Role as 'Trustee for Learned World' Eats Up One-Third of Library's $1,200,000 Budget

Harvard's position as "trustee for the learned world" accounts for over one-third of its library costs and is twice as heavy a burden as supplying undergraduate book needs, according to a University breakdown of its annual $1,200,000 library bill.

Of this money, which must be supplied from endowments totaling over $30,000,000, over $400,000 is spent on maintaining a collection of old and unusual books "used as much by scholars from all over the world as students and Faculty associated with the University."

Library service for undergraduate bookworms costs $200,000; while the remaining $545,000 is expended on maintaining tomes for graduate and Faculty use.

Keyes D. Metcalf, director of the University's 80 libraries, estimates that the needs of undergraduates could be met with a library of 100,000 well selected volumes, and declares that with 500,000 books, the University could provide the "best working library" for professional and graduate students to be found anywhere in this country.

Metcalf terms the Harvard library, which includes 4,900,000 books and pamphlets, "unique among university libraries in the extent and value of its rare book collections.

The University library is second only to the Library of Congress in the number of books in its total collection. Yale University, with about 3,600,000 is the sole American educational institution approaching its size.