World's Largest University Library Centers Around Widener-Half of 3,600,000 Books

More volumes than are found in any university library in the world are to be found in the Harvard University Library. The only institutions which may claim numerical superiority over the 3,000,000 volumes deposited on its shelves are the British Museum, the Paris Bibliothetique, the Congressional Library, and the New York Public Library.

Over one-half of this number are in Widener Library while the other half is scattered throughout the University in 52 special collections, seventeen departments such as the Law, Medical, and Business Schools, and the seven House libraries.

Freshman Libraries

Freshmen will particularly use the 20,000 volumes in the Union, a collection which has been designated by Professor Copeland as the finest gentleman's library in the United States, and the Boylston Hall reading room for history, government, and economics. Fine Arts students will use the 10,000 books on that subject kept in Fogg Art Museum, while the science concentrators will spend much time in the various laboratory collections.

The Widener Memorial Building, however, is the heart of the whole system. The 67 steps to the delivery room are probably climbed more often than any other stairway except that to the students' dormitories. Most of the books in the whole network are catalogued in this room and the books in Widener are secured there.

New students are obliged to obtain library numbers in the delivery room which allow them to take out three books at one time for one month periods and to use the special libraries.