University of Michigan Library
University of Michigan Library | |
---|---|
Location | Ann Arbor, Michigan |
Established | 1838 (186 years ago) |
Branch of | University of Michigan |
Collection | |
Size | 14,543,814 volumes (Ann Arbor Library) as of 2019–2020 with 16,025,996 volumes held by all university libraries |
Other information | |
Director | Lisa Carter |
Website | lib.umich.edu |
The University of Michigan Library is the academic library system of the University of Michigan. The university's 38 constituent and affiliated libraries together make it the second largest research library by number of volumes in the United States.
As of 2019–20, the University Library contained more than 14,543,814 volumes, while all campus library systems combined held more than 16,025,996 volumes. As of the 2019–2020 fiscal year, the Library also held 221,979 serials, and over 4,239,355 annual visits.[1]
Founded in 1838, the University Library is the university's main library and is housed in 12 buildings with more than 20 libraries,
The University of Michigan was the original home of the JSTOR database, which contains about 750,000 digitized pages from the entire pre-1990 backfile of ten journals of history and economics. In December 2004, the University of Michigan announced a book digitization program in collaboration with Google (known as Michigan Digitization Project), which is both revolutionary and controversial.[4] Books scanned by Google are included in HathiTrust, a digital library created by a partnership of major research institutions. As of March 2014, the following collections had been digitized: Art, Architecture and Engineering Library; Bentley Historical Library; Buhr Building (large portions); Dentistry Library (portions); Fine Arts Library (large portions); Hatcher Graduate Library (large portions); Herbarium Library; Kresge Business Administration Library; Law Library (portions); Museums Library; Music Library (large portions); Shapiro Undergraduate Library (large portions); Special Collections Research Library (portions); Taubman Health Sciences Library (large portions);
Responding to restricted public funding and the rising costs of print materials, the library has launched significant new ventures that use digital technology to provide
The University Librarian and Dean of Libraries is Lisa R. Carter, whose term began on May 1, 2023.[5][6]
History
The
Before the university's first years, books were stored in various places around campus, including at the Law School and in various professors' homes.[7] In 1856, the North Wing of the University Building was remodeled, and books centralized in the university's Library and Museum there.[7] In 1863, the Library moved to the Law Building.[7] In 1883, with Raymond Cazallis Davis (chief librarian) as a motivating force in its completion, the university's first library building was finished. Within twelve years of its construction the building was already too small for the growing collection.[7] Between 1870 and 1940 the collection grew rapidly, from 17,000 to 941,500.[7]
In 1890, the University Library inaugurated a handwritten
In 1900, the library established "caged areas in the stacks to protect books of exceptional value," becoming one of the first
By 1915, the overcrowded, wood-constructed General Library was designated a
By 1940, the University Library's card catalog had 2,000 trays and 1.75 million cards.[7] A post-World War II boom in enrollment, fueled by the G.I. Bill, further strained the library's crowding problems as the library continued to expand.[7] In 1947, the library took over collection development responsibilities, replacing the old system in which each academic department selected and purchases books and journals.[7] In 1948, the library established its Far Eastern Library (renamed the Asia Library in 1959) of materials from China, Japan, and Korea; the Asian Library is now the largest collection of East Asian resources in North America.[7]
In 1970, an eight-story addition was built, where much of the print collections are housed, along with the Library's administration offices, the Map Library, Special Collections, and Papyrology.[10] The Undergraduate Library was built in 1958, and renamed for Harold T. and Vivian B. Shapiro in 1995, with extensive access for students.[11] In years to come, the principle of access to materials would become the standard and goal for all libraries and initiatives.
Collections
Harlan Hatcher Graduate Library
The Harlan Hatcher Graduate Library is the university's primary research collection for the
A number of units are physically in the Hatcher Library or are organizationally associated with the Hatcher Library. These include:[13]
Click here for an audio walking tour of the Graduate Library.
Asia Library:
The Asia Library is located on the fourth floor of Hatcher Graduate Library (North).
