Greetings Michigan Library Community, Today is World Book Day and to celebrate we'd like to share some fun facts and figures about MeLCat. Did you know that MeLCat recently reached a milestone? On January 17, MeLCat filled its 10 millionth request. The title was: "A gift of glory : Edsel Ford and the Diego Rivera murals at the Detroit Institute of Arts : a play" by Karim Alrawi. It was requested by a Livonia Public Library patron and supplied by Oakland University. That success is thanks to the very hardworking men and women in the Michigan library community. Go ahead, take a moment to bask in the glory. Think of all the rubber band arguments it's taken to get us to this point! This is truly a group effort and I'd like to take this MeL Minute to give a well-deserved shout out to the library workers in every corner of Michigan who participate in MeLCat processing. Thank you!! And to bolster your own personal knowledge base of MeLCat lore, I'd like to share the following that Sean Cwiek of the Midwest Collaborative of Library Services dug up for us: * The first book request on MeLCat was made on January 10, 2005. The title was: "The Celtic collection : twenty-five knitwear designs for men and women" by Alice Starmore. It was requested by a West Bloomfield Township Public Library patron and supplied by Bloomfield Township Public Library. For those of you who are not knitters, Celtic patterns are very cool. * The most popular book in 2016 was: "All the Light We Cannot See" * How busy are we? We're very busy. Circulation varies, but statewide we average 90,000 every month. * How many libraries participate? It varies. Libraries drop out for a catalog migration, a move, or for the summer months, but it's right around 430. * How does that break down by type? a. Public - 354 (out of 398 public library systems) b. Academic - 52 c. K12 - 11 d. Combined Public/School - 9 e. Special - 3 * How many items are in the system? Well, when U of M joined we got a tremendous boost. As of December, there were 49,346,993 items in MeLCat. That's books, DVDs, CDs and audiobooks. Want more information on MeL? Stay tuned for the next MeL Minute available on many Michigan library listservs, email us at contact@mel.org<mailto:contact@mel.org>, visit http://mel.org<http://mel.org/>, or sign up for the MeL Minute and other Library of Michigan e-mail lists via GovDelivery<https://public.govdelivery.com/accounts/MILOM/subscriber/new>. We encourage you to share MeL Minutes with your colleagues and networks. Sonya Schryer Norris Library of Michigan 702 W. Kalamazoo St. Lansing, MI 48909 517-373-4457 http://michigan.gov/libraryofmichigan http://mel.org<http://mel.org/> http://michlibrary.org<http://michlibrary.org/> [cte-horiz-michigan] [cte month resized for signature] <http://www.acteonline.org/ctemonth> February is Career and Technical Education Month in Michigan www.michigan.gov/octe<http://www.michigan.gov/octe>