History Department to Get Library

The History Department will have its own library for the first time in 15 years, Foster McC. Palmer, associate librarian for reference and circulation, said yesterday. Primarily for History concentrators and graduate students, the library will be opened in Widener this September.

The Department of Celtic Languages and Literatures will then be the only department remaining without its own special library facilities.

'Cliffies in Lament

As an indirect result of the new library, Radcliffe students will be allowed to use a Lament collection during the regular school year for the first time. The Harvard map collection, which now occupies the rooms the History library will have, will be moved to Lamont, where it will be open to all University students.

"The need for a History library has been felt for a long time," Palmer said. He explained that it was "just a fluke" that there has been none since the books in the special History, Government, and Economics reading room were absorbed into the Lamont collection in 1949.

The new library, which may eventually contain as many as 10,000 volumes, will be a non-circulating reference collection. Palmer said that specific regulations for undergraduate use had not yet been determined.

All the books in the library will be duplicates of volumes available in other University libraries, Palmer explained, since the main purpose of the collection is to provide books often out on loan in circulating libraries. The competition for basic history books, Palmer said, has created a strong demand for such a library.

Oriented to Courses

The collection will be oriented to the University's courses and is being complied on the basis of a list submitted by a History Department committee, Phillip J. McNiff, associate librarian for resources and acquisitions, explained.

McNiff said the library will concentrate on North America and Europe, with smaller collections on Latin America and possibly Africa. Books on areas covered by other special libraries, such as the Far East, will not be included.

Although the map collection will be moved from the top floor of Widener to Lamont, Radcliffe students will be allowed to use the maps. They will be restricted to the map rooms and required to use the first-floor entrance, however.

The move was decided upon because the map collection requires additional space and air-conditioned rooms. It will eventually be housed in the structures the University plans to build in the Widener courtyards. Until that time the maps will be located in Room 101 (the old music listening room) and in the sub-basement in Lamont.