College and Research Libraries By F R E D E R I C K H. W A G M A N The Undergraduate Library of the University of Michigan TH E C O N F E R E N C E ON " T h e Place of the Library in a University" held at Harvard in 1949 honored more than the completion of a unique library build- ing. T h e participants were celebrating a break with an outworn tradition which assigned a relatively low priority to un- dergraduate library service and relegated the younger student to second-class status in the library. Throughout the later nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, while the great American universities were developing their graduate schools and striving for distinction as centers of advanced study, the highest priorities in their library pro- grams had to be assigned quite naturally to the acquisition and organization of research collections and the service of recondite scholarship. Since the universi- ty is a community of scholars, the univer- sity library building itself had been con- ceived in terms of service to the higher order of scholarship and a reflection of the scholarly aspiration of the institu- tion. Alumni interest may center more in the stadium and field house but the sym- bol of the university and a gauge of its distinction for the scholarly world always has been its research library, the "heart" of the institution as the wistful metaphor has it. T h e research library building, consequently, was designed well into the 1930's (and in some instances into the '40's) as both inspiring symbol and cen- ter of bibliographical research activity. It offered storage for great numbers of Dr. Wagman is Director, University of Michigan Library. books, study cubicles for the faculty, and carrells and seminar rooms for the gradu- ate students. It impressed visitors with an imposing lobby and appropriately sententious Latin inscriptions on the walls. Invariably it also contained a ca- thedral-like, dimly lit main reading room which housed a collection of reference works and was furnished with long ta- bles and chairs in an arrangement fa- vored by dormitory dining halls to achieve maximum utilization of seating space for brief periods of time. T h e use of the reference collection bore no rela- tionship to the abundant space in which it was housed, consequently this room usually served as the main "study hall" of the library where the undergraduates might read books brought to them from the stacks, or more often, study their own textbooks and lecture notes. T h e refer- ence department was often housed in this room and it was mistakenly assumed that the reference staff would be able, because of proximity, to steal enough time from the work of clipping newspa- pers, organizing vertical files, handling interlibrary loans, and performing diffi- cult bibliographical chores for the facul- ty and graduate students, to assist the un- dergraduates adequately with their mi- nor bibliographical problems. T h e stacks were closed to undergraduates because the scholarly volumes had to be protect- ed and also because no library could af- ford the shelf-reading entailed in grant- ing thousands of inexperienced students free access to all the books. Special rooms were often provided also for rare books or special collections, and for periodicals. T h i s basic pattern was modified by the addition of reserve-book reading rooms or service points and by additional study halls, frequently in other buildings and usually staffed by student assistants or clerical employees. As the universities grew and branch libraries were spawned, the gross addition of seating space avail- able for study or reading seemed to solve the problem of undergraduate library needs, but only because on one hand the students' inexperience prevented them from perceiving and articulating their needs, and on the other because the tacit- ly accepted philosophy of undergraduate education did not illuminate them. Fre- quently librarians with strong humanis- tic leanings established browsing collec- tions or poetry rooms. Occasionally, also, an effort was made to establish an under- graduate library within a room of the main library building with a collection of good books and periodicals, and with some reference or readers' advisory serv- ice. Some of these innovations were note- worthy but not all succeeded. T h i s picture is over simplified and ex- aggerated, of course. T h e introduction of the modular building, the divisional ar- rangement of collections, and acceptance of the principle of easy accessibility of the collections have effected great changes in library planning and architecture in the past two decades, especially in the case of smaller university library and college library buildings. B u t the largest university libraries are fixed architectural- ly in the old pattern and can overcome the limitations of their design only in scattered cases. Despite their huge un- dergraduate enrollments the libraries of many of these very large universities could not have been better conceived or designed to discourage use by young stu- dents. T h e i r book collections are rela- tively inaccessible. T o o few copies of the best and most needed books can be made available. T h e staff of reference librari- ans is too limited and harassed to be very helpful. T h e rooms assigned to under- graduate students are frequently depress- ing. T h e catalog is too large and compli- cated. I n few of these institutions is there a carefully planned program in force that will help the student acquire facility in