Chapter 3: Administrative Structure

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3.K University of Michigan Libraries and Museums (Ann Arbor Campus)

The University is privileged to house library, museum, and archival collections of enormous importance and breadth. Libraries, museums, and collections serve the academic community as a bridge to ideas, past and present; research resources generated over centuries; information in a variety of formats and delivery systems; and innovative applications of new technologies.

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3.K.1 Libraries

Within the purview of the provost and executive vice president for academic affairs, the University of Michigan Ann Arbor campus library system is administered centrally through the University librarian and dean of libraries and is composed of the following locations:

The University Library, which has direct oversight over these libraries and collections, posts information about each of them on its website (e.g., about the library, the collections, contact information and location, staff listings, and news and events).

In addition, four major library units are maintained and administered separately from the University Library. They are:

Chapter XII. The University Libraries bylaw 12.05 establishes a Libraries Advisory Committee to serve as a medium for discussion and advice concerning matters of common interest to the University library and to the Clements, Bentley, Law, and Business libraries.

The following independent libraries are also found on the Ann Arbor campus:

The librarians, curators, and archivists in these units usually report to the director of their particular University facility or the chair of their college department.

Independent libraries are located on the University’s UM-Dearborn and UM-Flint campuses. The director of the Mardigian Library on the UM-Dearborn campus reports to the UM-Dearborn provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs. The director of the Frances Willson Thompson Library on the UM-Flint campus reports to the UM-Flint provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs.

In addition, the Gerald R. Ford Library, a presidential library operated by the National Archives and Records Administration (an agency of the United States Government), is physically housed on the University’s North Campus.

For more information on libraries, see handbook section 21.K “Libraries” or library locations and hours.

3.K.2 Museums

The following six museums on the Ann Arbor campus are administratively part of LSA:

  • Museum of Natural History
  • Herbarium
  • Kelsey Museum of Archaeology
  • Museum of Anthropology
  • Museum of Paleontology
  • Museum of Zoology

The directors of these museums are faculty members and are appointed by the dean of LSA. The museum curators are also faculty members and usually hold joint appointments as both curators and faculty within an academic department. The Herbarium and the Museums of Anthropology, Paleontology, and Zoology are research museums; the Kelsey is both a research and an exhibit museum, and the Museum of Natural History serves the public as an exhibit museum.

The Museum of Art, also on the Ann Arbor campus, is primarily an exhibit museum and reports to the provost and executive vice president for academic affairs.

There are many other museums and similar services on the Ann Arbor campus associated with the various units. See handbook sections 21.O “Museums and Galleries”, 21.P “Natural Areas”21.P.1 “Matthaei Botanical Gardens and Nichols Arboretum”, 21.P.2 “Forests/Reserves”, and 21.Q “Observatories and Planetariums.”