Photostatic Department of Widener Fills 3225 Orders

Two floors underground, in the deepest recesses of Widener, is hidden the photostatic department of the library which last year filled 3225 separate orders ranging in size from the reproduction of rare letters to copying entire books.

The studio does work for libraries and scholars all over the world and only charges $25 to copy a book of 200 pages; and if one has a moving picture projector it is possible to buy rolls of film of such books for only $5. The only disadvantage of the second method is that the book must be read from the screen while the former process results in a handy volume of only three times the thickness of the original which is, of course, easily protable. About 14,000 feet of film is used each year in the studio.

Nothing seems to be out of the ordinary for the staff which works with love letters of famous authors, maps of the Maya region, crasures and dim watermarks on ancient manuscripts which can be better seen in the light of mercury lamps, and records of criminal cases which concern Harvard. The largest material handled was a map six feet square which was reduced to 18 inches by 24.

There is a steady influx of diagrams for theses and orders for copies of pages of books in the Harvard Library which are missing in other copies.