| 1837 |
The Michigan legislature creates the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. Funding is allocated for a library.
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| 1838 |
Three years before the first classes are held, the Regents approve the purchase of John James Audubon's Birds of America for $970. It is now on permanent display in the Library Gallery's Audubon Room. Asa Gray, the University's first professor, is charged with acquiring books for the Library. He spends $5000 on 3400 volumes. |
| 1856 |
The North Wing of the University Building is remodeled, and the University's Library and Museum are installed. Prior to this, books were stored in various locations, including the Law Building and in faculty members' homes.
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| 1863 |
The Library moves to the Law Building, where it remains for 20 years.
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| 1870-1940 |
The collection grows from 17,000 to 941,500 volumes.
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| 1883 |
The first library building is completed. Within twelve years of its construction, it is deemed too small for the growing collection.
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| 1890 |
Librarians begin making handwritten subject cards, and the card catalog is born; later, the Library switches to typed cards and, after 1900, to printed cards from the Library of Congress.
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| 1895 |
President James Burrill Angell addresses the Regents on the overcrowding of the Library: “The embarrassment, to which I have called attention in previous reports, arising from the crowded condition of the Library, of course grows more serious every year.”
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| 1900 |
The extraordinary strength of the collections necessitates the creation of caged areas in the stacks to protect books of exceptional value, leading to one of the earliest rare book rooms in the U.S.
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| 1905 |
Student borrowing privileges are firmly established. Prior to this, circulation of library materials was restricted; students needed permission from a faculty member to take books out of the Library.
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| 1911 |
Joseph Labadie, a Detroit anarchist, donates his personal library to the University of Michigan. Today the Labadie Collection is the oldest collection of radical history in the world, and it continues to grow.
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| 1915 |
The Board of Regents designates the General Library a fire hazard, due to its wood construction.
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| 1920 |
The new Library building (now North Hatcher), designed by renowned architect Albert Kahn, is dedicated on January 7. Professor Francis Kelsey returns from Egypt with 617 papyri, inaugurating the Papyrus Collection. The Library’s collection of papyri is soon the largest in the Americas, and it continues to grow today.
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| 1940 |
The card catalog has 2,000 trays and 1.75 million cards.
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| 1945 |
A surge in enrollment—soldiers returning from the war—exacerbates the Library’s space problem.
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| 1947 |
Librarians assume all collection development responsibilities. Prior to this, each academic department selected and purchases books and journals.
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| 1948 |
The Far Eastern Library was established to house materials from China, Japan, and Korea. In 1959, it is renamed Asia Library. Today, the Asia Library has the largest collection of East Asian Language print and electronic resources in North America.
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| 1959 |
The new Shapiro Undergraduate Library adopts an open-stacks policy that sets the standard for other U-M Libraries.
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| 1970 |
The south building of the General Library, an eight-story annex accommodating about 900,000 volumes and an additional 532 study carrels, opens in June. It is the first high rise on the Diag.
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| 1971 |
The north and south buildings of the General Library are renamed the Harlan Hatcher Graduate Library. Hatcher was the University President from 1951-1968.
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| 1974 |
The University Library joins the Michigan Library Consortium and the Online Computer Library Center, Inc. (OCLC), and becomes the fifth member of the Research Libraries Group (RLG).
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| 1988 |
The Library puts the card catalog online and names the new service the Michigan Research Library Network (Mirlyn). Library users can access Mirlyn via the campus computer network. The card catalog closes.
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| 1994 |
The Library begins an ambitious project to digitize its entire collection; however, lack of resources constrains the rate of digital production such that it will take more than a thousand years to complete.
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| 1995 | The Natural Science, Chemistry, Physics/Astronomy, and Mathematics Libraries are consolidated into the new Shapiro Science Library. |
| 1996 |
The Media Union (today called the Duderstadt Center) opens. The new facility brings together the Engineering and the Art and Architecture Libraries and an advanced technological resource center that promotes innovation in teaching and learning, and fosters interdisciplinary collaboration.
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| 1997 |
MLibrary launches the Knowledge Navigation Center and the Faculty Exploratory to support digital scholarship, and to help students and faculty make the most of electronic resources.
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| 2004 |
The University forms a partnership with Google that will enable the Library to complete the digitization of its collection in 2011.
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| 2008 |
MLibrary becomes a founding member of HathiTrust, a shared repository for library digital content. MLibrary marks the occasion of its millionth book online. The Library Gallery, a showcase for MLibrary’s treasures and a venue for events that enrich campus and community intellectual and cultural life, opens. |
| 2009 |
The Digital Media Commons, a facility for the incubation of new learning technologies, becomes part of MLibrary. MPublishing is formed to align the existing and future publishing activities of the MLibrary with the core strengths and information needs of the University. The Social Work Library collection moves to the Graduate Library and the Public Health Library. |
| 2010 |
The Taubman Health Sciences Library incorporates the collections of the Schools of Public Health and Dentistry, and becomes the Taubman Health Sciences Library.
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| 20?? | MLibrary continues to contribute to the common good by collecting, organizing, and sharing the record of human knowledge, in whatever forms and formats are to come. |
