A ceremony will be held this Friday to welcome the 10 millionth volume into the University library collection.

The library will be only the third academic library in the country to reach this mark, after Harvard at 14.8 million volumes and Yale at 10.9 million.

Millionth-level acquisitions in the past have included rare and classic books, but the 10 millionth acquisition will be a collection of stories from library personnel and those affected by the library over the years.

Conservation Librarian Jennifer Hain served as project manager and coordinator of the 10 millionth book project.

The book, entitled Unlocking our Past, Building our Future, is 87 pages long and contains personal vignettes and reflections in the form of 44 entries of artwork, poetry, short stories and photographs, Hain said.

"It's a huge honor for me to have a book that I am binding be something as important as the 10 millionth volume to our collection," Hain said.

The project, unlike the acquisition of other 'millionth' volumes, is more personal and relates directly to the University library, she added.

Karen Schmidt, associate University librarian for collections, said every time the library hits a millionth mark, there is a very special acquisition.

Past millionth volumes include a 1663 version of the Holy Bible (translated into a Native American language), Frank Lloyd Wright and William Herman Winslow's The House Beautiful, (1897) and John Flamsteed's Historiae Coelestis (1712), Schmidt said.

Financial donors typically provide funding for book acquisition projects and the result is usually a classic, like Charles Dickens or Mark Twain, Schmidt said. But this project reflects a lot of positive passionate feelings about the library and the role it plays in society and on campus.

University Librarian Paula Kaufman initiated the idea of a compilation volume more than a year ago.

"I had the idea that the 10 millionth volume is a really signature milestone, and required something really special, and it seemed appropriate that this should be a volume created by and for the library staff and their friends," Kaufman said.

The book "represents what makes our library so great, and that's the people," she added.

The ceremony to commemorate the event will be held in the Marshall Gallery of the main library building at 1 p.m. on Friday with speakers Paula Kaufman and Chancellor Nancy Cantor. Gov. Rod Blagojevich is also expected to attend.

The projected date for the acquisition of the 11 millionth volume is six years, Schmidt said.