Michigan State University Libraries (MSU Libraries) is the academic library system of Michigan State University in East Lansing, Michigan, United States. The library system comprises nine branch locations including the Main Library. As of 2021–22, the MSU Libraries ranked 26th among U.S. and Canadian research libraries by number of volumes (8,543,550 volumes) and 7th among U.S. and Canadian research libraries by number of titles held (10,858,158 titles).Shaneka Morris & Gary Roebuck, ARL Statistics, 2021-22, Association of Research Libraries (2021), pp. 47-54 https://publications.arl.org/ARL-Statistics-2021/
The Africana Collection is one of the largest of its kind in the nation with a collection of over 200,000 items.
Other significant collections include the G. Robert Vincent Voice Library, the largest academic voice library in the nation, containing a collection of over 100,000 hours of spoken word recordings and includes the voices of over 500,000 persons from all walks of life,"G. Robert Vincent Voice Library". Michigan State University Libraries. Accessed April 12, 2007. and the Russel B. Nye Popular Culture Collections which includes the extensive Comic Art Collection.Comic Art Collection ". Michigan State University Libraries. Accessed May 10, 2024. This collection includes over 100,000 comic books, and 10,000 related books and periodicals. The Turfgrass Information Center is recognized as the most extensive public collection of turfgrass educational material in existence.Turfgrass Information Center".Michigan State University Libraries. Accessed: 5/10/2024.
Main Library branch collections The Branch Libraries are subject collections located in the Main Library as well as in two branch libraries located in other buildings on campus. Each of the branch libraries have their own subject specialization.Library Units Accessed: 5/10/2024 MSU Libraries 02/21/07
Branch Libraries located inside the main library building include: Digital & Multimedia Center Music Art Maps Special Collections Turfgrass Information Center The Vincent Voice Library
Branch Libraries located outside the main library building include: Gast Business Library Schaefer Law Library
Africana The Africana Collection of the MSU Library has become one of the largest in the United States, having been built up since 1960 to support the broad faculty involvement in different projects on the continent, including research and development.Africana Accessed: 5/10/2024
In the last few years the MSU program about Africa has been consistently rated among the top one or two programs in the country, both the number of faculty involved and the number of doctoral dissertations produced. The Library has 2 full-time professional Africana librarians, both of them holding doctorates in African Studies, who provide reference assistance to a wide range of faculty and students at MSU and elsewhere. The librarians are also very involved in national cooperative projects.African Studies Accessed: 5/10/2024
The Library collection is roughly 270,000 books, pamphlets, maps and microform units covering all disciplines there is an emphasis on the socio-economic development and history of sub-Saharan Africa, with special emphases (reflecting faculty interests) on Ethiopia/Eritrea, Zimbabwe, South Africa, the Sahel region of West Africa, and Nigeria (especially the Eastern Region). Library materials come from all African countries (less so for North Africa) are collected at a high level and from all historical periods.
In 1999 it launched the open access African e-Journals Project ().
Cesar Chavez Collection The Cesar E. Chavez Collection is an interdisciplinary browsing collection consisting of titles in a variety of formats, research levels and locations on Chicano and Boricua Studies. Chavez Collection materials in other locations require the storage, access/viewing facilities and services not available in an open shelves collection. The main part of this collection is located on the first floor, west wing lobby of the Main Library. This browsing collection is reinforced throughout the Libraries system by other titles in the main stacks collection and various branch collections.Cesar Chavez Collection MSU Libraries Accessed: 6/20/2010
The collection is representative of Chavez's life. It reflects his commitment to unions and labor, non-violence, truth, respect and an appreciation of diversity, education and his cultura. Chavez was a frequent visitor to the Lansing area, and as such, the collection also reflects the Midwest presence of migrant farmworkers.
Digital & Multimedia Center
The Digital and Multimedia Center is the MSU Library's internal digitization facility and media center. In addition to offering online collections, representing many books and journals digitized by DMC, a set of over 10,000 multimedia items are held and are available for check out. These include theatrical movies and video games that can be used in the DMC. DMC also assists in obtaining permissions from copyright holders for MSU faculty who need to use protected materials in courses and academic projects.The Digital and Multimedia Center of Michigan State University MSU Libraries Accessed: 5/10/2024
Music The Music Library is located in the west wing of the Main Library on the fourth floor. It houses the collections for: Music (scores, recordings, books, periodicals, reference works and classical music, with strong collections in jazz and ethnomusicology.
