For twenty years, Michigan residents have enjoyed use of the Michigan Electronic Library (MeL). This critical library service and adjacent programs are about to be eliminated due to a federal Executive Order (EO).
The EO signed by President Trump on March 14, 2025 seeks to eliminate the federal Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), the nation’s only federal agency for America’s libraries. IMLS dollars routed to Michigan fund MeL, as well as a state-wide interlibrary loan service called MeLCat. If IMLS funding is eliminated, local library users will have less access to books and other library materials.
In 2024, the MeLCat program saw Michigan libraries lend over one million books and other materials that are not locally available. Through MeL, students and other residents last year accessed over 19 million electronic articles, journals and other online resources to do homework, research, prepare for tests and more. Residents also benefited from MeL’s authoritative sources on education, medicine, business, and history, among other topics that help people make informed decisions.
While the majority of revenue for public libraries in Michigan comes from local property taxes, the most significant impact of the potential loss of IMLS funding could be the elimination of MeL and MeLCat.
In Michigan, these federally funded programs provide a hard return on investment of $27 per tax dollar. This means for every $1 invested in libraries across the state, Michiganders see $27 in received value.
You can read more about the impact of the elimination of IMLS in a press release from the Michigan Department of Education, published on March 20, 2025 and available here: https://www.michigan.gov/mde/news-and-information/press-releases/2025/03/20/michigan-library-users-will-be-harmed-by-order-to-abolish-federal-agency
Additional information can be found at:
You may contact your legislators regarding your concerns at the following website:
https://www.congressweb.com/aam/94/
You can also tell your MelCat story here:
