones. And it's very successful.

One year was a pizza theme. Shauna ordered blank paper pizzas and a sheet of topping stickers. If a patron read a romance, they put a mushroom on their pizza. Adult non-fiction? A green pepper. You could stay in one genre (and have a one topping pizza), but in order to qualify for the grand prize you needed a three topping pizza. All of the prizes were donated from the four pizza places in town. Library's investment per reader? 40 cents.

During the winter Olympics, Shauna printed rings in five colors, and readers were invited to hunt for books that had primarily that color on their jackets. To be eligible for the grand prize you had to earn all five rings. Who says browsing is dead? Gift cards for the grand prize came out of the programming budget.

Another year she organized a Scrabble theme and brought out all the local logophiles. Readers were asked to write down their 10 favorite words from each book they read that winter. Then, each participant came to the library for a contest to make a Scrabble board with the most points out of their words. Staff took pictures of the boards and hanged them in the library.

Thank you for sharing your creativity and success story with us, Shauna!

Does your library have a program you'd like to share? Send it to Sonya Schryer Norris at norriss2@michigan.gov.

by Karren Reish

LM has a new finance manual for public libraries. The Public Library Financial Management Guide covers basic accounting, revenues, expenditures, budgeting, financial reporting, audits, and internal controls. It includes sample budgets and policies as well. In addition to the guide, written by Abraham & Gaffney, we offer a series of short webinars on topics typically of interest to libraries. The webinars range from three to seven minutes and review Library Establishment, Budgeting Basics, Budgeting Process, Internal Controls and Preparation for an Audit. Find the PDF guide and webinar links at www.michigan.gov/statewidelibraryservices. Click Library Administration in the left-navigation area, then Financial Management.

by Kevin Driedger

LM is a library for the entire state, but most of our collections are only accessible in our building. We offer collections of state, local, and federal government documents, Michigan newspapers, periodicals, and city directories -- and they're filled with valuable information  for all Michigan residents and libraries. To make our collections more accessible to people, we digitize items for instant delivery to screens throughout the state and beyond.

The Library has three scanning programs to facilitate this sharing:

1) Our longest running program is scanning to fill patron requests. We scan articles, obituaries, and documents to fill interlibrary loan requests. More information about requesting material from the Library of Michigan can be found on our website. We scan documents to fill requests from state and legislative employees. On-site patrons can also pay to have rare and oversize materials scanned in the rare book room.

2) We have public-use scanners so patrons may scan microfilm and books from our collection, or their own materials. The scanned files can be saved to thumb drives. Patrons are also welcome to use their own cameras to capture images from our materials.

3) For three years we’ve been scanning titles to make them available on our Governing Michigan website: http://governingmichigan.org/. These titles are selected by Library staff from our government document and legal collections. We also collaborate with individual state agencies to select titles, and occasionally include materials from their collections. Over the years we’ve scanned over 100,000 pages. Everything we scan and put online is full-text searchable and freely available to everyone. This material is also at MeL.org. 

by Deb Biggs Thomas

When working on the Michigan eLibrary (MeL) redesign, we knew we wanted something special for MeL’s youngest users, and those who guide them. We also wanted something to complement the excellent youth content already available in Michigan libraries. 

Mascot Brookie, the brook trout, (aka the Michigan State Fish) and his pal, ReadIt, the purple frog, now introduce this MeL gateway and its four sections: Homework Helpers, Storytime, Games & Activities and About Michigan.

Homework Helpers offers many excellent subscription eResources (databases) that we make available with federal and state funding. These resources are useful to students working on school reports and projects because they are vetted, reliable and engaging. 

Storytime highlights MeL’s eBooks for young audiences and selected websites with story content. Librarian Tip: Use BookFlix for your storytime; project it onto a screen, wall or whiteboard so the whole group or class can see it. Then follow along as it's read aloud or you read it to them. 

Need new and entertaining ideas for engaging your young ones? Try the resources in MeL Kids Games & Activities! Early World of Learning has numerous puzzles, games and other activities geared towards pre-school through second grade.  You also will find carefully selected websites with content that carries on this theme.

Michigan history is taught in grades three and four and MeL Kids can help with some kid friendly websites found in About Michigan. There also is a link to Michigana, http://mel.org/michigana, which includes photographs, diaries, manuscripts and more on Michigan history or Michigan’s place in American History.

MeL Kids is an amazing portal with incredible digital resources. Link to it directly on your library website: http://mel.org/kids.