All, I am very pleased to share with you, great news regarding the Michigan Activity Pass (MAP) program for Year 2: 100+ participating venues! Yes, thanks to all the hard work by librarians and library cooperative directors around the state, this week we added our 104th cultural partner! (and still counting). This represents a 67.74% increase in the number of MAP partners vs. this year's 62. Please see the attached press release for a complete listing of all committed MAP Year 2 cultural partners. Next week we will share an updated copy of Brigette's popular MAP brochure, perfect for printing and distribution to your patrons, that lists all MAP participants including their url and telephone number. With so many cultural partners, MAP literally has something for everyone. For families with young children http://www.mi-sci.org/ http://www.upchildrensmuseum.com/ http://www.kidsnstuff.org/ and http://www.midmicm.org/ are all must-sees. As the son (and grandson) of an automobile assembly line worker my personal preferences lean towards the planes http://www.yankeeairmuseum.org/ trains http://www.southernmichiganrailroad.com/ http://www.trainandboattours.com/ http://www.michigantransitmuseum.org/ and automobiles http://www.gilmorecarmuseum.org/ http://www.sloanlongway.org/Buick-Gallery aspect of MAP. And, the boat http://www.themackinaw.org/ and submarine http://silversidesmuseum.org/ too. For those reading this message whose tastes are more refined and sophisticated than mine, which should be everyone and anyone who is reading this message, we also have as MAP partners Michigan's two largest art museums, http://www.dia.org/ and http://www.flintarts.org/ as well as live theatre http://www.wildswantheater.org/ and http://www.stagecrafters.org/ as well as music too http://www.chambermusicdetroit.org/ and http://www.michiganphil.org/ MAP Year 2 will go live on Saturday, May 24. Please note that if you or your patrons see something in MAP that just doesn't look right, that could well be because it isn't right! I say that on account a great deal of work went into building the MAP database. With 100+ participating cultural partners, and 638 individual library buildings, and five passes per week per cultural partner per library building, you can probably appreciate that there was plenty of opportunity for error during the backend building of the MAP database. We'd like to think we've worked all of the bugs out of it, but I am not naive enough to claim that we are certain that we have. So if we've spelled the name of your library incorrectly, or if we failed to link all of the thousands of passes for your library, or...just send me an email describing the nature of the issue, and we will correct it. Let's keep in mind that MAP is a partnership. How can you help? Promote, promote, promote! Share the press release with your local media. Print the forthcoming, updated brochure and distribute same to your patrons. And, very importantly, if your library is located in a community in which one of our MAP partner institutions resides, stop in and say "thank you for your support of the Michigan Activity Pass program." Without our cultural partners, there is no MAP. MAP is not a static program. By that I mean that if you come across potential cultural partners in your service area that are not on board with MAP, and would like to be, please tell them about it, and refer them to me. We can and will add new venues to MAP at any time during the year. We, TLN and its cultural partners, appreciate your support and promotion of and on behalf of, the Michigan Activity Pass program. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions. Thanks. Jim Flury Jim Flury Technical Services Manager The Library Network 41365 Vincenti Court Novi, MI 48375 248-536-3100 x133 Fax 248-536-3098 jflury@tln.lib.mi.us