Today, June 16, 2014, the Library of Michigan is pleased to announce the official debut of the new and improved Michigan elibrary, http://mel.org! Besides an amazing new "look and feel" for the website, we have implemented a discovery service, so you will see a search box on both the MeL homepage and also on the Michigana homepage. Using the search box on the MeL homepage, you 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, you will discover the content of many of the digital history collections which have been harvested for inclusion in MeL. We have also redesigned both MeL Kids and Teens Gateways. At MeL Kids, http://mel.org/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, http://mel.org/teens is just, well....cool! We've also done some reorg of the other MeL Gateways: * Business (http://mel.org/business) * Jobs (http://mel.org/jobs ) * Government (http://mel.org/government) * Health (http://mel.org/health) * Legal (http://mel.org/legal) * Books & Literacy (http://mel.org/books) 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., http://iii.com/ and EBSCO EDS, http://ebscohost.com/discovery for the discovery service and with Strudell Studios, a division of Courtland Consulting, http://www.strudellstudios.com/index.php for the website design. It has truly been a process and a work in progress, but it's time to launch! Please let us know what you think, and as with any website, there will be tweaks/updates/additions along the way, but we are pleased, and hope that you will find the new MeL even more useful and relevant that you have in the past. With kind regards for the whole MeL Team, Deb Deb Biggs Thomas, MA AMLS Michigan eLibrary & Outreach Coordinator Library of Michigan/Michigan Dept. of Education 702 W. Kalamazoo St. Lansing, MI 48909 Phone: 517-373-4466 _____________________________________________________________________________ Visit MeL at: http://mel.org<http://mel.org/> and on Facebook at: http://facebook.com/mel.org The Library of Michigan is pleased to share a new video series highlighting Michigan libraries and how they are making a difference in their communities. To experience Michigan libraries in a new light, visit http://brightside.cedam.info/ and watch the 21st Century Libraries episode.