Staff from Ypsilanti District Library (YDL) and MCLS will promote Text and Learn for Kindergarten (TALK) at the Public Library Association (PLA) 2024 conference April 2-5 in Columbus, OH. Based on Every Child Ready to Read, TALK is a text messaging service that prompts parents and caregivers to talk, sing, read, write, and play with their children ages birth to 5, fostering early learning and Kindergarten readiness.
If you’ll be at PLA and want to learn more about TALK, I encourage you to attend Lisa Hoenig, Jodi Krahnke, and Cathy Lancaster’s presentation Reaching Underserved Families with TALK: Text and Learn for Kindergarten on Friday, April 5 at 11:30 a.m. Eastern (GCCC A120-125). To learn about MCLS’s TALK service, come see us at exhibit booth #1418. You can request a quote via our online form. Read on for more about TALK and its transition from Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) grant-funded project to MCLS service offering in 2024.
TALK is by libraries, for libraries
Ninety public libraries are using TALK to prompt parents and caregivers of more than 3,200 pre-K children in Indiana and Michigan to increase the time they spend interacting with their children to foster early learning. The system sends crafted and curated text messages with activities carefully aligned to a child’s age to any caregiver with a cell phone, including underserved populations who may not use the library. In addition to helping prepare children for Kindergarten, TALK also builds engagement between caregivers and their library. With TALK, libraries may also send subscribers up to two text messages per month to promote library events such as storytime.
TALK is different from other similar services in that it was created by a library for libraries and their patrons, designed for underserved populations, targets ages birth to 5 specifically, is based on Every Child Ready to Read practices, and comes with a variety of marketing and other materials to help promote early learning and the library. The following evaluation data from HighScope Educational Research Foundation surveys and interviews show that TALK users’ frequency and quality of their adult/child interactions increased:
TALK is easy to use
To use TALK, libraries subscribe via the TALK website, and use text messages from an allotment they acquire from MCLS upon subscribing. Text messages are available at no cost to libraries in Indiana and Michigan via TALK’s current IMLS grant until July 31, 2024. After that, a library may purchase text messages in allotments of 1,500 messages as needed (this quantity will serve approximately 10 children per year). This makes now a great time to subscribe to TALK!
TALK libraries receive the system’s 635 text messages in English and Spanish, access to TALK’s library portal, materials to get started and promote TALK, and basic support from MCLS.
Caregivers sign up for TALK using their cell phone. Their subscribed library is determined by their ZIP code. Upon signup, they start receiving text messages automatically based on their child’s age. Text messages are debited from a subscribing library’s allotment, and do not expire as long as the library stays subscribed. A caregiver can enroll for up to two children 5 and under per cell phone number, and may opt out of receiving messages later if they choose. Each caregiver receives approximately 150 total text messages per year per enrolled child (including activities, custom event messages, and occasional system messages).
A subscribed library can use the TALK portal to perform tasks including adding user accounts, scheduling customized event text messages, generating usage and other reports, and responding to any questions from caregivers. A subscribed group of libraries (called an “entity”) like a large public library system or cooperative can perform tasks at the entity level.
In the portal, libraries can also access John Cotton Dana Award-winning TALK Toolkits for a wide variety of information on how to get started and how to promote TALK. Promotion, including through a library’s community partners, is key to reaching caregivers and increasing usage. Promoting TALK not only in the library, but also at doctors’ offices, day care centers, and other places caregivers and children go can help reach even more people.
TALK is affordable
MCLS TALK subscriptions are priced using a simple model:
TALK will alert a library when it is low on text messages. Libraries may purchase allotments of 1,500 messages for $20 each from MCLS. Contact us via our quote request form for discount pricing for larger library systems and groups.
TALK’s history and next steps
YDL originally developed TALK in 2017 with Library Services Technology Act (LSTA) funds administered by the Library of Michigan. Their specific goals were to reach underserved communities in both rural and urban settings and address Kindergarten readiness gaps in children from low-income households in Michigan. TALK’s pilot phase gathered input from difficult-to-reach parents and caregivers via focus groups that informed the service’s further development. TALK promotes equity and inclusion in that anyone anywhere with a cellphone can receive TALK messages. Messages are available in both English and Spanish.