working with the bibliographical tools essential for the intelligent use of the hu- man record. T h e peculiar inadequacy of library facilities for undergraduate use, further- more, has affected seriously the nature of undergraduate teaching at such insti- tutions. T h e faculty has had to rely on the lecture and textbook method in too many instances because the use of source and secondary materials in the library is so difficult. I t has become fashionable to decry the lecture course and the use of textbooks in other than basic science and language study and this too is an error which overlooks the inspiration that the good teacher can offer in his lectures and the economy of importing factual infor- mation quickly in condensed and organ- ized form through the textbook. T h e r e is no question, however, that in far too many cases, the use of textbooks and for- mal lectures to large non-participating student audiences has failed to further the educational aim of developing in the students a zeal for intellectual inquiry and a lifetime interest in reading the best thought and creative product of both the past and the current period. Unfortu- nately, moreover, some of our faculty members mistake painful necessity for virtue and tend to suspect any serious effort to break with the lecture-and-text- book tradition as boondoggling based on a romantic misconception of the nature and interests of the undergraduate stu- dent. I t is probably a moot point whether instructional practice governed the pat- tern of library service, or vice versa, and it may well be argued that both were cause and both were effect. At any rate, the librarians are not to be blamed for 180 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES- the rather sad state of library service to undergraduates at some of these larger universities. T h e y are the product of their institutions, or of similar universi- ties. T h e y work in organizations which are hierarchical and aristocratic in na- ture, where emphasis has always been placed on service to the privileged group, the faculty and graduate students. Al- most never are they given budgets which would permit them to carry out a pro- gram based on a broad view of the li- brary potential for service. Finally, al- though Harvard's pioneering in this field offers startling exception to J o h n K. Gal- braith's thesis, commonly accepted ideas are usually altered by circumstances rath- er than by other ideas, and it is difficult to persuade some teachers who wrote their lecture notes many years ago and re-edited their anthologies or textbooks recently, that it would be beneficial if they took the time necessary to revamp their courses completely and expose their stu- dents to a great many published sources. It is difficult furthermore to persuade some faculty members that the library might serve education better if it provid- ed a few more copies of a book useful to undergraduates at the sacrifice of recon- dite items relating to their research. T h e latter choice should not be necessary, of course, and ideally neither librarian nor professor should be compelled to make it. T o avoid this necessity, however, the library budget would have to be shaped by a different attitude toward the library's role in undergraduate education on the part of university administrators and sympathetic understanding would be needed in the state legislatures. It is a tribute to Harvard that it was the first among the great universities to attack this situation and that it did so, not under the pressure of increased en- rollment, not because circumstances forced it, but because it wished to im- prove library service to undergraduates despite the increasing demands of schol- arship. It should be remembered that at Harvard the graduate students out- number the undergraduates and that the Widener Library and the many branch libraries offer far more by way of library facilities than is available at most uni- versities to serve much larger student bodies. Additionally, Harvard had al- ready developed a system of house li- braries for the benefit of its undergradu- ates. Nevertheless, in his address at the conference referred to above, Keyes Met- calf stated as the first premise on which the Lamont Library was planned: " T h e undergraduates will make more and bet- ter use of a library designed expressly for them." Mr. Metcalf did not leave this statement exposed and unsupported by practical considerations. He went on to list as additional premises: " T h a t this was the best way to relieve the pressure in the Widener building and make un- necessary a new central building; and that if the pressure were relieved, the Widener Library building would become a more satisfactory research center than it has been in the past."1 All three of his premises were correct. It is to his credit that he listed them in their proper order of importance. Donald Coney, speaking after Mr. Metcalf, expressed a view that very prob- ably was shared by the other librarians of state universities at the conference. He estimated that the cost of a Lamont Library for the Berkeley campus would be at least $4,250,000. " A Lamont Li- brary," he went on, "can be realized on state university campuses only if admin- istrators and librarians are skillful in presenting the library needs of the state's youth so persuasively that legislatures will see the light. . . . More important than this act of persuasion, however, is a decision which must be taken earlier, and by librarians and university admin- istrators. I mean the decision that, im- 1 The Place of the Library in a University, A Con- ference Held at Harvard University 30-31 March, 1949. (Cambridge: Harvard University Library, 19S0), p. 42. MAY 1959 181 portant as it is to have libraries for books, it is also important to have li- braries for people." 