This weekend the 174 libraries in southeast Michigan that participate in Macy's Museum Adventure Pass program will transition from year two to year three. Four museums dropped out and four new ones have been added: the University of Michigan Matthaei Botanical Gardens, the Paint Creek Center for the Arts, Shalom Street, and the Troy Museum and Historic Village. You can see the entire list and availability of passes in the library catalog.

You might be able to help us save some of your tax dollars by allowing us to put your email address in your patron record. We won’t send you anything except circulation notices — the item you put on hold is ready to be picked up, the library materials you have out will be due back in two days, reminders of materials you haven’t returned yet — that we would otherwise have to send by printed notices or telephone message. In fact, our “courtesy notices”, those messages we send two days before your items are due back to the library, can only be sent by email — and you’re missing out (and possibly paying overdue fines) if we don’t have your email address. Using email to contact you is also GREEN! We won’t be using paper or postage if we can contact you by email. Just stop at the Checkout Desk and give a staff member your email address, and if you don’t have an email address, ask a librarian at the Reference Desk how you can get started.

Each year the library checks out its one millionth item a little earlier. In 2008 it was Wednesday, July 23, that our circulation for the year reached 1,000,000. This year it was this past Wednesday, July 1, that the one millionth item was checked out. Thank you for supporting our efforts!

The library's online catalog has matured and provides users with a lot more information than it used to.  Remember the blue background screens and text-based options of author, title, subject, words?  Well, look at the catalog now!  You get the cover image, a tag cloud (keywords based on the item's content), the option to save the record and rate it, the ability to limit your search, hyperlinks to other it