In 2020, YDL engaged with MCLS to grow TALK from a statewide service to a regional and then national service, with a National Leadership Grant from IMLS. MCLS began offering our TALK service for a modest subscription fee in 2023, with the IMLS grant paying for the text messages the system sends to citizens of Indiana and Michigan (until July 31, 2024).
TALK’s 635 early learning messages were developed by public library youth staff and reviewed by experts and caregivers for readability, accessibility, and cultural sensitivity. TALK’s activities include STEM and social emotional skill building. TALK was developed to increase community awareness about early literacy and the Association for Library Services to Children (ALSC) and PLA’s five Every Child Ready to Read 2.0 practices (talk, sing, read, write, play), geared especially to under-resourced families who don’t use the library. YDL and MCLS have improved TALK further with support from IMLS and based on data, resulting in an easy-to-use texting service with supporting promotional and other toolkits that can be used by any library in collaboration with other local agencies to improve school readiness.
Looking to the future, the MCLS staff are currently updating some of the TALK Toolkit materials, including making some available in Canva as libraries have requested. We are also considering logistics for potentially offering more custom event texts per library, how to collect input for future TALK development, whether to translate TALK into additional languages, and how to form a TALK user group so subscribing libraries may share and learn from one another.
TALK is a great example of how MCLS can help scale a library service up. Have an idea you want to grow from your library to many, as we’ve helped YDL do with TALK? Let me know at garrisons@mcls.org. In the meantime, thank you for reading, and I’ll hope to see you at PLA.
Libraries are built from stories, and they embody the power of stories. Stories are at the heart of the relationships libraries and everyone they serve need to succeed. At the MCLS annual member event on October 9, approximately 70 total attendees focused on how libraries can tell stories effectively from the perspectives of data storytelling and crisis communication.
The path to MCLS’s first in-person event in ten years is made up of many stories from the astonishing number of changes and challenges libraries have seen since 2016. We at MCLS have collected a lot of data in the last few years that are helping us tell new stories, from our strategic plan development and implementation through recent surveys and other work our Board and staff have done.
Following some stories from MCLS Board members Mike Hawthorne and Josh Petrusa that set context for our event, Professor Kate McDowell from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign’s School of Information Sciences delivered an inspiring keynote based on her ten years of work on data storytelling including the Data Storytelling Toolkit for Libraries (DSTL) and her 2025 book Critical Data Storytelling for Libraries: Crafting Ethical Narratives for Advocacy and Impact. Kate’s book weaves together many helpful strands that can help us build a positive future, and I recommend it very highly to anyone seeking to improve how they combine data with narrative to tell their library’s stories.
In her keynote, Kate highlighted the Storytelling Triangle between a story, its teller, and its audience, noting that we should be mindful whose role it is to tell a particular story. Each relationship in the Triangle is a dynamic one that can be influenced by whether a story is new or being repeated by the same or a different teller, and an audience’s attitudes toward the story. Kate established that critical data storytelling “requires understanding power dynamics from a storytelling perspective,” an idea dating back to the late-19th century women who introduced using empirical data in librarianship in a systematic way, and who were not allowed to present at conferences at the time.
Kate pointed out the differences between data, story, and information with the straightforward idea that “data in story context becomes information.” In her keynote (and in much greater detail in the book), she offered thought-provoking ideas about who owns data (and goals for using data) versus stories (and motivations for telling them), with examples relevant to academic and public libraries. Kate laid out the Data Storytelling Life Cycle as a framework to dealing with struggles libraries have had including translating data into stories and capturing those stories for outside audiences.
Data Storytelling Life Cycle (McDowell, 2026; used by permission) [size this image so it’s big enough to read online and scale it correctly]
The Life Cycle captures the ideas that many libraries collect and store data without really engaging and creating meaning, and that we need to make our data our own through all four steps in the cycle.
Kate then offered suggestions for to how to build stories that last and should be retold over time, such as how libraries have ended late fees to promote equitable access. She explained the cycle of story across time, from telling, to listening, to retelling, as well as a story’s chronological structure from an inciting moment though rising action, to a climax or turning point and falling action to a resolution or denouement. She cited the example of a campaign to expand a taxing district for a library whose district was smaller than its counterpart school district. Though the campaign failed, the data the library used to tell their story along the “upward arc” of rising action in their campaign increased awareness that kids outside the taxing district could come to and use the library even without a library card.
Before closing, Kate laid out three Structure Narratives from the DSTL and pointed out where data collection occurs in each:
Next, communication expert Thom Fladung led a workshop titled Putting Crisis Communications In Play, to help libraries be prepared in case of “explosive, unplanned visibility” that can damage our most important asset: our reputation. Thom’s experience as an investigative reporter earlier in his career has positioned him very well in his current role as Vice President and Chief Counselor at Hennes Communications (a division of AKCG Public Relations Counselors).
I hope you find the following summary of what Thom shared on October 9 useful. Rather than summarizing all of the valuable information he offered, please see below for images from a pocket-sized card with tips and more that Thom distributed and very kindly granted us permission to include in this piece.
Thom began with the idea that while communication can be the last thing we think about during a crisis, it can save our reputation as word spreads and the community awaits our response. He emphased how important it is to act promptly and communicate clearly and honestly in a crisis using the rules of the Damage Control Playbook:
Thom shared stories from his journalism experience to illustrate how the media works faster and more iteratively than ever before in the age of social media and search engine optimization. Media often run with what they have even if it does not represent a balanced view of a story.
He then turned to a set of five steps to manage outrage that often occurs in a crisis:
Thom laid out a “3-V framework” for bad news stories: the villain who caused the problem, the victim, and the vindicator who brings it to light for accountability. He also offered detailed strategies and tips for communicating via social media, pointing out the importance of having conduct rules for all communication including social media and how to handle comments effectively. Thom cited Traverse Area District Library’s Social Media Policy as a great example. In a crisis, he recommended putting the truth on the library’s website and making a simple social media post pointing to the website because a library has greater control over its website. To help defuse a social media storm, ask vocal commenters for a conversation away from the platform.
Libraries should ask the following questions when they identify an online reputation threat:
Following tips on determining the influence of a threat and best practices for responding, Thom turned to some media relations guidelines and interview control tools if we find ourselves contacted by the media. He staged some mock media interviews with brave event participants, seeking observations from the larger group.
Thom closed with key principles for developing a crisis communications plan:
As promised, here is the card Thom offered workshop participants:
© Hennes Communications LLC; used by permission
I’ll close here by thanking our annual member event planning committee, the staff and Board members who played a part in making the event happen, our hosts at St. Joe County Public Library, our fine speakers, and all member library staff who attended (especially those who completed our evaluation survey). Holding our first in-person event in many years was a lot of hard work, and truly a labor of love for our members.
If you were with us on October 9, I hope you’ll agree that our event was a great example of how MCLS brings libraries together to engage with valuable strategies and approaches, and of how together, we empower a strong library community. I also hope to see you at our next annual member event on April 30, 2027, back at St. Joe County Public Library in South Bend, IN. Until then, I encourage you to share questions, ideas and thoughts with me at garrisons@mcls.org.
Fall conference and event season is just around the corner, and I encourage you to engage with MCLS staff and Board of Directors members when our paths cross this fall.
