All, Beaver Island District Library recorded its first ever MAP checkout this week! https://islandlibrary.ploud.net/ So did Portage Lake District Library in Houghton http://www.uproc.lib.mi.us/newpldl/ Yea for BIDL and PLDL! It is great to see that patrons are discovering the MAP program all over the state, even on the islands. And speaking of island usage and MAP checkouts, Calumet Public School Library http://www.clkschools.org/library has had a number of checkouts, too. Remember, their location north of the Keweenaw Waterway (technically) puts them on an island too, so... Speaking of discovering the MAP program, here is a comment from a library patron that Brigette shared with me. The patron posted the comment to our MAP Survey Monkey page https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/map201516 "What an amazing program!!!!! To each and every one of you that are keeping this program going my children and I thank you!!!!! We had so much fun, got out of the house and discovered new places that we didn't know about!" The "each and every one of you" is, of course, you. In fact, Year 3 of MAP kind of reminds me of the Carpenters performing We've Only Just Begun, without the two hippies strategically positioned on top of the "O" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__VQX2Xn7tI MSU Extension Service was impressed with MAP, too, calling it "Perhaps one of the best deals of the summer" http://msue.anr.msu.edu/news/michigan_summer_adventures_for_families I would have left off the Perhaps, perhaps, but I am perhaps slightly biased in that regard. Additional MAP promotion is coming. Via our partnership with the Under the Radar Michigan team we will be sharing weekly MAP news with their Facebook page, which has in excess of 50,000 likes. Look for that to begin soon. And speaking of UTR, wait until you see the video we made starring Tom Daldin, in which he gives a HUGE shout out to Michigan libraries, complete with the MAP banner prominently displayed in the background. The video is in the editing stage, and we look forward to sharing it with you very soon. Among the many improvements to the MAP program this year, ranking near the top is our ability to share checkout stats with libraries. In early July the first batch of stats, which covered the last week of May and the month of June, was sent to the directors of Michigan's 11 library cooperatives, who in turn shared those stats with their member libraries; as well as to the directors of TLN libraries, who in turn shared those stats with their library staff. We will continue this practice on a monthly basis. And speaking of stats, here is one that we believe really demonstrates how popular MAP has become this year. Last year, the MAP website had a total of 282,477 hits. Those are pretty good numbers, although there is always room for improvement. Thanks to a lot of great promotional work by our sponsors as well as by library staff across the state, I am pleased to report that as of this morning the MAP website has had a total of 189,133 hits since our May 24 go live. That's about 67% of last year's total number of hits, in just under two months! What will the final number be next May? I don't know, but it would be totally awesome to surpass last year's total number of hits before this year's Labor Day holiday. In fact, at the present rate of usage we should have DOUBLE the TOTAL number of last year's MAP checkouts, about the time we reach the Labor Day holiday weekend. Are there potential MAP partners lurking in your community??? Remember, public libraries and public library staff are the best assets and best ambassadors in any community. Yes, MAP is underway. But that doesn't mean new partners can't join the program. If you know of potential partners that you would like to recruit, please share the MAP questionnaire http://tln.lib.mi.us/cultural/files/MAP%20cultural%20attraction%20participat... with them. Interested venues need only complete the questionnaire, and return it to either Brigette or myself. If you've managed to read this entire message and stay awake, especially sans coffee, congratulations! Your reward is the second part of the subject, the new venue coming on board. Yes, we have a new partner that will be joining the MAP program. They are scheduled to go live with the MAP program on September 28. I can't tell you who they are yet, but I can tell you it is a BIG ONE! Thank you for your support and promotion of the Michigan Activity Pass program. Sincerely, 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