2 Mr. Coney's statement of requirements was also quite correct and it seemed, at the time, that he was posing insuperable conditions. I t was all very well for Har- vard to build the L a m o n t Library. Har- vard already possessed the vast collec- tions of Widener. I t had built its Hough- ton Library. I t had only about forty-four hundred undergraduates. B u t how could the state university libraries with inade- quate book budgets, with library build- ings inferior to Widener, and with several times as many undergraduates as Har- vard hope to follow this example? W o u l d it be wise for them even to try? T o d a y , an undergraduate library similar to the L a m o n t in conception has been in use for a year at the University of Michigan and at least six other large universities are busily planning or are seriously con- sidering construction of such libraries designed for undergraduate " p e o p l e . " Much has happened in the past ten years to weaken the influence of the traditional view. T h e example of the L a m o n t Library has had a great effect on librarians and on numerous university administrators, but even more important has been the pressure of constantly and rapidly increasing enrollments and the promise (or threat) of further tremen- dous increases in enrollment by 1963. T h e r e is no less need for continuing at- tention to the development of research collections today. Indeed, the increase in graduate enrollments is dramatic and the emergence of new disciplines, the in- crease in research publication in relative- ly new fields of knowledge has compli- cated the lives of research librarians enormously. At the same time it has be- come apparent to all who are not com- pletely in thrall to traditional concepts that the old library expedients simply will not suffice to accommodate the grow- ing influx of undergraduate students. 2 Ibid, p. 55. Several decades ago the university li- brarian might have solved his problem of overcrowding by opening two or three convenient study halls in strategically lo- cated buildings or in his main library building. T h e prospect of providing such scattered rooms for fifteen to twenty thousand undergraduate students and of duplicating even minimal reserve read- ing and reference collections in the num- ber of study halls that would be required seems absurd. Our predecessors might have cherished the hope that increasing undergraduate need for library service might be solved by a system of "house libraries" similar to Harvard's. T h e Har- vard decision that its "house libraries" alone were not adequate for four to five thousand students raised doubts as to the efficacy of this solution. Moreover, a proposal to provide truly adequate li- braries in a dozen huge dormitories, without making any provision at all for the thousands of students who reside in fraternities, sororities, cooperative hous- ing, apartments, and rooming houses, can hardly be considered. Once these theoretical solutions are re- jected as inadequate per se it is easier to rethink the question of where and how the undergraduate should be served by the library. O t h e r factors have con- tributed to make such reconsideration feasible and even necessary. For one, it has become apparent to any observant person on a university campus today that the conventional, negativistic attitude which argues with automatic responses against a real library program for under- graduates is unrelated to reality. T h e tired theses that undergraduate students are uninterested in good reading; that they are too "overorganized"; that their course work, extra-curricular activities, and social life would prevent their tak- ing advantage of a good library are ridiculous rationalizations, at best, of our failure to provide the younger stu- dents with equal library facilities. 182 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES- Another contributing factor has been the threat from a new quarter to the conventional and economical pattern of undergraduate instruction. For if the lecture-and-text-book system of instruc- tion (with a little required outside read- ing thrown in) is the best way to teach so many college courses, then modern electronics should make it possible to achieve even greater economies and make maximum use of the most talented and inspiring lecturers. T h e recent closed- circuit-TV scare seems to have abated on university campuses, despite the fact that experimentation with television in teach- ing continues. Meanwhile, however, many university teachers have felt com- pelled to re-examine their pedagogical method. Snide remarks about Professor Loverboy on the screen of the idiot-lan- tern were expressive of faculty resentment against the fond hope that television offered a panacea for the problem of undergraduate instruction, but they failed to erase the sudden concern about the need for other, more flexible instruc- tional methods. Interest seems to be growing in the possibility of including not only honors students but many oth- ers in courses that require minimal facul- ty supervision and leave the student free to work on his own with the source materials and commentaries in the li- brary. Even if there is to be no important development of such