In September, we’ll have staff and Board members at the following conference:
Upper Peninsula Region of Library Cooperation Annual Conference (Sept. 21-22)
In October, find us at the following conferences and events:
Association for Library Service to Children National Institute (Oct. 1-3)
MCLS Members Annual Event (Oct. 9 – list below subject to change)
Michigan Museums Association Annual Conference (Oct. 19-21)
MCLS Board of Directors Meeting and Retreat (Oct. 25-27)
Michigan Library Association Annual Conference (Oct. 28-30)
Michigan Association of School Librarians Annual Conference (Oct. 28-30)
In November, we hope to see you at the following conferences and events:
Charleston Conference (Nov. 3-6)
Indiana Library Federation Annual Conference (Nov. 8-10)
Michigan OER Network Conference (Nov. 13)
Finally, please save the date for the MCLS Annual Meeting: Tuesday, Dec. 8 at 10 a.m. Eastern (9 a.m. Central) online via Zoom. Watch your email for registration information, and we’ll look forward to seeing you there.
Our staff work hard representing MCLS at these and other conferences and events. We hope to see you and connect. Until then, contact me anytime at garrisons@mcls.org.
Have a question, idea, or story to share? Let us know!
This month, I’m sharing some data from our first annual member survey conducted this spring with the Indiana University Center for Survey Research (IUCSR). Our goal was simple: find out how well we’re delivering on the four key strategic priorities in our current strategic plan so we can use that feedback to help guide where we put our time and resources. Our key strategic priorities are Engagement and Collaboration, Invest in Innovation, Strengthen and Support, and Awareness and Accountability.
Before I share what we learned, I want to say thank you to everyone who responded to the survey. Whether you answered every question or just left us a comment, your input directly shapes decisions at MCLS. This piece is a high-level look at the results. If you’d like to know more, ask me at garrisons@mcls.org.
Who responded?
Where we’re strong
Some areas for growth
Only 56% agreed they have a greater awareness of the value of library consortia than a year ago (35% were neutral), and among the smaller group of TALK-subscribing libraries who responded (n=23), just 43% currently see TALK as valuable, with many citing limited staff time to promote it to families. Both are clear opportunities for us to keep telling our story and supporting implementation.
What you told us you value
When asked what they value about MCLS, members most often pointed to training and professional development (83 mentions), the purchasing power and discounts that come from being part of a consortium (46), and the MCLS staff themselves (38), followed by networking, MeLCat, and shared/negotiated resources.
Where you told us we can improve
The top themes were: expanding training topics and formats (31 mentions), increasing awareness of everything MCLS offers (24), tailoring outreach for specific library types and locations such as school and small academic libraries (19), improving documentation and communication (17), and bringing back more in-person gatherings (14). A number of members also asked us to push harder on vendor pricing and negotiations, and some also mentioned generative AI.
Stories of impact
75 respondents took the time to share a story about MCLS’s impact. The most common threads were classes and professional development (30 mentions), benefits to patrons and communities (23), expanded access to books and content through MeLCat and RIDES (30 combined), and cost savings passed on to your library.
A note on methodology
IUCSR designed and administered this survey online using Qualtrics from April 14 to May 16, 2026, inviting 1,926 contacts across our member libraries. We received 443 usable responses (23% AAPOR response rate), and the average completion time was about 8 minutes. IUCSR reviewed the data for quality and coded open-ended responses into themes; a second analyst checked that coding for consistency. Because subgroup sample sizes are sometimes small, we see breakdowns by library size, type, and state as exploratory rather than statistically definitive.
Thank you, and let’s keep talking
Thanks again to everyone who responded to our first annual member survey. Your feedback already gives us a clearer picture of where we’re delivering well and where we need to focus. We’ll use these results alongside our strategic plan objectives to guide our work in the year ahead. As you’ll know from other MCLS communication, we already have some things in the works like our fall member annual event that will help us deliver on what you’re asking for.
As always, I’d love to hear from you. If you have ideas for how we can boost our survey response rate next year, or any questions for me as Executive Director, please contact me directly at garrisons@mcls.org or 517-489-4071.
Executive Director’s note: I used Claude Pro to help me analyze data from our 2026 member survey report from IUCSR and draft this month’s newsletter piece. IUCSR deidentified the survey data before sending us their report. Claude Pro does not have access to any survey data for generative AI training purposes. Ask me any questions you may have about this piece at garrisons@mcls.org.
Funding for MeL is provided in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services through the Library of Michigan.
