Ed School to Build New Library As Part of $16 Million Program

The Graduate School of Education is making plans to build a $3.8 million library, J. Boyd Britton, Administrative Vice President of Radcliffe, said last night. The Ed School will ask the federal government for $1.25 million, one third of the cost, under the Higher Education Facilities Act of 1963, Britton explained.

Paul A. Perry, Assistant Dean of the Graduate School of Education, said last night that the library was part of a $16 million "development program," which would also endow faculty posts, and students scholarship aid. At least one half of the money will be needed for faculty endowments alone, he continued.

The fund-raising drive will get started this term, Perry said, and the money will be solicited from individuals, foundation, "and any other interested parties."

Plans are being made for the purchasing of land for the library, but the site has not yet been announced. The site will probably to the corner of Applan Way and Brattle St., from Larson Hall to Design Research, which is now owned by Radcliffe. "The Library should be within reasonable distance of Larson and Longfellow Hall," Perry said.

More Than A Library

The building is expected to be more than a library, Perry continued. "We also want it to include space for seminar rooms, offices for faculty members, and facilities for research." There may also be room to house the Center for Studies in Education and Development in the library, which would bring the CSED closer to research material.

"We don't want it to be just a 'walk-quietly' library," Perry continued. "Our purpose is to bring students and faculty members closer to books and tools of research in education. Perry said that the Ed School also planned to include special collections of test and curriculum materials along with films on educational methods.

The new library will take some 20,000 books from Widener and 15,000 from the basement of Longfellow Hall. The books, mainly reports, education periodicals, histories of education, college reports, and source materials, will also be drawn, from CSED and the New England Deposit Library which stores text books.

The land on which the library will probably be built was originally owned by Harvard, but when the Loeb Drama Center was constructed in 1960. Harvard swapped this area for the present Leob location, then the property of Radcliffe.

When Larson Hall was built in 1961, the Radcliffe News Office announced that the Ed School had "option on the land adjacent to Larson Hall."