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The Michigan Humanities Council is pleased to announce the 2017-18 Great Michigan Read-X: A Novel by Ilyasah Shabazz and Kekla Magoon.  X: A Novel recounts Malcolm X’s formative years in mid-Michigan and how his experiences, both good and bad, shaped him into one of the most influential leaders of the twentieth century.

Programming will run from August 2017 through May 2018.  Partner libraries are eligible to receive reader’s guides, teacher’s guides, bookmarks, posters, and up to thirty copies of the book. Registration for the 2017-18 Great Michigan Read is now open.

Please contact program officer, James Nelson, at jnelson@mihumanities.org or (517) 372-7770 with any questions.

The Michigan Humanities Council invites Michigan libraries to apply to host the Smithsonian’s Water/Ways exhibition in 2018 and 2019.

The Water/Ways exhibition explores how water connects human beings with our surrounding environment, while shedding light on its environmental, cultural, and historical importance. As “The Great Lakes State,” water is an invaluable resource and part of Michigan’s identity, and we are looking for six communities to host the exhibit and share their local water stories. Host communities will have the chance to engage in conversations with water experts, host the exhibit, create additional programming, and help shape the dialogue on Michigan’s water policy.

The deadline to submit applications is July 10, 2017. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact James Nelson at jnelson@mihumanities.org.

Johnson, Heidi. Angels in the Architecture: a Photographic Elegy to an American Asylum. Detroit, MI: Wayne State University Press, 2001.

In the nineteenth century, perhaps no approach to mental illness was more compassionate than that of hospital administrator Thomas Story Kirkbride, whose asylum designs integrated beauty and nature as a method to treat patients. The Northern Michigan Asylum in Traverse City, Michigan, was one of the last of nearly two hundred such architecturally intriguing asylums. Founded in 1885 under the principle "beauty is therapy," the Northern Michigan Asylum closed in 1989 and today stands as a haunting reminder of this lost era. Angels in the Architecture is a photographic study of this institution's one-hundred-year history. Heidi Johnson's photographs of the building today are juxtaposed with rare images from private collections and state archives. Johnson has captured Kirkbride's spirit of compassion-of angels in the architecture-in a book that conveys the human element of mental illness with beauty and integrity.

It’s that time again! Planning for the 2018 Loleta Fyan Small & Rural Libraries Conference has already started.  Our next RLC will be April 30-May 2, 2018 at the Grand Traverse Resort in Acme.

The Library of Michigan is looking for energetic volunteers to fill key roles on the steering committee for the 2018 Small & Rural Libraries Conference.  The Small & Rural Libraries Conference has a long tradition of providing a forum for the staff, trustees, and advocates of Michigan’s small and rural libraries to share, learn and be inspired to provide the best library service to their communities.

The steering committee as a whole will serve as the program committee. Responsibilities will include evaluating program proposals and aiding in determining the agenda for the conference. Each member of the steering committee will also serve as chair for the following vital and valued sub-committees: Volunteers, Hospitality, Awards, Vendors and Fun & Games. Each of the  chairs will be responsible for selecting committee members to work with during the planning stages of the conference and at RLC itself. Steering committee members will exercise considerable independent judgment in the work of their committees while collaborating with the Library of Michigan in the planning and organization of this conference.

The first meeting of the steering committee will be this summer.

If you are interested in working on RLC 2018 in any capacity, please respond to Evette Atkin via email at atkine@michigan.gov by June 16, 2017.