Stephen S. Clark Library:
The Clark Library is the university's combined "map collection, government information center, and spatial and numeric data services" center.
The Clark Library Government Information Collection serves as a center for
The library's Spatial and Numeric Data Services (SAND) is housed at the Clark Library and on North Campus at SAND North in the Spatial Analysis Lab (room 2207) of the Art and Architecture Building. SAND assists in research, and "locates, acquires, and converts numeric and spatial
Special Collections Research Center
The Special Collections Research Center (SCRC) acquires, cares for, interprets, and shares collections of unique, rare, and primary source material.
- Galileo manuscript, a gift of Tracy W. McGregor in 1938; the manuscript is a draft of a Galileo letter to Leonardo Donato, doge of Venice, around August 1609, mentioning his discovery of four moons of Jupiter[23][24]
- Children's literature – includes around 25,000 published volumes and a large amount of archival material "containing the artwork, correspondence, manuscripts, and other material created or collected by a number of notable authors and illustrators."[23]
- Early manuscripts – includes over 250
- Heritage Edition of The Saint John's Bible – The Special Collections Research Center holds one of this rare reproductions, with calligraphy by Donald Jackson, on display on the sixth floor of the Hatcher Graduate Library.
- Janice Bluestein Longone Culinary Archive – This collection originated with the donation of the personal culinary history collection of Janice Bluestein Longone and her husband, Chemistry Professor Emeritus, Daniel T. Longone. It "brings together a diverse body of materials on the American culinary experience. Holdings cover the production, promotion, preparation, presentation, consumption, and appreciation of food and drink in America. Related aspects of domestic and commercial life are also included, such as entertaining and marketing...Particular strengths include 19th and early 20th century cookbooks, charity cookbooks, immigrant cookbooks, food-related advertising ephemera, and restaurant menus."[25]
- labor movements, civil liberties, socialism, communism, colonialism and imperialism, American labor history, the Industrial Workers of the World, and the Spanish Civil War.[23]
- Worcester Philippine History Collection – This collection includes a variety of published works, manuscripts, and photographs on the history of the Philippines. The core of the collection is the extensive collection of material donated by Dean Conant Worcester to the university (his alma mater) in 1914. The collection is particularly strong in the period from 1899 and 1913, when Worcester served as a member of the Philippine Commission and the Philippines was governed by the Bureau of Insular Affairs.[23][26]
- Transportation History Collections – This collection includes "thousands of volumes on Charles Ellet, Jr.; a 27-volume photographic journal documenting the building of the Panama Canal; and "extensive graphic material depicting pre-20th century transportation."[23]
- Theater, Radio, Television, and Film – The Special Collections Research Center holds various pre-19th century plays in various languages, including "numerous works from the Spanish Golden Age; early English plays including hundreds of editions of the works of Shakespeare, beginning with his Second Folio (1632); over 1,000 plays performed in French 'boulevard' theatres early in the 20th century; and several archival collections documenting American vaudeville and the 'Little Theatre' movement of the early 20th century."[23] More contemporary highlights include two collections of papers acquired from a collaborator and a partner of Orson Welles, covering Welles' career in theater, radio, and film, and an extensive archive on the life and career of film director Robert Altman.[23]
Jewish Heritage Collection
The library's special collection on
International Studies
International Studies (formerly the Area Programs Library) consists of four divisions: Near East; Slavic, East European, and Eurasian; South Asia; and Southeast Asia Division.[27]
- The Near East Division focuses on
- The Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Division focuses on Central Asian languages (15,800 items).[29]
- University of Michigan Papyrology Collection
Shapiro Library
The Hatcher Graduate Library is connected by a skyway to the Shapiro Library Building, which houses two libraries:
- Shapiro Undergraduate Library (called "the UGLi," a pre-renovation nickname that stuck)[30] includes all four floors of the Shapiro Library Building. It is a popular study and meeting place for U-M undergraduates, and has a solid, generalist collection of about 200,000 books and journals.[31] The UGLi also offers a great many services to its students, including Course Reserves, Reference Services, and the Peer Information Consultant (PIC) program, which allows students to get research advice from fellow undergraduates.[32] Café Shapiro is an annual forum for students, nominated by their professors, to read their creative work in a casual, coffeehouse-style environment.[33] The UGLi is also home to Bert's Café, which opened in February 2008. The café was donated by Bertram Askwith (LSA '31), who is also the donor of the Askwith Media Library. [34] The basement and fourth floor of Shapiro hold books on astronomy, biology, chemistry, geology, natural resources, mathematics, physics, and statistics. The Shapiro Library contains over 400,000 print volumes and subscribes to over 2,000 journals.[35]
- Askwith Media Library, formerly the Film and Video Library, was renamed and moved to the second floor of the Shapiro Library Building. The Askwith Media Library contains over 25,000 titles, including feature films, documentaries, and instructional programs available for checkout, on-site viewing, or streaming. Especially strong in foreign, animated, and documentary film, Askwith serves the entertainment and instructional needs of the university community. [36]
Other Central Campus libraries
The University Library contains collections that support the university's museums:
- The Fine Arts Library, located on the second floor of Tappan Hall (the History of Art building) serves the History of Art department, the theory, and criticism of the visual arts," including works on painting, drawing, sculpture, graphic arts, decorative arts, architectural history and photography.[37]
- The Museums Library is located near South Campus in the Research Museums Center. It holds more than 130,000 cataloged volumes, with a focus on
- The Herbarium Library collection is also housed in the Research Museums Center, in the University of Michigan Herbarium on Varsity Drive.[38]
Taubman Health Sciences Library
One of the largest medical libraries in America with comprehensive collections in all facets of health care and medical research, the Taubman Health Sciences Library also has extensive online collections and is a member of the National Network of Libraries of Medicine, a gateway for access to over a thousand medical libraries nationwide. The Taubman Health Sciences Library has recently introduced the Clinical Librarian Service for the growing information needs of health professionals within the University of Michigan Health System who cannot easily leave their units, clinics or health centers.
Many rare volumes of significance to the
North Campus libraries
Two university libraries are located on the U-M North Campus: the Music Library and the Art, Architecture & Engineering Library (AAEL). The Music Library is located on the third floor of the Earl V. Moore Music Building. The Music Library's collections feature extensive materials in performance, musicology, composition, theory, and dance, including scores, serials, and sound and video recordings in many formats.[40] The Art, Architecture & Engineering Library, in the Duderstadt Center, features more than 600,000 volumes, thousands of periodicals, and over 200 databases in the disciplines of art and design, architecture, engineering, and urban planning.[41] The library has especially strong collections in early twentieth-century art and design, with many materials on the Bauhaus school, Le Corbusier, Louis Sullivan and Frank Lloyd Wright.
Independent libraries
There are also several collections that are affiliated with the university, but are not part of the University Library system. Two historical libraries are the Bentley Historical Library and the William L. Clements Library. The former is home of the University of Michigan's archives as well as the Michigan Historical Collections, while the latter houses original resources for the study of American history and culture from the 15th to the early 20th century.
Other libraries include the
Off-campus facilities
The only off-campus library in the University of Michigan system is the Biological Station Library. Its collection consists of over 16,000 cataloged volumes and more than 50 paper journals.[42] It specializes in limnology, ornithology, ecology, systematics, taxonomy, and natural history. Located in Pellston, Michigan, near the northern tip of the Lower Peninsula of Michigan, the University of Michigan Biological Station is dedicated to education and research in field biology and environmental science.
Not considered an independent library, but nevertheless a key facility for the entire U-M library system, the Buhr Building stores in a preservation-sensitive environment over two million items too fragile or rarely used to be kept in the main libraries.
