University of Michigan Library

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The Hatcher Graduate Library from the North side
The Hatcher Graduate Library from the North side
The Shapiro Library Building
The Shapiro Library Building

The University of Michigan University Library in Ann Arbor, Michigan, is one of the largest university library systems in the United States. It is in fact 19 separate libraries in 11 buildings, which, taken together, hold over 8 million volumes and serve more than 3 million patrons on-site per year. Each year the equivalent of 2.5 miles of new material is added to the aggregate collection.[1] The University Library also has been a pioneer in digitization efforts, and its recent partnership with Google to digitize its collection (known as Michigan Digitization Project or Mbooks) is both revolutionary and controversial.[2] Responding to restricted public funding and the rising costs of print materials, the Library has launched significant new scholarly communication ventures that use digital technology to provide cost-effective and permanent alternatives to traditional print publication. The University Library is also an educational organization in its own right, offering a full range of courses, resources, support, and training for students, faculty, and researchers.

Contents

[edit] History

Ever since the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor campus was established in 1837, the commitment to building a comprehensive research library was at the core of its mission. The first volume purchased by the Library was John James Audubon's Birds of America, acquired in 1838 for $970. That same year, Asa Gray, known as the "father of American botany," and the first faculty member of the University, was entrusted with a $5,000 budget to establish the first collection of books for the brand-new University Library. His decision--radical for the time--to purchase materials from a broad array of disciplines, helped establish the University Library's ongoing commitment to depth and breadth in every field of study.

Before the first separate library building was opened in 1883, books were kept in various locations around campus, including the law school and in professor's homes. Within 12 years this facility was deemed inadequate, and, moreover, a fire hazard. After two additions, in 1920 an entirely new building, designed by the important architect Albert Kahn, was completed--what is now known as the north building of the Harlan Hatcher Graduate Library. 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. In 1959 the Shapiro Undergraduate Library was built, with a policy of open access to the stacks for students. In years to come the principle of access to materials would become the standard and goal for all University of Michigan Libraries and initiatives.

[edit] The Nineteen Libraries

The largest and most prominent of the University of Michigan Libraries is the Harlan Hatcher Graduate Library, the primary research collection for the humanities and social sciences. It contains over 3.5 million volumes and over 10,000 periodicals written in more than 300 languages. Commonly cited collecting strengths of the Graduate Library include English and French history; papyrology; Germanic history and culture; classical archeology; military history; English Literature; social and political movements. In addition, these general stacks collections are supported by strong holdings in U.S. and foreign government documents, a significant collection of maps and cartographic materials, a comprehensive collection of publications written in East Asian languages, manuscripts and special collections, over 1.5 million items in microformat, and a strong collection of reference and bibliographic sources.

The building is also the home of six other libraries:

