Michigan State University Libraries

Michigan State University Libraries

The main building of MSUL
Location	East Lansing, Michigan, United States
Branches	9
Collection
Size	> 5 Million Volumes
Other information
Director	Clifford H. Haka
Website	http://www.lib.msu.edu/

Michigan State University Libraries (MSU Libraries) comprise the 29th largest academic library system in North America with over 4.9 million volumes and 6.7 million microforms. A unit of Michigan State University in East Lansing, Michigan, United States, the library system comprises nine branch locations including the Main Library. 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 40,000 hours of spoken word recordings and includes the voices of over 100,000 persons from all walks of life, and the Russel B. Nye Popular Culture Collections which includes the extensive Comic Art Collection. 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.

The Branch Libraries are subject collections located in the Main Library as well as in branch libraries located in other buildings on and off campus. Each of the branch libraries have their own subject specialization.

Branch Libraries located inside the main library building include:

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. 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.

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 historial periods.