reading programs at our universities, many professors and deans have considered, and are consider- ing, the possibility of using the library more and in new ways in the instruc- tional program, and this also is prepar- ing the proper climate for acceptance of the idea of the undergraduate library. Finally, and far from least, under- graduate education suddenly assumed new and dramatic importance when a canine heart beat was transmitted from outer space under Russian auspices. Al- though the new hue and cry for more and better instruction seems to relate primarily to mathematics, the sciences, and technology, the general effect has been to draw more attention to educa- tion at the college level than it has ever enjoyed. T h e university undergraduate can no longer be regarded or treated as a second-class citizen. T h e present trend is almost certain to encourage develop- ment of new library facilities for under- graduates if it is argued cogently that they will help equip him for his crucial role in this new era of national danger. As has been indicated, the idea of the undergraduate library is not new, nor was it new in 1949 when the Lamont Library was completed. It has come to mean a great deal more, however, than the words themselves connoted a short time ago, just as the term "modular building" means much more to the con- temporary librarian than a structure built to a module of fixed or standard size. Essentially it signifies an effort to correct certain library errors of the past vis a vis the undergraduate student. It means a library designed entirely, and only, with the needs of the undergradu- ate in mind, on the premises that the library should be as important as the teacher in undergraduate education, and that any undergraduate may realize his potentiality of developing a life-long in- terest in reading good books and in con- tinued self-education if the library assists him and makes the process attractive. It means not merely a library but a cul- tural center for the undergraduate stu- dent on the huge university campus and a focus for his intellectual activity while he is in residence there. In 1952 the University of Michigan set aside a plan, developed over about a decade, for the enlargement of its general library building. T h e remodeling and expansion of this building, at very high cost, would have improved it greatly for use by the graduate students and faculty but would not have provided for under- graduate needs to any significant extent. MAY 1959 241 A substitute program was drawn up calling for some remodeling of the Gen- eral Library; for construction of a library storage building and bindery; and for a separate undergraduate library building. T h e program written subsequently for this undergraduate library stated, as basic principles, that everything possible should be done in the architectual plan- ning and in the selection of books and staff to make the library inviting and easy to use; to give the students the im- pression that the librarians were em- ployed to assist rather than supervise or m o n i t o r them; and to help the under- graduates develop a proprietary interest in their library. T o insure m a x i m u m flexibility of the space provided, a mod- ular building was called for. T h e rec- tangular form and orientation of the only site available governed the shape of the building and even its external appear- ance. T h e desire to avoid producing a structure that would be offensive in ap- pearance between the buildings on either side and the limitation on the appropri- ated funds available for the construction governed the number of floors that could be provided above and below grade re- spectively. Accommodation of the plan to the various strictures resulted in a struc- ture 240 x 120 feet, built on a module 30 x 24 feet, with four stories above grade and one below. T h e building contains 145,000 square feet, most of it in the form of a large undifferentiated area on each of the four lower floors which can be adapt- ed for almost any conceivable use. Light- ing, air conditioning, and liberal pro- vision of electric and telephone outlets will make possible the erection of par- titions in almost any pattern desired in the future. I t was decided early in the planning that the entire book collection would be placed on open shelves. T o facilitate the finding of books, the floor plan was simplified to the ultimate degree and no sacrifice of this simplicity was subsequent- ly permitted for the sake of architectural effect. Critical examination of the rea- sons usually advanced for keeping re- serve books behind a barrier led to the conclusion that it would be feasible, al- though more costly, to place the reserves where they belong in the classification system, on the open shelves, provided one marked them with a distinctive symbol and controlled the exits from the building. Exception to this rule has been made only for occasional items such as reprints of j o u r n a l articles lent to the library by the faculty for class use. T h e planning committee decided also that the only argument against allowing the students to smoke anywhere in the air- conditioned building was the j a n i t o r i a l cost of emptying ash trays at night and that this argument was not compelling. Similarly, it seemed foolish to make students who were spending long hours in the library leave the building in order to get a cup of coffee, so a coffee shop was provided even though this meant extra floor washing in one room. Since the ideal of complete