  • The Asia Library: The Asia Library was established in 1948, and it possesses one of the nation's foremost collections of Chinese, Japanese, and Korean language resources. The Asia Library is one of the most comprehensive research resources outside of Asia for Chinese and Japanese studies.
  • The Government Documents Center: The Documents Center is a central reference and referral point for government information, whether local, state, federal, foreign, or international. Its web pages are a reference and instructional tool for government information, political science, statistical data, and related news.
  • The International Area Programs Library: The Area Programs Libraries consist of four divisions: The Near East Division, which focuses on the Near East and North Africa, and collects materials in Arabic, Hebrew, Persian, Turkish, Kurdish, and Yiddish; The Slavic and East European Division, encompassing the Soviet Union and its successor states, as well as Poland, the former Yugoslav states, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Notable holdings include Russian revolutionary movements and revolutions, Russian and East European dissident writings, modern Armenian and Central Asian history and literature; The South Asia Division, which includes India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Tibet, and Afghanistan; and The Southeast Asia Division, which is especially strong in materials related to the Philippines, Thailand, and Indonesia, but also has substantial holdings in English and Aboriginal language materials from Australia, New Zealand, and Oceania.
  • The Map Library: The Map Library is the largest collection of printed maps in the state of Michigan, with over 320,000 maps and about 8,000 atlases and reference works. It specializes in maps of Michigan, the Great Lakes area, the United States, Western Europe, the Mediterranean region, Canada, Mexico, Eurasia, and Japan. In addition to maps, the Map Library collects a wide range of other cartographic materials, including atlases, geographical dictionaries, and reference texts. One of the Map Library’s unique collections is the Sanborn Fire Insurance Map Collection. Starting in 1867, the Sanborn Map Company produced the Sanborn Maps to provide detailed information to insurance companies for risk assessment. These large-scale maps indicate the dimensions, construction, and function of buildings, as well as other information about the built environment. This collection is of keen interest to urban historians and students of urban development and architectural history.
  • Papyrology Collection: With over 7,000 items and more than 10,000 individual fragments, Michigan’s Papyrology Collection is by far the largest collection of papyrus in the country, and the fifth largest in the world. It was started in 1920 by Francis Kelsey, a professor of classics, who acquired 617 papyri from his travels in Egypt. A resource for historians, linguists, Egyptologists, classicists, philosophers, and archaeologists, the collection includes biblical fragments, religious writings, public and private documents, private letters, and writings on astronomy, astrology, mathematics, and magic. University of Michigan papyri span nearly two millennia of history, dating from about 1000 BC to AD 1000, with the majority dating from the third century BC to the seventh century AD. Michigan pioneered electronic conservation of papyrus, and an external link to the APIS system is found below.
  • Special Collections Library: The Special Collections Library is an internationally renowned archive of books, serials, ancient and modern manuscripts, posters, photographs, pamphlets, and original artwork. The Special Collections Library is especially noted for its collections of early manuscripts, children’s literature, social protest and radical literature, transportation history, and book arts. It is perhaps most famous for its Labadie Collection of Social Protest Material, a massive collection of primary sources in radical politics of the twentieth century, which has recently acquired the papers of Unabomber Theodore Kaczynski, a University of Michigan Alumnus.

The Hatcher Graduate Library is connected by a skyway to the Shapiro Library Building, which houses three libraries:

  • Shapiro Undergraduate Library (referred to by the student population, affectionately, as the UGLi) is located in the basement, first and second 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. The UGLI also offers a great many services to its students, including Course Reserves, Reference Services, and the Research Consultation Program, which features one-on-one research assistance. The Peer Information Counseling Program also is located in Shapiro, and allows students to get research advice form fellow undergraduates. Café Shapiro is an annual forum for students, nominated by their professors, to read their creative work in a casual, café-style environment. Upcoming Addition: Bert's Cafe. Donated by Bertman Askwith(LSA 31'), who is also the donor of Askwith Media Library. Currently, it is under construction and should be completed by February 2008. Eagerly awaited for by the student population.
  • Shapiro Science Library, is housed on the third and fourth floor of Shapiro and is the primary University of Michigan research center for Astronomy, Biology, Chemistry, Geology, Natural Resources, Mathematics, Physics, and Statistics. The Shapiro library contains -- in addition to its many electronic research databases -- approximately 400,000 volumes.
  • Askwith Media Library. Recently renamed and moved to the second floor of the Shapiro Library Building, the Askwith Media Library, formerly the Film and Video Library, contains over 25,000 titles, including feature films, documentaries, and instructional programs available for checkout or on-site viewing. Especially strong in foreign, animated, and documentary film, Askwith serves the entertainment and instructional needs of the University community.

Other Central Campus University Libraries include:

  • The Dentistry Library: One of the most comprehensive dental collections in the world, the library currently holds over 700 periodicals and nearly every relevant dental text published in English
  • The Fine Arts Library: The Fine Arts Library serves students and faculty in the History of Art department, and supports the teaching, research, and curatorial functions of the University of Michigan Museum of Art and the Kelsey Museum of Archeology. The library maintains a collection of nearly 100,000 volumes along with many electronic resources in the history, theory, and criticism of the visual arts.
  • The Museums Library: Located in the Ruthven Museums building, which includes the Anthropology, Natural History, and Paleontology museums, the Museums Library supports the programs in these fields, and holds approximately 118,000 volumes in botany, zoology, behavioral biology, and archeological anthropology.
  • The Public Health Library and Informatics: The Public Health Library contains over 75,000 volumes in health services management, environmental and industrial health, maternal and children's health, population planning, community health, biostatistics, nutrition, international health and other related fields.
  • Social Work Library: The Social Work Library's collections focus on social work, social welfare administration, child welfare, gerontology, and psychotherapy.
  • A. Alfred Taubman Medical Library: One of the largest medical libraries in America, with comprehensive collections in all facets of health care and medical research. It 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. Taubman Medical 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. For researchers in the history of medicine, Taubman’s Rare Books Room is a vital resource, housing approximately 6,300 titles dating from 1470 to the early 20th century, including 82 incunabula.

