TUESDAY, AUGUST 25, 1964:
THE MICHIGAN DAILY
PAGE TIME
MORE THAN 3 MILLION VOLUMES:
E
Books in 'U' Collections Portray Man's Monuments, l
Mistakes
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Ever since the day he first
chisled a few marks into a block
of stone, man has been an avid
collector of his own works. And in
order that he be able to use his
triumphs and learn from his de-
feats, it is important that this
process of collection continue.
Nowhere is this more crucial
than in a place where man is try-
ing to add new knowledge to what
he has learned in the past-a
place such as the University.
To fill the need, the University
has gradually established an ex-
tensive library system, which now
contains more than 3 million vol-
umes and stands as one of the
world's greatest collections of
man's insight's, inspirations and
idiocies.
20 Units
The University has over 20 li-
braries or library service divisions.
With the ex ption of three of
these-the Clements Library, the
Law Library and the Business
Administration Library - all are
under the financial and staff
auspices of the General Library.
The General Library, or as it
is sometimes called, the University
or Graduate Library, is one of the
finest university libraries in the
country. The library holds approx-
imately 1.3 million volumes-not
only printed books, but manu-
scripts, songsheets, maps and mi-
crofilms.
The General Library is a
strangely - constructed building,
and many freshmen have diffi-
culty finding the stacks-which
are open to all University students
and employes-the first time they
use the library.
For each floor of the main li-
brary, there are two "stack floors"
so that the tenth "story" of the
building is actually only a little
more than five stories high.
On each stack level, there are a
number of carrels, which are
rather small alcoves containing
desks, chairs, and book cases. The
carrels belong (for a one-year
period) to graduate students, who
apply to the library's circulation
department for a carrel assign-
ment, but may be used by under-
graduate students when the "own-
er" of the carrel isn't using it.
Until about five years ago, un-
dergraduate students weren't per-
mitted carrel use and had to do
all their studying at the General
Library in the Reference Room.
In it encyclopedias written not
only in English, but in German
and French and several other
modern languages are kept. Other
reference works, such as New York
Times Indexes, also are housed
in the room.
Rare Book Room
The Rare Book Room, although
open to undergraduates, is used
predominantly by graduate stu-
dents and faculty members. Har-
riet Jameson, who is in charge of
the room, said.
The volumes (over 50,000 books
and manuscripts) kept under the
Rare Book Room auspices are
noncirculating. Miss Jameson is
also charged with planning and
arranging the displays on the
main floor of the library.
This year, the number of vol-
umes at the General Library in-
creased by some 40,000 and-be-
cause there is rather limited
stack space-a goodly number had
to be shifted to the library exten-
sion on North Campus.
No Room
Several years ago, when funds
were 'available, the limited stack
space, as well as the realization
that the General Library could
not meet the needs of the under-
graduate, made University admin-
istrators, educators and librarians
consider building a library specifi-
cally designed for the use of the
undergraduate student. It was a
monumental task.
And when the planning was fin-
ished and the contractor had com-
pleted his work and the last drops
of turquoise and orange and bright
yellow paint applied, the under-
graduate library opened its doors.
That was in 1958.
UGLI Established
And since then, the Undergrad-
uate Library, or as, it is rather
graphically called the UGLI or
Undergrad, has beoome something
of an institution.
There aren't too many libraries
like it in the world.
Roberta C. Keniston, director
of the Undergrad, explained that
"a sort of national trend made us
build the library. In a university
where a lot of graduate students
do research, it becomes increas-
ingly difficult to give library serv-
ices to undergraduates.
"The library is organized for
their needs-everything is simpli-
fied," she admitted.
"There is also a very strong ref-
erence service and librarians are
always on duty to show the use
of the library. That's what we
want this to be-more than just a
library. We want it to be able to
instruct undergraduates in library
use so that they'll be able to go,
one day, into a large world of li-
braries and use them all well,"
Mrs. Keniston said.
Besides its volumes and instruc-
tional librarians, the UGLI offers
the undergraduate students and
the University communnity as a
whole features not found in any
other building on campus.
A large hall-the Multi-Purpose
Room-may be used by any group
on campus which can show that
it wishes to use the room for an
educational or intellectual pur-
pose, so long as the event it spon-
sors is open to undergraduate stu-
dents.
Another feature of the library
is the Audio Room, in which stu-
dents may listen to music or
spoken-word recordings.
The Audio-Room has 72 turn-
tables, each of which accommo-
dates two listeners, and 144 stu-
dents can use its facilities at a
time. Moreover, the library owns
3400 records which, while they
may not be taken from the Audio
Room, provide many students
with many enjoyable hours.
Reserve Books
The UGLI also uses the "re-
serve" book plan. Under this, a
professor sends the library a list
of titles which are required read-
ing for his course, and these books
are put "on reserve."
This means that no one can
take them out of the library be-
fore 9 p.m. and that they must be
returned by the following morn-
ing. High fines ($.50 per hour)
are charged for unreturned reserve
books.
The Undergrad also has a num-
ber of small reading rooms, and
among these there are non-smok-
ing rooms, "quiet" rooms, and an
Honors Lounge.
State History
The Michigan Historical Collec-
tion is a small but revered library.
The collection began very mod-
estly in 1934, when an assistant
professor of American history at
the University applied for a grant
from the graduate school's fac-
ulty research funds. The purpose
was a new one for a Rackham
fund grant: the locating and col-
lecting of manuscript and printed
sources relating to Michigan his-
tory.
Prof. Lewis Vander Velde even-
tually became chairman of the his-
tory department, and his 1934
project -ventually grew into a li-
brary containing millions of man-
uscripts and records, occupying
six rooms in the Rackham Bldg.
The first of these rooms- is a
general storehouse, in which
bound and unbound newspapers,
some inactive University records,
duplicate copies of books, large
collections of papers of individ-
uals, and miscellaneous books and
papers not frequently called for
are kept.
Primary Sources
Four of the other rooms house
personnel, books and manuscripts
for old historical records such as
the collections specialize in, sel-
dom came in book-form, and the
collections prefer primary source
material.
16However, the sixth room. Room
1160 Rackham, is the "library"
which most people who use collec-
tions' material get to know.
The room has four exhibit cases
in which manuscripts or other
printed materials are dispiayed
They are also many locked cases
containing diaries, church records
and the early stories of Michigan
schools, colleges and other organi-
zations.
The work of the collections is
principally of three kinds.
Gathering Manuscripts
The first includes gathering
manuscripts and printed materials
rely ting to the State of Michigan
and is tarried on by correspon-
der.ce and t:y personal contacts.
The second activity of the Col-
lections consists of making manu.
scripts and printed materials
available for use-often books or
letters or diaries must be cleaned
before they can be used by gradu-
ate students or other researcher
And after this, it is necessary to
catalogue and re-bind the books
or letters.
The third function consists of
disseminating information about
Michigan.
Available to All
The resources of the Michigan
Historical Collections may be used
by - anyone seeking information
about the state.
While the collections deal only
with Michigan history, and follow
the history through to fairly mod-
ern times (the collections main-
tain articles and letters on move-
ments as recent as the establish-
ment in the 1920's of the Michigan
League), the Clements Library
deals with American history only
through the early nineteenth cen-
tury.
The Clements Library, one of
the most austere and beautiful
buildings on campus, houses one
of special libraries at the Univer-
sity-special inasmuch as it re-
ceives its own budget and own
funds, separate from the control
of the General Library.
Alumnus' Gift
The Clements Library was a
gift from George Clements, a Uni-
versity alumnus and regent from
Bay City.
In 1922 Clements donated his
books-almost all were source
materials-and built the marble
structure.
Fearful that it would appear
like any other library, he also fin-
ished it with rugged early-Ameri-
can furniture, most of which is
still in the library.
The scope of the library ranges
from the time of Columbus to
about 1835.
The library contains about
36,000 books, 200,000 manuscripts,
and some 25,000 maps.
"The material in the Clements
Library is used by textbook writ
ers and biographers, and histor-
ians in general who produce the
secondary source books," Howard
Peckham, director of the Clements
Library, explained.
'Author Wasn't There'
"We don't buy books about the
American Revolution-for the
author wasn't there. What we're
after is source material.
"There source materials come
in various forms: printed books,
colonial newspapers, early maps,
atlasses, and to some extent ac-
counts of geographic knowledge
of the time," Peckham said.
About 40 per cent of the libra-
ries users come from off-Campus
-they are usually authors or pro-
fessors.
Valuable Materials
It would be difficult to appraise
the value of the volumes which
belong to the Clements Library,
because opinions about the worth
of a particular letter or series of
letters is bound to vary. However,
Peckham said that a rough esti-
mate - and one he feels is some-
what conservative - is between
three and five million dollars.
The Law Library contains well
over 300,000 volumes. It is, like
the Clements Library, indepen-
dent of the Graduate Library and
is one of the largest libraries of
its kind in the world.
It maintains itself as a closed
stack library because it is "used
primarily for research, and a
closed-stack arrangement it best
for this," Fred Smith, one of the
librarians, said.
"We carry books which tell
about the cases, which have the
cases in them, which have statu-
tes about the cases and cases
about the statutes. We have other
books about similar cases in India
and England. It's fascinating read-
ing," he said.
There are also divisional libra-
ries, run by various departments
and schools in conjunction with
the General Library. Most of these
are located in the same building
which houses the school, such as
the Natural Science Library or
the library located in the Frieze
Bldg. for the use of social work
students.
THE MOST DRAMATIC ADDITION to the huge but crowded University library system may be this nine-story structure, an addition to
the General Library. This architect's model gives a rough idea of its appearance when viewed from the southwest. The buildings in the
foreground, which face South University St., are (left to right) the President's home, Clements Library and the Undergraduate Library.
Behind the proposed addition is a corner of the General Library, to which the new structure would be attached. The ground floor would
be an open walkway flanked by arcades; the other levels would have windows but the pattern has not -yet been decided.
Knowledge, Needs Outgrow Libraries
By KENNETH WINTER
Managing Editor
With both the amount of
knowledge and the number of
people who need it growing ex-
plosively, the University's libraries
are faced with a constant need for
faster and faster expansion.
And this means money.
When the funds don't come-
as they haven't in adequate
amounts for the past seven years
-the libraries don't merely stand
still but actually lose ground in
the uphill battle to keep up with
the knowledge expansion. As Uni-
versity Executive Vice - President
Marvin L. Niehuss said this spring,
"the library system is growing all
the time. When you get a system
as big as ours is, just to maintain
it means almost constant budget-
ary increases.
"Acquisitions have improved in
the past year, but they're still not
where they ought to be."
Staff Shortages
Low library budgets not only
have held back the expansion of
the library collections but have
led to staff problems. Within the
past two years, the system has
lost 34 of its 70 top staff mem-
bers-and has been able to replace
only three.
Future needs are even more
staggering. The University recent-
ly compiled tentative projections
of some of its vital statistics for
the years 1968 and 1975. Among
the projections were estimates of
library needs for those two years.
Though the figures are highly
speculative, they give an idea of
the magnitude of the libraries'
future needs.
-Some $800,000 in 1968 and
more than $1 million in 1975 will
be needed to buy new books.
-The system will need about
205 new staff members by 1968
and 105 more by 1975.
-It will have to have 273,000
square feet of additional floor
space by 1968 and 184,000 square
feet beyond that by 1975.
Prospects Brightened
But two developments in the
past year have brightened some-
what the prospects for an ade-
quate rate of expansion for Uni-
versity libraries.
First, the state Legislature be-
came somewhat more generous
this spring. After seven "lean
years," when appropriations were
meager enough to keep the Uni-
versity on an austerity program,
Lansing's lawmakers finally ap-
proved a sizeable increase in the
University's operating appropria-
tion. A large chunk of the $6 mil-
lion increase will go to the library
system, largely for the purpose of
rejuvenating the upper ranks of
i its staff.
Second, the passage last fail of'
the federal aid to education bill
may help remedy the space short-
age. If they can get the $1 3 mil-
lion they seek from Washington,
University officials will dismantle
the decrepit West Physics Bldg.
and build a $3.5 million addition
to the General Library there. The
nine-story structure will provide
some 250 carrells for graduate stu-
dents' use, and space for some
500,000 books. Then the University
could bring back some 350,000
volumes virtually hidden out on
North Campus, relieve crowding in
General Library stacks and accom-
modate more new books.
But the addition, to be complet-
ed in 1967 or 1968, would contain
only about 103,000 square feet of
floor space. So by the time it is
completed, the system still will be
approximately 170,000 square feet
short.
Make WAHR"'you'r
headquarters
for all your textbook
and college supplies
SERVING U OF M STUDENTS SINCE 1883
And the search for.
will continue.
more fundsI
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