A fire in the State Office Building where the library was housed in 1951 destroyed 20,000 books and damaged 30,000 more.

[4][5] The Library of Michigan at 5 stories contains over 3.2 million different items that take up over 27 miles (43 km) of shelves.

Opened in 1989, the Library of Michigan building also contains one of the ten largest genealogical collections in the United States.

Another feature is a Michigan collection containing legal materials that date back centuries.

The State of Michigan Law Library moved to the building in the summer of 2007.