Challenges and opportunities
Michigan Publishing
Michigan Publishing (formerly "MPublishing") is a library publishing initiative which is "the hub of scholarly publishing at the University of Michigan."[43]
Major activities of Michigan Publishing include: "publishing
Michigan Publishing hosts and helps operated 25 University of Michigan-based journals and scholarly conference proceedings in a variety of fields.[44] It also operates Deep Blue, the university's institutional repository.[45]
Michigan Publishing operates several
The University of Michigan Press is a component of Michigan Publishing.[47]
Scholarly Publishing Office
The Scholarly Publishing Office (SPO) was a unit of the University of Michigan Library devoted to developing innovative and economically sustainable publishing and distribution models for scholarly discourse. Its staff, services, and imprints are now part of Michigan Publishing. Created in 2001, the Scholarly Publishing Office provided a suite of publishing services to scholars at U-M and beyond, in order to provide alternatives to commercial academic publishing. In addition to developing cost-effective methods of publication, SPO also helped scholars increase access to their work by making it openly available online, within a trusted and durable digital library environment. Library-based publishing services such as those offered by the Scholarly Publishing Office contribute to a more robust, efficient, and diverse system of scholarly communication. In 2009 it was absorbed into a new brand name, "MPublishing", was in turn renamed to "Michigan Publishing" in 2013.
Background
SPO was unique among publishers because of its affiliation with a major university library. Historically, libraries have defined their mission according to the rubrics of collecting, preserving, cataloging, and distributing the fruits of scholarly inquiry. For many years this broadly conceived mission has sufficed; today, the economics of the publishing world have created a situation in which the status quo is impossible to maintain. Library budgets for public universities like the U-M are either cut or stagnant, while the costs of publishing in print form continue to rise. Publishing conglomerates drive subscription rates up, while libraries struggle—and in many case fail—to keep up. Smaller academic publishing houses do not generate sufficient revenue to support themselves, and their institutional subsidies have been slashed. Many presses have closed, and those that remain have raised prices for their books to a near-prohibitive level, further restricting sales.
Harnessing the flexibility and relatively inexpensive resources of electronic publishing, SPO responded to the economic challenges of scholarly publication by providing a cost-effective, sustainable, permanent, and user-friendly publishing option for journals that could not sustain the cost of print publication and distribution.
Projects and Publications
Starting with Philosopher's Imprint, a peer-reviewed journal produced by the University of Michigan Department of Philosophy, SPO published over a dozen journals and provided for-fee hosting for non-profit academic organizations' subscription products. For example, SPO hosted the American Council of Learned Society's ACLS Humanities Ebook (now hosted by Michigan Publishing) and the Law Library Microfilm Consortium's LLMC-Digital, a database of legal research materials. SPO also offered limited monograph publication and a print on demand service, as well as offering non-traditional publication services, such as online versions of exhibits curated by the University of Michigan's Special Collections Library.
SPO began a collaboration with the University of Michigan Press, called the Michigan Digital Publishing Initiative, to explore the possibilities of new publishing partnerships between libraries and traditional, print-based academic presses. The first fruits of this alliance was digitalculturebooks, an imprint that offers books on the role of technology in contemporary society in both print and digital formats.
SPO actively pursued new and promising partnerships and publication opportunities. For example, it released the online publication of the Bulletin of the American Society of Papyrologists (BASP), in partnership with the University of Michigan Library's Papyrology Collection. BASP is the only journal in the field of papyrology published in North America and is the official journal of the American Society of Papyrologists.
Digitization
Since the early 1990s, the University of Michigan Library has been a leader among research libraries in efforts to digitize its vast collections. The Digital Library Production Service (DLPS) of the U-M Library oversees the digitization of Library materials, and the development of online access systems for these digitized materials. In furtherance of this goal, DLPS developed its own digital library software, called Digital Library Extension Service (DLXS), that provides a uniform interface for its digitized items. DLPS oversees the scanning and optical character recognition of about 5,000 texts per year, many of them rare, brittle, or delicate.