privacy, a separate room for every reader, is un- attainable, a compromise was effected. T h e large reading area on every floor is broken by a row of group study rooms along one wall, each of which can accom- modate eight students, by the ranges of book shelving and by placement of color- ful "space-breakers" or screens. As a re- sult one is not given the sensation of sit- ting in a very large room in any reading area. One-third of the seating provided is at individual tables attached to the screens or along the walls. T h e rest of the seating is at tables designed for four students, except that the arrangement of tables is interrupted by occasional group- ings of lounge furniture. Despite the dis- proportionate ratio of seating to book space, the reader is conscious of the proximity of the books in all parts of the reading areas. All tables were designed to offer each 184 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES- reader 3 x 2 feet of work surface. T h e chairs were designed to provide maxi- mum comfort over long periods of time and yet to serve as an important ingre- dient of the decorative scheme through their colored upholstery. Careful selec- tion of flooring material, ceiling con- struction, and lighting has resulted in glare-free even illumination and an ex- tremely low noise level. T h e grouping of special purpose rooms at one end has simplified the traffic patterns and pro- vides maximum flexibility of space in the reading areas. Decoration was achieved through the use of color in the uphol- stery, on the "space breakers," and on the rear wall of each room. T h e total effect is one of lightness and of pleasant, colorful, informality. Despite the con- stant stream of students in and out of all parts of the building there is little impression of confusion. It was agreed that the book collection should represent the best in the human record of the past and in current thought. W i t h the aid of hundreds of faculty members and a process of book selection that went on for more than two years, an initial stock of 60,000 vol- umes and 150 periodical titles was assem- bled and cataloged. Important omis- sions from this collection are being cor- rected currently and it is the intention to keep the collection current by the addition of new books that contribute to knowledge. Inasmuch as the entire collection is a browsing collection, in effect, no separate browsing collection was provided and no special "recre- ational" reading collection, based on the notion that "recreational" is synonymous with "second-rate" or even with "mere- tricious." T h e faculty members were asked to rethink their courses and submit new required or recommended reading lists. An attempt was made to procure one copy of each of these titles for every twelve or thirteen students enrolled in the respective course. In addition a sub- stantial collection of reference books was placed on the open shelves where they are accessible to both staff and students. It has been found necessary to augment the reference collection rapidly. T h e problem of helping a student halfway to an answer and then referring him to the General Library for additional assist- ance becomes intolerable in practice if not in theory. Books and periodicals are not the only library materials undergraduates need or should be exposed to, and a special room was provided for listening to recorded music, poetry, and drama. Equipped with 151 seats, 72 turntables, at each of which two students may listen with ear- phones, 7 cubicles for listening to loud- speakers, and a control room from which programs may be played over 13 chan- nels by record or tape and tuned in at each of the seats, this facility provides library support for the popular courses in music literature which enroll hun- dreds of students each year. A multi- purpose room equipped with 200 stack- ing chairs, motion picture projectors, and public address system is used by the students for lectures, discussion groups, motion pictures, or for any affair which concerns undergraduates and the library. Additionally, one room was equipped with four motion picture projectors on which several students may view different documentary films simultaneously, listen- ing to the sound through headphones, or where a small class may watch a docu- mentary film. On the main floor of the library an exhibit area was provided where the Fine Arts Museum staff ar- ranges small monthly shows of prints, most of them brought to Ann Arbor on loan. On the top floor a large display room was made available to the fine arts department. Equipped with mu- seum benches and tackboard on the walls and on several large screens, it offers an ideal space for five hundred MAY 1959 185 students to study the prints and photo- graphic reproductions with which they must familiarize themselves for their fine arts courses. For a few years, until a new classroom and library building can be provided on the University's new north campus for the School of Engineering, the library of that school is being housed on the third floor of the Undergraduate Library. Sim- ilarly, the T r a n s p o r t a t i o n Library is being housed temporarily on the fourth floor. T h e Undergraduate Library was opened on J a n u a r y 18, 1958. T h e response of the students was overwhelming and a dramatic revelation of past inadequacies. Prior to this date there had been avail- able for the use of the undergraduates, apart from the main reading room in the General Library and the numerous branch libraries, three reading