College and Research Libraries


B y R O B E R T H . R O H L F 

The Freshman-Sophomore Library 
at Minnesota 

Mr. Rohlf is librarian, Freshman-Sopho-
more Library, University of Minnesota. 

ON J A N U A R Y 7, 1 9 5 2 , the University of Minnesota opened a new Freshman-
Sophomore library. T h e library occupies 
the entire ground floor (approximately 9 1 5 0 
sq. f t . ) of Johnston H a l l , a new classroom 
and administrative building situated next to 
the main library and connected with it by a 
tunnel. 

T h i s library is another of the many new 
open shelf reading rooms springing up 
throughout the country and it embodies 
many of their now accepted methods and 
ideas together w i t h a f e w methods and 
ideas developed locally. 

F o r some time there w a s felt a need at 
the University of Minnesota f o r a more 
direct w a y of providing library service to 
undergraduates, especially during their first 
year or t w o in college. A survey of the 
use of the circulation service, made early in 
1 9 5 1 , revealed that while Freshmen and 
Sophomores constituted nearly one-third of 
the enrolment at Minnesota, they accounted 
f o r only one-fifth of the recorded library 
use. T h i s new library then w a s organized 
as a modest beginning toward bringing new 
students closer to the library materials they 
w i l l need to use immediately by making 
them more conveniently available in an 
attractive, open-shelf reading area. 

Although the m a j o r clientele f o r this 
library is the freshman and sophomore 
student body of the university (number-
ing approximately 5000 in 1 9 5 2 ) the use of 
the reading room and its collection is not 

rigidly restricted to this group. In the 
first six months of service it is estimated 
that total attendance has been close to 
60,000. 

T h e freshman-sophomore library has a 
seating capacity of 2 7 0 students; study table 
and chairs f o r 2 5 0 and lounge type reading 
chairs f o r an additional 20. T h e r e is space 
f o r an additional 50 study chairs if necessity 
does arise to increase the study facilities. 

T h e collection, which consists mainly of 
books with a f e w pamphlet materials, is 
housed on excellently lighted open shelves 
in the center of the room. T h e study tables 
flank both outside w a l l s to get the f u l l 
benefit of natural light, with a wide area 
between the tables and the shelves serving 
as a corridor. 

T h e service desk is located to one side of 
the entrance, and, by means of separate 
entrance and exit doors, all exit traffic flows 
past the service desk and out into a central 
hall. 

T h e new collection is still relatively 
small, with f a i r l y liberal duplication; but it 
is being built up steadily and is being 
broadened as the budget permits. A t the 
present the concentration is in the humani-
ties and social sciences, since separate chemis-
try, geology, engineering, physics, mathe-
matics and biological-medical libraries serve 
the natural sciences. T h e r e are now some 
3 8 0 0 separate titles and over 5000 volumes, 
all selected f o r this special library. 

Of the original book stock, largely based 
on f a c u l t y recommendations, f o r freshman 
and sophomore needs, approximately 1 5 0 0 
volumes were transferred f r o m the general 

164 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES 



library on semi-permanent loans, and 3000 
volumes were ordered specifically f o r this 
library. Since opening, orders have been 
placed f o r an additional 1 5 0 0 volumes. 

T h e collection is not arranged by a stand-
ard library classification scheme, but rather 
on shelves representing subjects taught in 
the main teaching departments of the uni-
versity, such as English, geography, politi-
cal science, etc. W i t h i n each department 
group the books are arranged by author and 
there is assigned to each book an accession 
number which also serves as a circulation 
number. 

T h e public catalog is an author, or main 
entry catalog, serving only as an official 
guide to holdings, but not as a title or sub-
ject approach to the collection. T h e open 
shelves, together with the major departmen-
tal arrangement of material, appear to serve 
as a sufficient guide, at least while the col-
lection stays of modest size. 

T h e library also contains a small but 
workable reference collection which is on 
open shelves. T h i s collection receives a 
heavy amount of use both by students who 
help themselves to the material they need, 
and by those w h o ask f o r help f r o m the 
librarian. 

T h e staff is small, one librarian, w i t h 
both f u l l and part-time clerical help, but 
because of the simplified records and process-
ing routines employed (all processing is done 
here rather than in the main university 
l i b r a r y ) , it is sufficient. 

