Michigan state budget cuts and the impact on MeL interlibrary loan

from the Ann Arbor Chronicle, "State Budget Cuts Affect Library"

If funding is cut, Parker said there might be some discussion among libraries about how to pay for it independently of state and federal aid. That would require hundreds of thousands of dollars, she said. Though AADL pays only a nominal fee to be part of MeLCat, they also pay for 2.5 staff positions dedicated to processing materials for MeLCat, at a cost of about $100,000 annually. She said about three libraries in the state, including AADL, are shouldering the load for MeLCat in terms of providing materials, and they’d need to have a serious discussion about true costs if they were to continue the service, should state and federal funding be cut. “It’s old fashioned, it’s labor intensive, it’s expensive, but it’s loved,” she said.

The article continues that audio-visual materials will no longer be able to be borrowed via MeL by Ann Arbor due to a requirement that borrowing libraries also lend similar materials; there's a concern that the AADL would be overwhelmed by requests for CDs and DVDs, and the high cost of packaging those fragile materials would be prohibitive.

More details on MeL from the Michigan Libraries Consortium wiki.