Michigan Association for Computer Users in Learning (MACUL) President Frank Miracola announced the following in the MACUL March 1999 newsletter:

And The President’s Award Goes To...

The MACUL President’s Award is presented to individuals or organizations that, "...have the potential or have contributed to the advancement of the use of technology for the benefit of students." It is overseen by the MACUL Coalition Committee chaired by Board member, George Grimes.

I am happy to announce that this year’s winner of the MACUL President’s Award will be presented to the AccessMichigan Project. Many education and library leaders were involved in development and highly successful implementation of AccessMichigan, including:

• George Needham, former state librarian, Library of Michigan,
• Randy Dykhuis, executive director, Michigan Library Consortium,
• Marianne Hartzell, executive director, Michigan Library Association,
• Susan Schwartz, director, REMC 13, Ingham Intermediate School District,
• Ruth Dukelow, director, AccessMichigan,
• Sue Davidsen, director, Michigan Electronic Library.

The goal of the AccessMichigan project is to create a digital information environment that will offer every resident of the state equitable and easy-to-use access to a core set of information sources. The project will provide a rich assortment of online databases, a common user interface, and training for Michigan librarians and the general public in effective use of the electronic resources.

The AccessMichigan project focuses on electronic content, building upon librarians’ traditional strengths of information organization and selection, to design a digital library collection for all Michigan residents. This collection provides them with access to information resources, whether they exist at a remote site in another state or country, in another city or region of the state, or in the local community or institution. By using the Internet and the World Wide Web to link to these disparate locations, every Michigan library can improve its service and offer content that is not now easily available to its patrons.

AccessMichigan project is a collaborative effort of Michigan libraries of all types—from school media centers to public libraries to hospital libraries to academic research libraries. It seeks to provide a core set of information resources to all libraries, with the opportunity for aggregating demand among libraries for purchase of specialized resources that might be of value to a subset of libraries. In addition, AccessMichigan serves as a unifying bridge with existing efforts, including the Michigan Electronic Library.

For more information about AccessMichigan, see the article AccessMichigan forges partnership with the Michigan Electronic Library in the March issue of the MACUL newsletter.

Previous MACUL President’s Award recipients include:

• The Michigan Information Network (MIN),
• Upper Great Lakes Educational Technologies Inc. (UGLETI),
• Regional Educational Media Center Association (REMC)/Association of Intermediate School Administrators (MAISA) Cooperative Bid Program,
• Michigan Department of Education (MDE),
• Michigan Association for Media in Education (MAME).

Updated 01/09/2006