Dear Director Colleagues,

In May 2018, the Woodlands Library Cooperative Continuing Education Committee, under Director Kate Pohjola Andrade, offered a workshop titled, “The care and feeding of our library buildings” in Jackson, Michigan.  I attended and at the conclusion of the program Kate and I began discussing how public libraries could better share facilities-related information.  As it often happens, the discussion grew into the larger issue of how libraries can share a wide variety of vendor information with each other without redundancy.   The concept on which we settled was to offer a moderated website where directors can provide contact information for companies with whom they’ve had a positive experience.  Thus “No Reservation Recommendations” (NRR) was born!  Shauna Quick, Circulation Manager at Brandon Township Public Library, was brought into the project to design the website and ensure its functionality.

Our “No Reservation Recommendations” website will provide you with more vendor options in an ever expanding area of categories and arranged by cooperative boundaries.  However, in order to ensure that we have a robust database, we need all of you to submit those positive recommendations.  Because, as we know, there is nothing better than recommendations from our trusted colleagues. 

To date we have the following categories:

· Attorneys

· Auditors

· Branding/Logos

· Carpet

· Doors

· Electricians

· Flooring

· Maintenance Plans

· Millage Campaigns

· Other

· Painters

· People Counters

· Phones

· Plumbers

· Printing/Copiers

· Roofs

· Security Staff

· Security Systems

· Strategic Plans (in-house)

· Strategic Plans (contracted)

From now until we officially launch the website at the MLA Conference in October, we simply ask that you submit “No Reservation” company contact information.  If it’s for a category not on the list above, please submit under “Other” and we’ll be happy to create a new category.  Also, if you are seeking information in a category not yet on the list, we are happy to put out a request to the listservs and ask our fellow directors to submit; simply email me directly and let me know.

We have a list of “rules” on the “Submit a Recommendation” page:

• Only Library Directors may submit recommendations
• Library Directors submit vendors with whom they have had positive experiences
• Library Directors respond to requests from other libraries seeking more detail
• It is the responsibility of the Library Director seeking recommendations to fully research the vendors beyond the NRR website
• Anyone can access and review NRR recommendations

This project will work only if directors state-wide get behind it and submit recommendations.  So please submit always and often!  https://nrr.ninja

Sincerely,

Rebecca Higgerson

Rebecca Higgerson

Director

Brandon Twp Public Library

304 South Street

Ortonville MI 48462

248-627-1474

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