Administration Vetoes Widener Merger Plans

After three years of bitter and inconclusive wrangling, the President and Fellows of the College have finally killed a proposal to merge Widener's two card catalogues.

Although the vote was taken early last summer, Librarian Keyes D. Metcalf withheld announcement of the result until late last week. According to Metcalf, chief exponent of the merger, it was agreed in July "that the changes should not be carried out at this time, and that further consideration should be indefinitely postponed."

Metcalf added, "This decision was reached on the basis that pressure for space did not make the shift necessary, and that there was enough opposition to the proposal to make it wise to reach this negative conclusion."

The merger was originally proposed as a space-saver, since it would eliminate over 2,000,000 duplicate cards. Metcalf proposed to move the second-floor catalogue--which contains listings by author, subject, and title--into the first floor Union Catalogue--which has listings, by author only, of almost every book in the University.

But from the outset, members of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences fought the proposal. Continued and intense criticism, combined with a petition signed by more than 50 professors rejecting the plan, eventually provoked Provost Paul H. Buck, in May, 1951, to postpone decision for at least a year.

Crities held that the consolidation required under the merger plan would cost more than the saving of space justified. Further, they argued that with each book listed under only one card, loss of that cad would mean loss of the book.

Among the opponents of Metcalf's plan were William A. Jackson, director of Houghton, and Harry T. Levin '33, professor of English.