College and Research Libraries


The U. S. Office of Education 
(Continued, from page 410) 

striction will n o t a p p l y to f u r n i s h i n g d a t a 
f o r analysis. T h e U S O E g u a r a n t e e s t h a t in-
d i v i d u a l salaries will n o t be listed in P a r t 
1 of the survey r e p o r t only w i t h i n s t i t u t i o n a l 
a p p r o v a l a n d , moreover, t h a t the analytical 
s u m m a r i e s in P a r t 2 will conceal any rela-
t i o n s h i p between these salaries a n d specific 
i n s t i t u t i o n s . 

L i b r a r y statistics are essential f o r p l a n -
ning, n o t only on t h e i n s t i t u t i o n a l level b u t 
also on the n a t i o n a l level. A l t h o u g h cur-
r e n t p l a n n i n g m o r e i m m e d i a t e l y concerns 
a d m i n i s t r a t o r s a n d l i b r a r i a n s , t h e long-
r a n g e issue c a n n o t be i g n o r e d . D u r i n g t h e 
past decade w h e n college e n r o l l m e n t s rose 
40 p e r cent, academic libraries t h a t i m p r o v e d 
t h e i r resources a n d services were f o r t u n a t e . 
B u t even they are c o n f r o n t e d by heavy bur-

d e n s d u r i n g t h e 1960's w h e n e n r o l l m e n t s are 
e x p e c t e d to increase by 70 p e r cent. H o w 
m u c h m o r e serious t h e n are t h e p r o b l e m s of 
less f a v o r e d libraries t h a t strain to m e e t the 
d e m a n d s of the p r e s e n t . 

T r a d i t i o n a l m e a n s of s u p p o r t f o r h i g h e r 
e d u c a t i o n are slowly giving way to n e w e r 
sources of income. W h a t this t r e n d implies 
f o r libraries is u n c l e a r , b u t o n e t h i n g is 
c e r t a i n : any c o n s i d e r a t i o n of the r e q u i r e -
m e n t s of college a n d university libraries will 
be greatly f a c i l i t a t e d by t h e existence of a 
s u b s t a n t i a l body of c u r r e n t , complete, a n d 
reliable facts a b o u t t h e m . T h e U S O E urges 
all a d m i n i s t r a t o r s a n d chief l i b r a r i a n s to 
c o o p e r a t e in laying a firm f o u n d a t i o n f o r 
p l a n n i n g the d e v e l o p m e n t of academic li-
braries. 

A Pamphlet in Your Hand 

Dr. Richard P. Feynman, professor of physics at the California Institute of Tech-
nology, is the a u t h o r of " T h e Wonders T h a t Await a Micro-Microscope, Including an 
E n c y c l o p a e d i a B r i t a n n i c a o n a P i n h e a d , " i n t h e Saturday Review f o r A p r i l 2, 1960. 
His proposal for placing the EB on a p i n h e a d is just the beginning. H e writes f u r t h e r : 

"Now let's consider all the books of the world. T h e Library of Congress has ap-
proximately nine million volumes; the British Museum has five million volumes; 
there are also five million volumes in the N a t i o n a l Library in France. T h e r e are 
many other collections, b u t duplications occur among them, so let us say that there 
are some twenty-four million books of interest in the world." 

T h u s , if you p u t twenty-four volumes on one pinhead, there would be a need of 
one million pinheads for the twenty-four million volumes. Dr. Feynman writes: 

". . . we would need a million pinheads, and these can be p u t in a square of a 
thousand pins on a side, about three square yards altogether, approximately the area 
of thirty-five pages of the Encyclopaedia. T h a t is to say, all the i n f o r m a t i o n in all 
the books of interest in the world could be carried a r o u n d in a p a m p h l e t in your 
h a n d — n o t in code, b u t as a simple reproduction of the original pictures, engravings, 
and p r i n t e d text." 

416 C O L L E G E A N D R E S E A R C H L I B R A R I E S