The University of Michigan Library in Ann Arbor is one of the largest university library systems in the United States. In locations all over the Ann Arbor campus, MLibrary holds more than 8.5 million volumes. Each year, we add the equivalent of 2.5 miles of new material to one of the finest and most comprehensive collections of any academic library in the world. Our seminal role in digitization enabled the creation of HathiTrust, a coalition of nearly 70 libraries with a growing digital collection that currently exceeds 10 million volumes.
We endeavor to make our content as widely accessible as possible. Our open door policy makes our holdings available to anyone for onsite use, and the MLibrary Gallery hosts events for the public and provides a forum for the thoughtful exchange of ideas. Our expanding and seminal effort to digitize our collections renders them visible to communities worldwide via the Internet. MLibrary partners with U-M faculty and students in the research and teaching process, providing support at every step, from a project’s beginnings to final publication. If you are part of the U-M community—faculty, student, staff, or visiting scholar—you can check out items and access electronic resources wherever you work. Your MCard is your library card, and your uniqname and password grant access to our catalog, Mirlyn, and to all of our electronic holdings. If you have a print disability, you can access our digital collections via screen readers and other emerging technologies.
Guest borrowing privileges are available to spouses or partners of primary users, U-M alumni, and faculty and graduate students from other institutions. (A fee may apply.)
Rich Collections: Knowing What We Have
The heart of any library is the content it provides, and the University of Michigan Library is dedicated—as it has been since its inception in 1838—to amassing collections with the depth and breadth to sustain the scholarly endeavor. MLibrary’s holdings include 8.5 million volumes, and range from ancient documents written on papyrus to electronic journals reporting on the latest advances in science and medicine. We also have subscriptions to online news sources and databases, one of the finest collections of maps in the country, a media collection with a full range of films, videos, and audio books, rare books and serials, ancient and modern manuscripts, posters, playbills, photographs, and original artwork.
For decades MLibrary has been pioneering new ways to make this wealth of content accessible beyond the walls of our buildings, and in collaboration with Google and libraries nationwide, we are creating a vast digital collection of text and images that is available to scholars and readers around the globe. Full-text versions of public domain works are available to anyone with access to the Internet via the HathiTrust shared digital repository. MLibrary has a record of nearly 175 years of collecting, preserving, and sharing our vast collections with the U-M community and the world.
Access: Finding What You Need
The MLibrary gateway is the principal portal to MLibrary’s vast resources. From the gateway you can conduct a keyword search of all of MLibrary’s materials, browse our collections by subject, or get real-time help with your research from a librarian, as well as answers to questions about library services and access.
Mirlyn
Using Mirlyn, MLibrary’s catalog, you can search every item in our collections and view availability. Members of the U-M community can also use Mirlyn to manage library account information, renew checked-out items, download and email bibliographic records, request materials for delivery, place a hold on an item, or locate course reserves material.
Delivery Services
Get This is a free library-to-library delivery service that delivers your materials from a distant U-M Library to a more convenient one. Use Mirlyn to access Get This.
7-FAST delivers documents for U-M faculty, students, and staff to a secure website or campus office. (A fee may apply.)
Interlibrary Loan can obtain articles, books, dissertations, and other materials from libraries outside of U-M.
The Espresso Book Machine can reprint many of the public domain titles in our digital collection for a fee.
Expert Services
U-M librarians are here to help you locate the information you need and answer questions about our collections and services. Our librarians assist undergraduates with basic research and critical thinking skills, consult with faculty and graduate students on research and teaching projects, teach a wide range of for-credit courses, and create online tutorials and subject- and course-related research guides to help you navigate our resources.
MLibrary also offers new user orientation, tours, and free workshops for faculty, students, and staff about resources, research skills, and ways that technology can facilitate scholarship.
For specialized research assistance, stop by any reference desk or contact a subject specialist for in-depth consultation.
Ask a Librarian offers real-time research assistance via chat, email, instant message, phone, your course CTools site, or in person.
The Faculty Exploratory helps U-M faculty use technology to enhance their presentation, research, and publishing skills.
The Knowledge Navigation Center can help you use technology in your coursework, teaching, or research. The center provides expertise, software, and equipment, and also offers workshops and online help documents.
The Tech Deck offers one-on-one expert assistance and advice on the application of technology and graphics to research, projects, and presentations.
Spatial and Numeric Data Services (SAND) provides a variety of spatial and statistical software, support for using the software, and workshops and instruction on data-related topics.
The Digital Media Commons (DMC) is a state-of-the-art multimedia facility that serves as an incubator for the development and launch of new learning technologies. The DMC facilitates integrative learning through CTools, the University’s web-based course and collaboration environment, and hands-on technological support.
Places
All of our libraries feature many individual and group study areas. We are dedicated to providing flexible and comfortable spaces for people to meet, work, and explore.
The MLibrary Gallery hosts exhibits, lectures, presentations, films, and other events that enrich the intellectual, educational and cultural life of the campus and the larger community. Within the Gallery is the Audubon Room, a dedicated space for the rotating display of some of the greatest treasures from our collections, and for the permanent display of the double-elephant- folio edition of Birds of America by John James Audubon.
Publishing: Communicating What You Discover
MLibrary, like all research libraries, provides the infrastructure for scholarship, and that infrastructure includes publication—the means by which we ensure that the benefits of scholarship are made public.
Michigan Publishing is the hub of scholarly publishing at the University of Michigan. It deploys a range of expertise—as publishers, librarians, copyright experts, and technologists—to support the communications needs of scholars, and to publish, promote, and preserve the scholarly record.
