About MeL

Mission Statement

Administered by the Library of Michigan in partnership with Michigan's libraries of all types, the Michigan eLibrary (mel.org) will provide all Michigan residents with free access to online full-text articles, full-text books, digital images, and other valuable research information at any time via the Internet; and provide an easy-to-use interlibrary loan system to allow Michigan residents to borrow books and other library materials for free from participating Michigan libraries.

MeL Study

The MeL Study report is in! We learned a great deal about how the general public, library users and staff use libraries and MeL. Thank you for your participation. The study data will help us continue improving the Michigan eLibrary.

MeL Study Introduction
MeL Study Final Report

If you would like more detailed data, including data by region, please contact Karren Reish at 517-241-0021 or reishk@michigan.gov.

MeL Usage Statistics

2009-2012 statistics from the Library of Michigan and the Midwest Collaborative for Library Services for the MeL homepage and gateways, the databases and MeLCat.

What We Do

MeL is the Michigan eLibrary, a 24/7 online library for Michigan residents.

• MeL Databases allow you instant access to full-text articles from tens of thousands of magazines and newspapers. Databases are available for kids, adults, and on specialized topics such as car repair, practice tests and art images. View a video to familiarize yourself with the databases.
  
  
• MeLCat allows you to order books, audio books, music, movies and other materials and have them delivered to your participating library. View a video to familiarize yourself with MeLCat.
  
  
• MeL Michigana contains photographs, diaries, oral histories, local records and historical Michigan data. View a video to familiarize yourself with MeL Michigana.
  
  
• MeL Gateways include specialized resources such as those in genealogy, health, business and areas for kids and teens.
  
  
• MORE: Michigan Online Resources for Educators allows teachers and parents to find curricular based resources searchable by subject and aligned to the Michigan Content Expectations.
  
  

Who We Are

MeL is a project of the Library of Michigan. The Library of Michigan contracts with the Midwest Collaborative for Library Services and partners with a number of Michigan organizations and institutions to provide the MeL service.

Our History

The Michigan eLibrary has grown from the combination of several statewide projects. The original projects were:

• Michigan Electronic Library, a collection of Internet resources selected by librarians (1992)
  
  
• AccessMichigan, a project to provide licensed commercial databases to Michigan's libraries (1997)
  
  
• ATLAS, the Action Team for Advancement of Libraries Statewide (1999-2002) which culminated in MeLCat, a statewide patron-initiated interlibrary loan system (2005)
  
  
• The Making of Modern Michigan, a statewide digitization effort to empower a wide range of Michigan libraries to preserve Michigan history, was realized in MeL Michigana (2007)
  
  
• M.O.R.E.: Michigan Online Resources for Educators is a project that provides curricular based resources aligned to the Michigan Content Expectations and was created through an alliance with the Michigan Department of Education and Wayne State University (2008)
  
  

Sponsorship

This service is funded by the Federal Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) via the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) through the Library of Michigan. The cost of MeL is approximately $5 million per year with a savings to the state's libraries, schools, colleges and universities of over $72 million per year.

The MeL Gateways and M.O.R.E. are powered by the Internet Scout Project tool CWIS (Collection Workflow Integration Systems).