MeLCat, the Michigan libraries shared catalog, went live on January 10, 2005 when a West Bloomfield patron requested the first book. Since that day 13 years ago

• more than 430 libraries have joined (including Hekman Library in fall of 2012)
• library users have made over 11 million requests
• the annual fill rate has reached 91.9%

None of that would be possible without the hard work of hundreds of library staff across the state. We’ve seen items travel from one corner of the state to another...from Ironwood Carnegie Library on the Wisconsin border to Monroe County Library System’s Luna Pier branch close to the Ohio border, and from the Blissfield branch of Schultz-Holmes Memorial Library - just north of the Ohio border - to Calumet Public School on Lake Superior, at the state's most northern extremity.

One would think that the large public and academic librarieswould be lending to the smaller libraries because they have much bigger collections. But a surprising amount of material has been lent by small elementary and secondary school libraries to the largest public and academic libraries! Everyone contributes and we all benefit.

Happy 13th, MeLCat!