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MeLCat Returns October 1st!

by eli

Good news, everyone! The long-awaited return of the MeLCat interlibrary loan system is finally happening! Beginning October 1st, 2018, AADL cardholders will regain the ability to request items from the MeLCat network, and AADL will resume loaning items to other libraries via the MeLCat network. Thanks to all of you for your patience through this unexpectedly long service interruption; we apologize for the delay, and we're thrilled to be bringing MeLCat back at last.

In addition, we'll be rolling out some other useful new features on October 1st for power users, including some improvements to the performance and capabilities of your My Account page, a new Points-o-Matic mode where you can help us organize scanned newspapers from microfilm, and another special surprise for those of you suffering from Summer Game withdrawal.

One thing to know for MeLCat aficionados; we used to be on the same system as MeLCat itself, so some features could be more tightly integrated. Now that we run a different system than the one MeLCat uses, if you want to renew or cancel your MeLCat items, you'll need to log in to MyMeLCat to do so. Your MeLCat checkouts and requests will show up in their own section on your My Account page, and they'll have a link to MyMeLCat where the renew or cancel buttons would be. MelCat requests cannot be frozen or have their pickup location changed once they've been placed.

So, thanks again for your patience as we readied our new system to play nice with MeLCat, and thanks for using your Library!

Comments

By "power user", we just mean people who have a lot of items checked out or on request at once. They run into performance problems and want features that aren't as big of an issue to people who only have a few items out at once.

That really is terrific news! I was afraid that was some kind of State of Michigan budget issue and it wasn't coming back. It's a really helpful resource. A little extra work to do things like MeL renewals is no big deal. Thanks!

Omigosh, this fantastic! Hasn't it been almost a year since MELcat was down for AADL? What's MyMelCat?

MyMeLCat is the My Account page that the MeL system offers on their website. It's always been there, but our users didn't used to need to use it for renewals or cancellations. And yes, MelCat requesting was discontinued on October 2nd, 2017, so it is *almost* a year. =)

Hooray! Can't wait for this - it's been a long drought of hard to find items. thank you for bringing it back!

And, don't worry, the return of MelCat will NOT include A/V materials which will keep our collection safe. Also, other state libraries will not have to worry about their collection being damaged by AADL users. Everybody wins!

With all due respect, can this really be seen as a "win"? At least in regard to accessing information, it would seem to me that the more available to the cardholder, the better. The position as stated above seems antithetical to the concept of a library. I see friends from other libraries using the MelCat system to find rare movies that are hard to track down and/or otherwise difficult to see. I have always wondered why the AADL refuses to participate.

I personally believe that its in part because Ann Arbor has invested in one of the largest collections of A/V materials statewide. We would end up being much bigger givers than receivers in this way. I'm not too sad that we don't have this option, as I like having the ability to get at our broad collection easily and quickly.

Yeah, sorry, I don't see it as a "win" when I have limited access to materials across the state. There are plenty of libraries with materials AADL lacks (=the whole point of MEL), and that includes A/V materials. I enjoyed obtaining a few of them in the past via MEL and am sorry that this avenue has been eliminated. Not a win for me. Any library whose patrons destroy materials belonging to their home system OR a MEL member should be financially accountable for replacing it. Otherwise we might as well not have libraries at all and be happy with the "win, win" system of having our own private collection that no one else can touch.

Great news! I was just wanting to search MeLCat last night, when I once again sadly remembered you don't have it right now. It's been a little rough without it and I've been thankful that I have access to two other libraries through my employer, of which I have been able to access MeLCat. But AADL is my "home" library and I prefer to use you guys whenever possible.

This has been a long wait.

" we used to be on the same system as MeLCat itself, so some features could be more tightly integrated. Now that we run a different system than the one MeLCat uses, "

This is not a particularly good thing from the user perspective.

"don't worry, the return of MelCat will NOT include A/V materials which will keep our collection safe. Also, other state libraries will not have to worry about their collection being damaged by AADL users. Everybody wins!"

Umm - no. Exempting A/V materials is not an unreasonable position to take, but dont try to simplistically sell it as an unmitigated good. When I need to borrow A/V materials I now have to ask a friend to check them out for me from a different library system. This is inconvenient.

The MELCat system is great but I have been enjoying the Special Requests option and have really appreciated having it available. It is great for books that Michigan Libraries don't have. Will the Special Requests option continue to be available once MelCat is operating again? Thanks.

Do you mean ILL? I have been told that interlibrary loan will remain, and will be less busy once MelCat is back - and thereby easier and faster to get things that are on ILL... - I think this is what you mean by Special Requests?

Performance improvement. Especially loading speed of home page woul be great.

MELCAT returns. Very good. Weaker integration. Not as good. Let's try it out and see how it works.

Thanks for all you do. I love our library, that is for sure.

Are we going to be able to see which checked out items are not renevable without having to renew them? That was very helpful in the old system on my account page.

We planned to have this working again today, but it did not work as intended, so we're back to the drawing board a bit. However, now that MeLCat is out the door, this is top of the list, so stay tuned!

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