Contact:  Martin Ackley, Director of Communications 517-241-4395
Agency: Education

February 24, 2010

LANSING - The Michigan eLibrary Catalog (MeLCat), the Library of Michigan's statewide resource sharing system, celebrates its fifth year of service to Michigan residents.  MeLCat is a component of the Michigan eLibrary (MeL.org), the state's anytime, anywhere online library.  
 
Nearly 400 school, public, academic and specialty libraries participate in MeLCat statewide enabling their registered users to initiate requests for books and other library materials from the vast database of 40 million items from any Internet-enabled computer at any time of the day.
 
Requested materials then are delivered to the individual's local public, school, or academic specialty library within 2-7 days-much more quickly than traditional interlibrary loan services.  Additional libraries from around the state are scheduled to join MeLCat on an ongoing basis.
 
Michigan was one of the first states in the nation to have a statewide online catalog involving all types of libraries with statewide delivery built in.
 
"The Library of Michigan is delighted to continue to offer this important service to Michigan residents," said Nancy Robertson, State Librarian.  "MeLCat services cost one-tenth of traditional interlibrary loan services saving Michigan libraries money and getting tens of thousands of library materials to Michigan residents fast!"  
 
The Michigan eLibrary and MeLCat are award winning services.  In 2006, MeL.org  was honored with a Digital Government Achievement Award in the Government-to-Citizen State Government category by the Center for Digital Government. In 2008, MeLCat was selected as a finalist for the Council of State Government's Innovations Award.
 
 "As a GED instructor, I have found MeL to be a great resource for study materials, courses and practice tests," said Dave O'Brien of Amase Learning Lab in Greenville.  "I work primarily with young adults and dislocated workers. These people are retraining for new jobs and searching for a career to pursue. MeL has been a real bonus because it offers courses and eBooks in workplace skills and career tools.  We can run our GED class entirely from the online resources that MeL offers.  MeL can really help the budget."
 
MeLCat has fulfilled over two million requests to date.  Find MeLCat and other excellent resources that are available at no cost to all Michigan residents in the Michigan eLibrary at http://www.mel.org.