Art Library The Art Library is located on the third floor of the west wing of the Main Library. It houses art books and periodicals.
Government Documents The Government Documents Library is the Main Library location for publications of the United States government, the Canadian government, the State of Michigan, the United Nations and many other international intergovernmental organizations. It contains over 3 million documents in paper, microformat, and electronic formats. A significant portion of the collection is presently uncataloged and, therefore, does not appear in the Libraries' catalog.Government Documents Accessed: 05/11/2024
U.S. Government documents The library has been a Federal Government Depository Library since 1907 and currently receives approximately 80 percent of the publications made available to depository libraries. An extensive range and variety of subjects are covered in the U.S. documents collection. It is particularly strong in the areas of agriculture, demography and population, education, environmental sciences, international relations, labor, and law. The collection is arranged by Superintendent of Documents call number which organizes publications by issuing agency rather than by subject.
There are over 7,000 serial titles, many of which are complete from early dates, including Foreign Relations of the United States from 1861, Geological Survey Professional Papers from 1896, U.S. Geological Survey Water-Supply Papers from 1902, and the Bulletin of the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics from 1913.
Canadian documents In 1967, the library became a selective depository of Canadian federal documents to support the Canadian-American Studies Program. The library selects a general range of publications from science to foreign policy and labor relations. It is particularly strong in agriculture, demography and population, fisheries and wildlife, forestry, and history. The collection includes Canadian censuses, statutes, and proceedings and reports of the Canadian Parliament.
Michigan documents
In 2007 the Library ended its status as a permanent Depository for official publications of the State of Michigan. All of the materials received including the House and Senate Journals, reports on a variety of subjects, statistical reports and annual reports of various state agencies are maintained in the Government Documents Library.
United Nations documents and publications The collection includes documents and publications issued by the main United Nations organs since 1946. It also includes materials issued by various UN programs and bodies including, but not limited to, the UN Conference on Trade and Development, the UN Development Programme, UNICEF, UNRISD, UN University, and the UN Environment Programme.
The collection also contains publications issued by most of the UN specialized agencies and autonomous organizations. These include the Food and Agriculture Organization, General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade/World Trade Organization, International Fund for Agricultural Development, International Monetary Fund, International Telecommunication Union, United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization, United Nations Industrial Development Organization, World Bank Group, and the World Intellectual Property Organization. Materials issued by several UN specialized agencies (International Atomic Energy Agency, International Labour Organization, World Health Organization) are housed in the main stacks.
Other international intergovernmental organizations The Government Documents Library also collects materials issued by other international intergovernmental organizations including, but not limited to, the European Union, Asian Development Bank, Organization of American States, Council of Europe, NATO, Association of South East Asian Nations, Western European Union, and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
Map Library
The Map Library, located on the 2nd floor of the east wing of the Main Library, houses a collection of general and thematic maps and atlases for most areas of the world. The collection consists of approximately 200,000 sheet maps and 4,000 atlases, gazetteers and other reference aids including wall maps, globes, CDs and Internet-accessible resources. The collection is especially strong in Michigan topics, United States, Canada, Africa, Asia, and Latin America, though all areas are collected at some level.Map Library Accessed: 5/11/2024
The Brunnschweiler Geography Library Endowment Fund was established in 1993 by Dr. Tamara Brunnschweiler for the acquisition and preservation of geography materials. Purchases from this fund are often old and rare maps and atlases relating to the MSU Libraries' mission.Brunnschweiler Endowment Accessed: 5/11/2024
Rovi Media Collection In 2015 the Rovi Corporation donated more than 850,000 movies, CDs and video games to the MSU Libraries, this collection is now the largest media collection in the United States. The archive consists of CDs that have been commercially available in the United States since the early 1990s and includes some releases imported from Europe. The DVD collection, which was started the year DVDs were introduced, similarly represents the vast majority of commercially released DVDs in the United States. The games archive focuses primarily on console games and PC from 1993 to 2014 and includes a few titles dating back to the early '80s. Some of the materials from the collection are available to the MSU community through the MSU Libraries catalog and to Michigan residents through MeLCat, the Michigan e-library catalog.Rovi Media Collection Accessed: 5/10/2024
Turfgrass Information Center The Turfgrass Information Center (TIC), a specialized unit at the Michigan State University Libraries (MSU), contains the most comprehensive publicly available collection of turfgrass educational materials in the world. TIC has over 250,000 records in its primary database, the Turfgrass Information File (TGIF).Turfgrass Information Center of Michigan State University Accessed: 5/11/2024