Two University Libraries are located on the North Campus of the University of Michigan:

  • The Music Library: Located on the third floor of the Earl V. Moore Music Building, designed by architect Eero Saarinen, the Music Library's collections feature extensive materials in performance, musicology, composition, theory, and dance. It also includes scores, serials, and sound and video recordings in many formats.
  • The Art, Architecture & Engineering Library: Located in the Duderstadt Center, this library features over 600,000 volumes, thousands of periodicals, and over 200 databases in the disciplines of art and design, architecture, engineering, and urban planning. 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.

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. It specializes in limnology, ornithology, ecology, systematics, taxonomy, and natural history. Located in Pellston, MI, 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 Remote Shelving Facility stores in a preservation-sensitive environment over two million items too fragile or rarely-used to be kept in the main libraries.

[edit] Challenges and Opportunities

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[edit] Scholarly communication

The University Library has traditionally defined its mission according to the rubrics of collecting, preserving, organizing, and distributing the fruits of scholarly inquiry. For the past decade or so, the Library has been exploring new venues for scholarly communication offered by the Internet. The economics of the publishing world and the difficult fiscal realities of operating a publicly funded research library have conspired to create a situation in which the status quo is impossible to maintain.[3] Library budgets are either cut or stagnant, while the costs of publishing in print form continue to rise.[4] Publicly funded research libraries like Michigan’s struggle—and in many cases fail—to keep up. Moreover, restrictive intellectual property laws often take the rights for a publication—whether a book or article—away from the author who has written it and the institutions that have subsidized their research.[5] Though it remains one of the top research libraries in the country, the University Library has been forced to make hard decisions about which journals and books to purchase, threatening the principles of comprehensive coverage and quick access to information that are the spurs to intellectual creativity.[6]

Responding to this challenge, the University Library has been exploring innovative publishing ventures that provide more economically viable means to disseminate scholarship. Harnessing the flexibility and relatively inexpensive resources of electronic publishing, largely developed at the University library by its Digital Library Production Service, the University Library has focused on providing cost-effective, sustainable, permanent, user-friendly, locally operated, and author-friendly intellectual property agreements to counter the opposite effects that the publishing industry has fostered and to offer new models for other, similar publishing ventures.

[edit] The Scholarly Publishing Office

The Scholarly Publishing Office (SPO) is an innovative, library-based publishing enterprise, which responds to the crisis in traditional scholarly publication to provide economically sustainable publication alternatives.[7] Publishing a broad range of online and print books and journals, SPO provides publishers and authors a low-cost, flexible, robust, and efficient format to disseminate their work. SPO is also a leader in fostering discussion about the future of academic publication, and exploring new methods for creating highly functional online scholarly resources.

Recently SPO has spearheaded a collaboration with the University of Michigan Press called the Michigan Digital Publishing Initiative to explore the theory and practice of digital scholarly publishing.[8] This partnership extends SPO’s work in developing a model for press/library collaboration, expanding the University Library’s leading role in the development of digital resources, and encouraging a national dialogue about the future of scholarly communication.

[edit] Deep Blue

Along with the Scholarly Publishing Office, Deep Blue is another University Library publishing start-up. Deep Blue provides access to the scholarly and creative work of the University of Michigan community. The primary goal of Deep Blue is to publish the work that makes Michigan such a rich intellectual environment. Using a free open source platform designed to preserve, catalogue, index, and distribute an institutional repository, Deep Blue is committed to persistent and accurate archiving of the output of U-M affiliated scholars.

One of Deep Blue's innovations is that it responds to the paradox that the rights to a publication are often not owned by the author or institution that has sponsored (and in many cases funded) the research. What this has meant is that university libraries find themselves in the ironic position of buying the books and articles that were written by its faculty and associated scholars. Deep Blue makes available online the scholarly work of U-M faculty that has long been difficult to find or locked behind restrictive subscription barriers.