rooms seating 489 students in crowded fashion, housing negligible collections of books, and staffed by library science students or other student assistants. T h e new build- ing seats 2,200 very comfortably and is staffed with ten professional librarians who provided reference aid and super- vise a large staff of clerical and student assistants. B o t h building and staff have proved to be much too small. I n the first year of operation, the li- brary counted 1,420,865 users. More than 9,500 students have used the library on one day and on many days the number ranges between 8,500 and 9,000. I t should not be suspected that the volume of "visitors" bears no relation to use of the collection. During this first year the Undergraduate Library circulated 134,- 719 volumes for home use. A total of 280,037 volumes were used in the build- ing and had to be reshelved by the staff. How many additional volumes were used and properly reshelved by the students themselves cannot be determined. In short, at least six and one-half times as many volumes were used or borrowed by the students as the collection contains. Meanwhile, circulation in the branch libraries and in the General Library has not declined. Home circulation from the Undergraduate Library and General Li- brary combined exceeded the total home circulation from the General Library alone for the corresponding period in the previous year by more than 135 per cent. Analysis of the circulation for home use indicated that 37.7 per cent rep- resented voluntary reading and 62.3 per cent was course-related. Further analysis of the course-related reading reveals that a very large part of this also was not re- quired but apparently was stimulated by the course work. T h e statistics quoted above reflects use of the new library in its infancy and be- fore a considerable part of the faculty had begun considering its potentialities as an aid to their teaching. T h e rate of both building and book use has been climbing steadily and threatens to be phenomenally high this spring. Many students have already adopted the prac- tice of arriving at 6 p.m. to insure that they will have a seat available for the evening. O n numerous evenings in recent weeks students have been observed sit- ting on the stairs and floors to read, be- cause the chairs were all occupied. Other less measurable effects of the new library are noteworthy. I t has defi- nitely become the h u b of undergraduate activity on the campus. Its central loca- tion has made it possible for the students to spend the hours between classes read- ing in the library and thousands of them do so. Many students are now using the library who confess that hitherto they had preferred the movies to the study halls and had rarely or never ventured into the General Library. Obviously, also, the undergraduates are reading a great many more good books than before and under the guidance of the reference staff, short-handed as it is, are learning how to use a library catalog, indexes, bibliographies, and other reference works. Psychologically, the effect of this 186 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES- library on the students has been ex- tremely gratifying. Formally, through the spokesmen for their organizations, they have, of course, indicated their appreci- ation of this new facility but, more im- portant, many of them individually have made it a point to tell the staff that the new library has made a tremendous difference in their daily lives. Moreover, the success of the Undergraduate Library has stimulated the students to plan the development of small libraries in the dormitories which they will administer themselves. A committee is at work en- thusiastically on plans for a series of such house libraries. It had been feared that free access to the reserve books would result in their rapid disappearance and, in fact, one per cent of the total book stock did dis- appear in the spring semester last year. As a result, the Regents of the Univer- sity approved a new regulation that any student who mutilated a book or re- moved it from the building without charging it would be fined $100 or would be suspended. T h e penalty has been imposed twice this semester and indi- cations are that book losses have de- creased. At the same time, the fine for late return of books was increased suffi- ciently to make it painful and late returns have also decreased. Both new regula- tions were endorsed by the students, most of whom seem to resent the theft of needed books from their library even more, perhaps, than do the librarians. Also, contrary to the fears of some that the permissive attitude as regards smok- ing, the provision of a coffee shop and the absence of supervision would lead to mistreatment of the furniture, books, and the building itself, there has been no damage as a result of student neglect or indifference and there seems to be no reason to fear that the students' proprie- tary interest in the library will not con- tinue. Finally, the fear that the library would serve primarily as a social club, an ideal place to meet one's date or make new friends, especially in the winter months, has proved to be needless. Of course, students do meet in the library and the "study date" continues to be a popular custom, but this is an earnest generation. T h e first group of students admitted to the library on the day it opened included an astonishing number who went directly to the bookshelves or catalog without even taking time to tour the building. T h e y typify the