Student Demand, Inflation Hinder Widener Expansion

As Widener approached the five million volume mark, Keyes DeW. Metcalf, Director of the University Library, reported that the annual income of $80,000 is not enough to run the library adequately in the face if rising costs and increased student demand for books.

Improvement in student attitude toward studies is generally considered all for the good, but to the second largest library in the nation it merely means more trouble. Figures on the use of books placed on reserve shelves have more than doubled since the war.

All around increases in costs affect the libraries in more ways than other college services, Metcalf said. Shortage of paper and higher book prices have combined to make it much harder for both students and libraries to procure desired books. Students unable to get books are therefore forced to use the libraries more than ever before, even though the libraries are faced with steadily mounting difficulties in supplying even normal demand.

Lamont Presents Problem

Increased enrollment and the construction of the Lamont Library have contributed generously to the dilemma, said Metcalf. Although all tomes in the Union and Boylston Libraries and many from Widener will be transferred to the new building, Metcalf anticipates that at least ten percent of the 60,000 volume quota will not yet to be on hand for the opening of the undergraduate library next Christmas.

Top floor reading rooms in Widener, he continued, will no longer be necessary when Lamont is open. these will probably be converted into seminary rooms, he said.

Long Preparation

Library officials have known about the Lamont project for several years, Metcalf added. Procurement of books for the edifice has been going on for some time, he said, in addition to the constant expansion of Widener Library at the average rate of 105,000 volumes a year since the first World War.

Aside from the special problem entailed in the construction of Lamont, Metcalf concluded, conditions are essentially the same in college libraries throughout the nation, with the paper shortage, increased enrollments, scarcity of standard texts, and general inflation affecting all alike.