The Digital Library Production Service hosts many searchable digital collections.[48] Among them are:
- The Corpus of Middle English Prose and Verse, a collection of 54 Middle English texts variously digitized for the project by the university's Humanities Text Initiative and collected from University of Michigan faculty and texts provided by the Oxford Text Archive.[49]
- The University of Michigan Historical Mathematics Collection, a collection of works of mathematics published in the 19th and early 20th centuries.[50]
- Advanced Papyrological Information System (APIS UM)
- American Verse Project
- Making of America
- Michigan County Histories and Atlases
- Middle English Compendium
DLPS is also affiliated with the Text Creation Partnership (TCP) to create searchable, full-text versions of works digitized in the Early English Books Online, Evans Early American Imprints, and the Eighteenth Century Collection Online projects. TCP, when its work is concluded, will have produced over 40,000 XML-encoded text files—making it one of the largest collections of its kind.
Google and HathiTrust
In December 2004 the University Library and Google announced their plans to digitize the over 7 million print volumes held by the Library. Especially old and fragile items, or items in special collections, will not be handled by Google; these the Library will scan itself. It is estimated that it will take approximately six years for Google to complete the scanning process; without Google, the U-M Library was on pace to have their entire collection scanned in about 1000 years. All costs for the project are borne by Google, and the company has developed special scanning technology to ensure that the books are not damaged during the process. All books that are out of copyright will be available for the public to read online; those still in copyright will be searchable, but only brief excerpts will be available to read. Copyright holders, such as publishers and authors, who do not want their books to be scanned can request to have their works excluded from the project, though the Library and Google both maintain that authors and publishers benefit from having their works digitized, since it will make them easier to find and will potentially bring more sales.
Though the project has been revolutionary, it is not without controversy. In September 2005
On June 6, 2007, twelve universities cooperating as the
ARL rankings
Using a variety of metrics such as accessibility, materials expenditures, volumes held, and staff size, the
Year | Volumes Held | Volumes Added Gross | Current Series | Total Expenditures | Total Staff | Data Source | Investment Index Rank |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
2013 | 13,250,648 | $69,763,323 | 669 | University of Michigan | |||
2009 | 9,575,256 | 176,363 | 70,047 | $53,134,323 | 584 | ARL | 5 |
2008 | 9,175,102 | 146,729 | 69,457 | $51,599,110 | 570 | ARL | 8 |
2007 | 8,414,070 | 157,552 | 71,788 | $50,591,407 | 585 | ARL | 8 |
2006 | 8,273,050 | 176,998 | 134,446 | $49,053,402 | 574 | ARL | 8 |
2005 | 8,133,917 | 189,373 | 124,809 | $47,113,239 | 473 | ARL | 5 |
2004 | 7,958,145 | 171,154 | 67,554 | $46,737,671 | 475 | ARL | 8 |
2003 | 7,800,389 | 173,081 | 74,664 | $48,193,379 | 497 | ARL | 5 |
2002 | 7,643,203 | 182,670 | 69,218 | $43,357,616 | 514 | ARL | 6 |
2001 | 7,484,343 | 172,287 | 68,684 | $43,558,787 | 501 | ARL | 6 |
2000 | 7,348,360 | 179,392 | 68,798 | $41,368,972 | 459 | 1.06 | 6 |
References
- ^ "Statistical Highlights | U-M Library". www.lib.umich.edu.
- ^ "Library Locations by Campus". www.lib.umich.edu. Retrieved 2022-11-06.
- ^ a b Libraries & Archives Archived 2006-04-23 at the Wayback Machine, University of Michigan Library.
- ^ a b DigitalKoans » Blog Archive » The Google Print Controversy: A Bibliography
- ^ "Lisa R. Carter named library dean, effective May 1, 2023". www.lib.umich.edu. Retrieved 2023-06-02.
- ^ "Lisa Carter named university librarian, dean of libraries | The University Record". record.umich.edu. Retrieved 2023-06-02.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r "Hatcher Gallery Exhibit Room". www.lib.umich.edu. Retrieved 2023-06-28.
- ^ Tobin, James. "Birds in the Library". University of Michigan Heritage Project. Retrieved 2023-06-28.