T h e r e have been several interesting trends 
developing since the library opened. One 
of the most important w a s the change in 
attitude toward reserve material by most 
professors. Previously most faculty mem-
bers had placed large amounts of material 
on a restricted reserve basis in order to keep 
graduate students from tying up the ma-
terial f o r a long period of time. W i t h the 
opening of this library—and incidentally 
a f t e r a rather intensive campaign by the 

librarian—very f e w professors place more 
than two or three titles on reserve, and 
most do not have a reserve list. Rather, 
they concentrate on broad general assign-
ments from any number of books and ask 
the students to read one or two of them, 
allowing the student to make his own 
choice f r o m the open shelves. T h e results 
to date have been satisfactory. 

T h e virility of the collection is attested 
to by the fact that circulation in only six 
months was equivalent to three times the 
number of volumes in the library. T h i s 
does not include the heavy unrecorded 
use of material in the room, directly from 
the open shelves, but only the material 
actually signed for. In view of our small 
number of restricted reserve titles (at the 
most only 500 volumes f o r all the freshman-
sophomore classes, with an average of 2 5 0 
volumes) it appears that these students are 
doing much more reading and much wider 
reading than before. F o r the small but 
fluctuating reserve collection the policy 
is fluid, with most titles on a one-day basis 
and placed on the open shelves. D u r i n g 
final week they are restricted to two hours 
and placed behind the service desk. T h e 
loan period f o r the non-reserve material, 
which represents over 90 per cent of the 
total library collection, has been one week 
with almost unlimited renewals, and has 
resulted in a much quicker turnover of 
material than the more standard two week 
loan. 

T h e use of the library has been con-
stantly rising. B y the end of spring quar-
ter over 800 students a day were using 
this library, as compared to approximately 
400 in J a n u a r y , and 500-600 in A p r i l . 
Some of this is probably attributable to the 
pressure of final examinations. 

Unlike the general library, the freshman-
sophomore library is open only from 8 a.m. 
until 6 p.m., M o n d a y through F r i d a y , 
but with liberal overnight and week-end 

APRIL, 1953 165 



loan privileges. B y making the material 
easier to obtain and w i t h d r a w , it was be-
lieved that these hours would be satisfactory. 
T h i s seems to be the case. 

In order to obtain the student reaction 
to these variants from the policy of the 
main university library, and also to obtain 
their reactions to the library in general, a 
short questionnaire was submitted to sam-
ple classes of students towards the end of 
the spring quarter. T h e results were both 
helpful and g r a t i f y i n g . 

Eighty-nine per cent of the students ap-
proved the service schedule and observed 
that the more generous loan privileges of 
reserve and non-reserve material made it 
unnecessary to visit the library evenings or 
Saturdays. 

E i g h t y - t w o per cent of the students in 
these classes (which also contained some 
juniors and seniors) had used the library, 
and over one-half used it at least once a 
week. T h e results seem to reveal that those 
who do use the freshman-sophomore li-
brary, use it more than they do the main 
library, even though the freshman-sopho-
more library contains only books. 

T h e main complaint mentioned in the 
replies w a s that the library w a s not open 
to general use by all students as it was to 
the freshmen and sophomores. T h i s is 
because upperclassmen are encouraged to 

borrow books from the main library which 
does have other copies of most titles stocked 
in the freshman-sophomore library. 

T h i s then is a beginning at Minnesota 
toward bringing undergraduate students 
into closer contact with library materials. 
T h e present intention is to keep a moder-
ately sized but active collection on hand 
within each department area. Books su-
perseded or no longer useful w i l l be with-
drawn and replaced by newer material, with 
research playing no part of this library's 
objective. In line with this objective, loans 
from the freshman-sophomore library are 
not made to faculty or staff members of the 
university, but only to students. 

T h e r e has been a strenuous attempt at 
streamlining records and files and it has 
allowed the library to be staffed lightly and 
yet to give service to patrons. B y means 
of tickler files, carbon insert circulation 
forms, and other time saving forms, our 
records are simple to maintain, yet sufficient 
and accurate. 

I t appears that the library has been 
relatively successful. T h e r e are many small 
problems to be ironed out, but with modi-
fications and changes as time goes by, to-
gether with the allowance for new develop-
ments, it should definitely prove an ex-
cellent as well as an economical w a y of 
bringing student and book together. 

University Library Buildings (Continued from page 157) 

lated environment. F u r t h e r study of the 
libraries of institutions of higher education 
in the United States, of the public libraries 
in the United States, and even of the li-
braries of other countries would be needed to 
fill out the picture. 

T h e study of university library buildings 
built in the United States between 1 8 4 1 
and 1 8 8 9 would also have a great deal to 
add to both the history of university library 
architecture and perhaps to the history of 
architectural development in the nation. 

166 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES