The University of Michigan's University Library has just put the millionth book from its collection on-line. That's one million out of the 7.5 million volumes in the library's current holdings.

Digitized materials are made available publicly via the Mirlyn library catalog and MBooks. MBooks provides full text of works that are in the public domain, creating new ways for users to search and access U-M Library content. Materials that are currently in copyright are available for searching on-line, allowing users to assess the contents of a book before deciding whether to purchase it or borrow it from the library.

The star of this digitization milestone is "Maria Mitchell, life, letters and journals," the one millionth book from the University of Michigan Library's collection to be put on-line. The book documents the life of Maria Mitchell, the 19th century American astronomer. Read the book online | Facts about Maria Mitchell (PDF).

Most of the million volumes are products of the Michigan Digitization Project, a partnership with Google to digitize the entire U-M collection. Visit the MDP page for more information.

What does one million mean?

One million = 361,441,145 pages
One million = 42 terabytes
One million = 750 tons
One million = 146 miles...
See the slide show

Our Process

From the selection and cataloging of books to developing a usable access system, many steps are taken to create and provide access to these million books. This diagram demonstrates just part of what is needed to produce such a large collection of digitized materials. Digitization Process PDF

Our Staff & Their Surroundings

All of the 436 University of Michigan University Library staff have contributed to this achievement in some way...here are just a few.

Click here to see all photos on flickr