- ^ "Professor Gray and the Secret Life of Books". Retrieved 2023-06-28.
- ^ "Inside the Hatcher Library". www.lib.umich.edu. Retrieved 2023-06-28.
- ^ "Undergraduate library gets facelift, new name and expanded facilities and services" (Press release). May 12, 1995.
- ^ Collections at the Graduate Library
- ^ Department Directory of the Hatcher Graduate Library.
- ^ a b c d About Asia Library, University of Michigan Library.
- ^ Clark Library.
- ^ a b Clark Library Map Collections, University of Michigan Library.
- ^ Map Collection Highlights.
- ^ Clark Library Government Information Collection.
- ^ Highlights.
- ^ Spatial and Numeric Data Services (SAND).
- ^ a b c "Special Collections Research Center". www.lib.umich.edu. Retrieved 2023-06-28.
- ^ "Library sets new destination for special collections researchers | The University Record". record.umich.edu. Retrieved 2023-06-28.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Special Collections Library – Collections
- ^ The Galileo Manuscript
- ^ "Janice Bluestein Longone Culinary Archive". www.lib.umich.edu. Retrieved 2024-03-11.
- ^ The Worcester Philippine History Collection.
- ^ "International Studies". www.lib.umich.edu. Retrieved 2023-06-28.
- ^ Near East Division.
- ^ Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Divisions.
- ^ https://www.mlive.com/news/ann-arbor/2017/08/10_things_university_of_michig.html
- ^ "Undergraduate Collections". www.lib.umich.edu. Retrieved 2023-06-28.
- ^ "Student Consultants". www.lib.umich.edu. Retrieved 2023-06-28.
- ^ "Café Shapiro". www.lib.umich.edu. Retrieved 2023-06-28.
- ^ "Bert's Caf opening at Shapiro Undergraduate Library | The University Record". record.umich.edu. Retrieved 2023-06-28.
- ^ "Shapiro Library Collections". www.lib.umich.edu. Retrieved 2023-06-28.
- ^ "Askwith Media Library". www.lib.umich.edu. Retrieved 2023-06-28.
- ^ Fine Arts Library.
- ^ a b Museums Library
- ^ "History of Medicine". www.lib.umich.edu. Retrieved 2023-06-28.
- ^ "Music Library". www.lib.umich.edu. Retrieved 2023-06-28.
- ^ "Art, Architecture, and Engineering Library". www.lib.umich.edu. Retrieved 2023-06-28.
- ^ Biological Station Library (Pellston): About Us
- ^ a b About Us, Michigan Publishing.
- ^ Journal Services, Michigan Publishing.
- ^ Deep Blue | Michigan Publishing; Deep Blue.
- ^ Print on Demand Services, Michigan Publishing.
- ^ About – The University of Michigan Press.
- ^ University of Michigan digital collections
- ^ Corpus of Middle English Prose and Verse; About the Corpus of Middle English Prose and Verse
- ^ University of Michigan Historical Mathematics Collection
- ^ Committee on Institutional Cooperation (CIC)
- ^ CIC: Partnership Announced Between CIC Libraries And Google Archived 2007-06-14 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ HathiTrust
- ^ HathiTrust: About
- ^ Martha Kyrillidou and Mark Young (2006). "ARL Statistics 2004-05 A Compilation of Statistics from the One Hundred and Twenty-three Members of the Association of Research Libraries" (PDF). Association of Research Libraries.
External links
- University Library
- Libraries & Archives Directory for University of Michigan
- Michigan Digitization Project ("Google Books") online FAQs
- University of Michigan Press
- Deep Blue: UM's Archive
- Advanced Papyrological Information System
- Association of Research Libraries
- CAAS Information Resources Center
- Center for the Education of Women Library UM
- Center for the Education of Women Library LS&A
- Henderson Ophthalmology Library
- Patient Education Resource Center
- Tanner Philosophy Library
- Janice Bluestein Longone Culinary Archive
- Historical volume counts
- SPO's homepage