Through mapping where he or she is going; surveying the best curriculum from the best institutions in the world, then hunt for materials used at those institutions and elsewhere in order to practice and master the subject. Among such materials the internet Open CourseWare from MIT, Yale and others; industry related webcast and MOST important of all technical books found from those curriculum that can only be accessible through MEL library system.

For instance a friend lost her IT job to outsourcing. In fact her entire computer gaming segment literally left the US for outsourcing centers in other countries, so looking for the same for her was futile. After some fact finding she realized that computer security would be something that was of interest to her. The catch: she had no money, even if she did no local college taught the particular brand of computer security she wanted to learn.

So I walked her through the steps of identifying the best curriculum which included the one offered by the InfoSec Institute, cross reference it with texbooks on forensic computer from harvard.com and amazon; then helped her find these or equivalent books through the Library MEL system. In addition I found for her full length lecture courses from top universities freely offered through the internet, topped off with webcast from Forensic4Cast to put all that knowledge into professional context.

She dedicated herself day and night to gain all of the knowledge and practice that ultimatedly led to her landing a job making over $100,000 a year.

Core to story are the tecnical books she was able to access through the library MEL system. Each of those books normally costing between $75-250 which her meager unemployment would not have afforded her to do. Without the critical resources from the library today she would still unemployed, unable to provide for her children, facing an industries with skills that no longer are in demand; going into depression and worse.

I am so touched by witnessing such tranformation that I am volanterring my time to teach others on how to do the same, transform their lives and contribute to our community. Taking the powerful MEL tools will be a tragety that will snuff out one of the few alternatives for people who feel stuck in these violent economic times.

Hoping that legislatures read this note as they make their difficult decision to cut resources for Michigan.