Less than a year after its launch, an estimated 40,000 works have been added to Deep Blue. Michigan scholars can make Deep Blue their first stop for publishing, or use it to provide extended access to work that already has been published. Deep Blue also enables researchers to view supplementary materials, including images, drafts, video, data and other tools that enhance the value of a scholar’s work.

[edit] Digitization and MBooks

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. It hosts the Dictionary of Old English Corpus and the Middle English Compendium, as well as the Making of America collection and many historical collections in mathematics, dentistry, transportation, and papyri.[9]

OAIster, one of DLPS's most interesting projects, is an online repository of electronic scholarly archives, including books, journals, dissertations, audio files, films, and images. Accessing digital resources from well over 900 libraries, archives, and repositories all over the globe, OAIster directly links users to online resources such as books, photographs, or recordings, and not just bibliographic information or metadata.[10] Continually harvesting its sources for newly added materials, OAIster uses harvesting technology based on the Open Archives Initiative (OAI), which facilitates access to digital archives.[11]

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.

[edit] Google and MBooks

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.

MBooks (also known as the Michigan Digitization Project) is the online access system to the Library's digitized collections, particularly the volumes scanned through our partnership with Google.

Though the project has been revolutionary, it is not without controversy. In September 2005 a lawsuit was filed against Google charging copyright infringement. The lawsuit is still pending, but the scanning goes on.[12]

On June 6 2007, twelve universities cooperating as the Committee on Institutional Cooperation (CIC) announced a new partnership with Google. An explicit goal of the project is that of offering a public, shared digital repository of all the open access content.[13] The University of Michigan, which has developed its MBooks platform for its own digitized books, will serve as the central repository for the CIC project.

[edit] Other independent libraries

Viewed from the South, the Clements Library in the foreground, with the newer graduate library tower in the background
Viewed from the South, the Clements Library in the foreground, with the newer graduate library tower in the background

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. The Clements Library is believed to be the first stand alone rare books collection at a public university.[citation needed]

Other libraries include the Law School Library (ranked by The National Jurist magazine fourth out of a total of 183 law school libraries in the nation in 2004[citation needed]), the Ronald and Deborah Freedman Library of the Population Studies Center, and the Transportation Research Institute Library. The last library is one of the world's most extensive collections of literature on traffic safety. There is also a large number of independent departmental libraries, as well as small libraries in many student dormitories.

[edit] ARL rankings

Using a variety of metrics such as accessibility, materials expenditures, volumes held, and staff size, the Association for Research Libraries (ARL) has consistently ranked the UM library system among the top ten in the nation.[14]

Year Volumes Held Volumes Added Gross Current Series Total Expenditures Total Staff Index Score Index Rank
2006 8,273,050 176,998 134,446 $49,053,402 574 * 8
2005 8,133,917 189,373 124,809 $47,113,239 473 1.24 5
2004 7,958,145 171,154 67,554 $46,737,671 475 0.98 8
2003 7,800,389 173,081 74,664 $48,193,379 497 1.13 5
2002 7,643,203 182,670 69,218 $43,357,616 514 1.05 6
2001 7,484,343 172,287 68,684 $43,558,787 501 1.05 6
2000 7,348,360 179,392 68,798 $41,368,972 459 1.06 6

[edit] References

  1. ^ University of Michigan Libraries (1-11-2005). U of M News Service.
  2. ^ DigitalKoans » Blog Archive » The Google Print Controversy: A Bibliography
  3. ^ ALA | Library Funding
  4. ^ Crisis and Revolution - Scholarly Communication - Library Collections - UC Berkeley
  5. ^ Copyright: More Questions Than Answers
  6. ^ To save money, 'U' cuts journals - U Administration
  7. ^ Library establishes scholarly publishing office to aid authors
  8. ^ Transitions » Blog Archive » U. of Michigan Press, Library, Scholarly Publishing Office Launch Digital Studies Imprint, Web Site - The University of Iowa Libraries
  9. ^ UM Digital Library Production Service collections
  10. ^ OAIster | Home
  11. ^ Open Archives Initiative
  12. ^ DigitalKoans » Blog Archive » The Google Print Controversy: A Bibliography
  13. ^ Cic: Partnership Announced Between Cic Libraries And Google
  14. ^ 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". Association of Research Libraries. 

[edit] External links