Upper Peninsula Town Meetings

Our final foray in the town meetings saga took Karren, Deb and me to the Upper Peninsula. Our first stop was the Portage Lake District Library in Houghton. It was a beautiful drive up on Monday, April 16th.

On Tuesday morning, bright and early, we arrived at the library where Jim Curtis gave us the grand tour. It's a spectacular view from anywhere on the north or west side of the building, as the library is situated right on the waterway -- and I mean right on it!
The meeting was very well attended, and we were so glad that we made the trek up there to be able to meet with so many folks who can, understandably, not get down to the Lansing area very often . Or, if they do make it down, it's with much more time, effort, and expense than most, given the huge distance between here and there.

The lunch Jim and his staff arranged included local U.P. fare, notably delicious pasties, and we finished it off with tastes of several kinds of fudge. Yum!



On the drive later that afternoon, Karren and I were glad to stop at the edge of Norway, to get a picture of Deb with the sign and the boat. She thinks she's Norwegian, and she looks the part here. We will certainly miss having her around, both because of her dedication and good Continuing Education and other library work, and also because of her lovable nature and fun sense of humor.





We arrived at Escanaba, not quite in the moonlight, but almost. On Wednesday morning we found our way to the Bay de Noc Community College grounds. Director Christian Holmes was unable to join us, but his staff took great care of us and the other participants. The meeting room was not in the library per se, but I got a peak at the library during the lunch break, and I loved the way it is totally surrounded buy a circumference of windows. The library and the college itself were bustling with student activity. Lunch was, as usual, a treat.
The group discussion included quite a bit of sharing related to the issues faced by the school/public libraries and about the funding and umbrella bureaucracy challenges faced by the public libraries as well. The participants had traveled from various directions, from Menominee and Munising, and from nearby locales of course.





We traveled our way over to St. Ignace along Route 2 and enjoyed the view as we drove. The trip was shorter than some of the other afternoon ventures we'd had, so it was nice to take a bit of a walking tour and do a bit of window shopping at the bookstore and a couple of antique places in St. Ignace before taking time at the end of the day for a good dinner. The ferries were all lined up and ready for action for the impending tourist season.


I've been to the St. Ignace Public Library a few times, but I still love to see how it's nestled on a tree covered hill on the curve of the road just above town. Director Cindy Patten was, as always, a great host, and we finished off our tour with our last fabulous lunch, before the post-town-meeting-tour diet! The discussion of this, the last of the 13 meetings, yielded great discussion and a couple of really innovative ideas for how to get MeL more visibility and how to enable local libraries to mirror the look of MeL and tie their resources into the offerings found there.

Thirteen meetings were a lot to accomplish -- a lot of planning, traveling, and interaction. But I'm truly glad that I was able to do it and to get to talk to over 400 librarians from all over the state of Michigan, from all types of libraries, and with all sorts of concerns, successes, and new ideas to share. Thanks, everyone!

Such a Notable Night!

The evening of April 14th was truly enjoyable for all who attended the Night for Notables, celebrating the 2007 Michigan Notable Books authors.
The evening began at the Governor's residence where Governor Granholm and the First Gentleman are establishing a residence library to be used and enjoyed by their family and guests and by the family and guests of future Michigan governors. It's a great idea, and we were so pleased to have a part in celebrating its inception and to inaugurate it by facilitating the addition of Michigan Notable Books to the residence's library shelves. Many thanks to Governor Granholm and Mr. Mulhern for inviting us into their home to celebrate the program and the authors with us!

After the reception, those in attendance there moved to the Michigan Library and Historical Center for the evening's keynote event. The Rotunda and the Forum were packed with a standing-room only crowd that got to meet the authors and get books signed while snacking on wine and desserts.




Then we were all treated to a fascinating panel discussion featuring moderator Bill Rustem, biographer Dave Dempsey, and former Governor William Milliken. Governor Milliken's open, honest, and colorful telling of
some stories from his administration and his frank answers to the many interesting questions the audience had for him was truly a one-of-a-kind experience.

The authors deserved the recognition the evening provided and a wonderful time was had by all. Thanks to all of the sponsors for the evening, especially our hosts, the Library of Michigan Foundation.

Early April Sydney Sighting!

Everyone asks me, wherever I travel, how puppy Sydney is doing. As you can see from this early April photo, he's doing great and is as lovable as ever!

Northern Lower Michigan Trip

The first week of April, Karren and Deb and I began the first of our two multi-day road trips, this time for meetings 8, 9, and 10.

We began the week at Grace A. Dow Memorial Library in Midland, where we were hosted by Director Melissa Barnard and her staff. We had a good discussion as usual.



During lunch I got away to see the upper levels of the library once again, as I hadn't been there for about a year.

The window in the stairwell is fabulous, and is an indication of how lovely the rest of the Alden Dow-designed building is.







We arrived in Alpena on Monday evening and awoke to a chilly day Tuesday, but were nice and comfortable spending the morning and afternoon in the confines of the Alpena County Library's community room named in honor of Director Judi Stillion.




After the town meeting, Judi and Marlo Broad gave us a behind-the-scenes look at the digitization project they are doing with funding that the Library of Michigan awarded them in 2005. Pat Labadie's collection of documents and photos of ships, shipping history, and so much more, are housed at ACL, and are a great complement to the Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary. (I did get a photo of the main floor of the library on our way out, too.)




We drove that afternoon through the rain to arrive early in the evening in Cadillac. Wednesday morning, in spite of blizzard warnings, host Cathy Tacoma and her staff welcomed us and a full town meeting crowd for our 10th meeting. I was impressed that there were so many willing to fight the weather to attend, and we had great discussions and many new ideas.





The Cadillac-Wexford County Public Library is much appreciated and used by the surrounding community, and, as you can see, it's a lovely space. Interestingly, it's also unique in that it's a Michigan public library with co-directors -- although I was only able to meet Cathy on my visit, as the other co-director (Kathy Petoskey) was out of town that week. We drove home in the blowing snow, but arrived safely back in mid-Michigan late in the day.