Submitted: A New and Improved Michigan eLibrary (MeL)

“On June 16, 2014, the Library of Michigan announced the official debut of the new and improved Michigan elibrary!

Besides an amazing new “look and feel” for the website, we have implemented a discovery service, which includes a search box on both the MeL homepage and on the Michigana homepage. The search box on the MeL homepage, will access MeLCat, selected MeL subscription eResources (databases), curricular content/websites from the Michigan Online Resources for Educators (M.O.R.E.), MeL gateway websites, and selected digital Michigan history projects. ((Currently, not all of the databases and their content are included in the discovery search; for a list of those that are not now available for discovery, please see the alpha-list in MeL Databases and look for the red asterisk)). Using the search box on the Michigana homepage, discovers the content of many of the digital history collections which were harvested for inclusion in MeL.

We have also redesigned both MeL Kids and Teens Gateways. At MeL Kids, you will see to our new mascot, “Brookie” and his pal “ReadIt” who will introduce young MeL users to resources that can help them be successful in school and have fun too. MeL Teens is just, well….cool! We’ve also done some re-org of the other MeL Gateways, including Business, Jobs, Government, Health, Legal, and Books & Literacy.

The MeL Teams at the Library of Michigan and the Midwest Collaborative for Library Services have been working on this redesign for well over a year with Innovative Interfaces Inc. and EBSCO EDS for the discovery service and with Strudell Studios, a division of Courtland Consulting for the website design.”