State Librarian's Excellence Award

Dear Library Directors, Trustees, Institution Administrators, and Library Users,

The Library of Michigan Foundation is pleased to announce that nominations for the 2016 State Librarian's Excellence Award are now being accepted.

The State Librarian's Excellence Award recognizes a Michigan Library that best exemplifies excellence in customer service. Roger Mendel will sponsor the $2,000 cash prize awarded to the winning library. The Foundation is pleased to announce this year that the Citation of Excellence Award amounts have increased from $500 to $1,000. Two runners-up will be recognized with a Citation of Excellence. All three award-winners will receive trophies for public display.

We hope you will consider nominating your library this year! The criteria is described on the nomination form. The deadline for nominations is August 19, 2016. Winners will be announced at the State Librarian's Luncheon on Friday, October 28, 2016, during the 2016 Michigan Library Association Annual Conference in Lansing.

Library directors, trustees, library users, or administrators may make nominations. See the nomination form for details of submission requirements. If, after reviewing the full criteria, you have questions or would like additional information, please contact the Library of Michigan Foundation office at (517) 373-1297.

For software think TechSoup, for hardware think TRIG

06/17/2016

Do you need a discount hardware purchasing solution?

Join us on Tuesday, June 21 at 10:00 a.m. at http://libraryofmichigan.adobeconnect.com/trigdevicepurchasing/ for a webinar with Wendy Hand of Kalamazoo Public Library to talk about a discount hardware purchasing solution for Michigan libraries.

Last year, Michigan libraries were invited to participate in an important initiative. The Technology Readiness Infrastructure Grant (TRIG) program is involved in developing, issuing and administering statewide bids for mobile devices and desktop computers. It provides for lower purchase prices on many products, as well as accessories and even some services such as installation. The nice thing about this program is that it allows you to purchase off the bid and know you're getting a good price without actually issuing a Request for Proposal (RFP) yourself.

This year's program includes brands and products such as HP, Dell, Lenovo, Chromebooks, Android tablets, iPads and MacBooks. Accessories include onsite warranty, mice and keyboards, adapters, RAM upgrades and DVD RW drives.

Last year nearly 170,000 devices were purchased off the bid. Unfortunately, libraries made up a very small percentage of this number but the savings for those libraries was substantial - $60,000.

In our January issue of the LM Dispatch, Wendy Hand of Kalamazoo Public Library (KPL) wrote an article about how KPL bought Chromebases last year to use as an OPAC solution. On Tuesday she will be conducting a webinar through the LM to talk more about the device purchasing program and walk you through the steps of the ordering process.

I would like to encourage you to learn more about this program. If you're thinking about buying hardware this year, the purchasing window is open now through October 15th. To learn more about this program, check out the TRIG website or join us for the webinar. I hope to see you there!

Sonya Schryer Norris

norriss2@michigan.gov

517-373-4457