under- graduate today better than the image most of us have carried in our minds since our own undergraduate days. More- over, in these times, at a university which provides almost thirteen hundred apartments on its campus for married students, the boy and girl holding hands while they read Gesell and Ilg may well be husband and wife preparing simul- taneously for their next class and for a future, predictable "act of God." T h e effect of the new library on the faculty has been equally interesting. While the building was under construc- tion a very considerable number of pro- fessors understood its potential value and were eager to have it completed. T h e r e were a few others, however, who were convinced that the project was a wasteful diversion of funds which might better be used for other library pur- poses. On several occasions, members of the library staff found it necessary to meet with apprehensive faculty groups and reassure them that the book collec- tion would not represent transfers, for the most part, from the research collec- tions and that if any such transfers were to be made, the departments most con- cerned would be consulted beforehand. It is apparent now to all that the per- centage of extra copies in the new col- lection is not so heavy and that the book collection of the undergraduate library is a welcome addition. Over and over again it became apparent that copies of notable books purchased for the new collection were not really additional at all; the older copies recorded in the MAY 1959 187 General Library catalog all too often had been lost, stolen, or worn out. More important, however, an increasing num- ber of members of the faculty (including professors in the sciences) are "teaching with books." Courses represented by reading lists in the library increased one- third this fall as compared with the pre- ceding spring semester and faculty in- terest in using the library as an aid to their teaching has begun to exceed the library's ability to keep up. T h i s past fall, the University of Michigan was com- pelled to work with a reduced budget. It was not possible to staff the under- graduate library without reducing serv- ices in, and book funds for, the General Library and the branches which serve the faculty and graduate students. Re- grettable though this was to all con- cerned, there was no resentment over the sacrifice. Indeed numerous professors have assured the library staff that the new library simply must be well sup- ported, and almost every week members of the faculty propose additional services for their students which would require that the new facility be given an even larger share of the library budget. T h e effect of the new building on the General Library and the branch libraries has been as anticipated. T h e s e are now used predominantly by graduate students and faculty. T h e stacks of the General Library have been opened to all and it also is now, for the most part, an open- shelf library. Graduate students have been working in the General Library and the branches in much greater num- ber than ever before and it has become possible to adapt much of the space formerly pre-empted for undergraduate reading rooms to special uses. T h e refer- ence department and the branch librar- ians have more time to spend on service to faculty and graduate students and on bibliographic enterprises. I t has been possible to curtail the staff of the circu- lation department in the General Li- brary despite the fact that circulation of books from that collection has not de- creased. T h e value of the Michigan Under- graduate Library as an example is not to be sought primarily in its solution to the various specific problems of archi- tecture or librarianship. Errors were made in both respects, of course, that will be avoided in newer libraries and a number of problems have not yet been perfectly solved. Nor should it be as- sumed because it is proving to be suc- cessful on one campus that an identical library is needed or would be justified at all other large universities. Its im- portance lies in its clear demonstration of the fact that a greater investment in library service to undergraduate students on the very large university campus will elicit a dramatic response from the students in terms of their attitude to- ward course work and toward the proc- ess of education generally and an equal- ly gratifying response from the faculty in terms of their teaching with books. I t offers a warning also. T h e cost of the building, books, and staff is far higher than experience would allow one to esti- mate on any campus where frustration of undergraduate students in their effort to use the library has been a condition of many years - standing. A building that contains 145,000 square feet and cost $3,105,000, an initial book collection that cost $200,000 and approximately the same amount again to acquire and cata- log, a very heavy investment of staff and faculty time in planning and book selec- tion, and a budget of $138,000 per year for staff (apart from j a n i t o r i a l and main- tenance costs) are not adequate to satisfy the need at the University of Michigan. T h e potentialities for service are only gradually being realized by the Michigan librarians and faculty in this very early stage of the new library's existence and the annual cost of operation is almost certain to increase steadily as both stud- ents and faculty discover increasingly how helpful the new library can be. 188 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES-