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 L, :,,' ,I 4 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 ** + vvaa vaaauvs ...... r.. .......... .. ..... ...L... ..,.A..,..... J... w..,. .,....:" "w:.: :...... .....:.. , J.{ I:{.Aa " " J",>1 1 .. . . . . . . ? L .."" ... . ... . .......: ..... : . ..... .. ...-.. J .. J............ ",.......... .; ... .,." .L V.. . :::J:rw.. ":.":..1 N, '}., . . ..ViY ,. . a . .................. . .... .. .. . . .J.. .ai. r.."rx ' 1 J A' rR..r.*. fir.... . . . . . WELCOME Class of '68 WELCOME your visitors at the beautiful new . . . ..... ..... .:....... ..... ..... . .......r.........r.........x...r... .r... . ." ...:. : J J :J.J .... ...:J . S ............... 'V1 1 . CALLING ALL CO-EDS! Working together Enthusiasm Lots of fun Concerts, sings Opportunity to Meet people in the Ever challenging ASSEMBLY ASSOCIATION for ' of ANN ARBOR FREE TV 0 Bonded Babysitters S Children's Playground Meeting Rooms O Business Suites TELEPHONE 665-4444 TELETYPE 665-8148 PLUS #AT-THE-INN RESTAURANT * COFFEE SHOP * "LIBRARY" COCKTAIL LOUNGE it LOCATION: North side of Jackson Avenue, just west of I-94 (Detroit Expressway) on the west side of Ann Arbor. I I