College and Research Libraries By CHARLES ,V. DAVID Postwar Plans for a University Library Building This paper stimulated much interest at the thirty-first Conference of Eastern College Librarians held at Columbia University on November 25J 1944. I N VIEW of the general topic to which this whole confer.ence is devoted, I sup- pose that I ought to begin by indicating how the situation for which we shall have to provide after the war will differ from that with which we had to deal before the war. But in spite · of all that has been thought and written and spoken about the world into which we are emerging, it is still to me a tough and a dark subject which has to be dealt with mainly in terms of faith and hope. Theoretically, it seems to me that we ought to expect that the world will be impoverished, that we are con- fronted with a great and tragic depletion of resources and material, intellectual and spiritual. And yet I cannot bring myself to face the stark realities of such a situation and I feel myself surrounded and supported by a great body of opinion which is un- willing to face it. Moreover, · I am very conscious of the role which vision and faith play iri the building of great universities and great libraries and other institutions which man cannot do without. And so I have come to the conviction that in plan- ning for the future I must act on the assumption that in some way the resources will be· found to make the university which I serve a greater university than it has ever I been before, and that it must be provided with a far greater library than it has ever had before. I hold that this assumption must be sound because the situation in which we find ourselves, the demand for educational service with which we are con- fronted, require that it shall be sound. And translating this assumption, or a part of this assumption, into material terms, the obvious and unavoidable fact is that we must have at the University of Pennsyl- vania, in the fairly near future, a great new university library building. But if you grant my primary assumption, I still feel some embarrassment in coming before you, for two reasons. First, the in- evitable obstacles and delays one encounters in the promotion and planning of so large an undertaking as a university library are so great that it s~ems impossible to go forward upon a predetermined schedule, and so I have to confess that we are not as far along at this date as I had expected to be, or as I think we ought to be, before I render this report. Second, I have some apprehension lest you may be expecting from me a very radical new approach to the problem of library planning-an approach such as you might have had from certain of my profes- sional colleagues whom I shall leave un- named. But I must ask you to bear in mind that a great library is a community enterprise which, if it is really to fulfil its purpose, must satisfy the desires and reflect · the temper of its clientele. And surely I do not need to remind you that Philadelphia is a city somewhat hoary with age and 112 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES steeped in tradition and that the University of Pennsylvania is a moderately conserva- tive institution. You will not, therefore, expect me to unfold before you plans for a great new library in which the stacks have almost wholly disappeared, or in which the stacks are placed entirely underground and the rest of the library is built on top of them, or in which there is to be no reference department in any usually accepted sense of the term, or in which provision is to be made for most of the instruction in the humanities and social sCiences to be carried on inside the library. No, the community which I serve is not prepared for such novelties, and the plans over which I have been laboring conform more nearly to the conventional type, though I trust that they have not been dictated by really blind conservatism. Problems It must, it seems to me, be fundamental in the planning of any university library that one begins by taking account of certain facts and fixed conditions which, since they are unalterable, must be permanently reckoned with. With some of these you are, of course, perfectly familiar. The most conspicuous example that occurs to me is the condition that is all but universal in American universities, viz., that we are ex- pected to combine in one plant a college library for the service of undergraduates and a great research library for the service of graduate teaching and advanced study~ But apart from such common problems · as this, we have at the University of Pennsyl- vania certain others which arise from our peculiar situation. We are a city university located in an area that is dirty and noisy and somewhat congested. We serve a clientele not all of whom can be dealt with in terms of trust : the problem of the loss of books through theft is for us a serious MARCH, 1945 one. On the other hand, the public de- mands from outside the university which are made upon us for library accomm?da- tion, or which are likely to be made upon us, are not very burdensome, as they appear to be in some other cities, and we are com- mitted to a policy of public service which it is a pleasure to render and which we feel it to be our duty to render so long as we are able to do so without serious inconvenience to our more immediate clientele. Phila- delphia is a community in which inter- library cooperation has already gone far and in which we believe it is destined to go farther. The university believes strongly in this cooperative movement and desires to t~ke a leading part in it. To quote from a report which was published in 1942: "The University of Pennsylvania Library ... accepts ... a responsibility for service to the community at large and to the student world at large. It opens its doors and extends its facilities liberally to all those seeking knowledge out of books." We have, therefore, in all seriousness, to plan a library which shall be not only for the service of the University of Pennsyl- vania in all its departments but also for the servtce of neighboring institutions of learn- ing and of research laboratories attached to industrial corporations and also for the service of individual scholars unconnected with the university. Building_ Plans I now turn to speak more definitely of our building plans as they stand .at this moment. The site chosen for our proposed new library-which will be the initial structure in a proposed new quadrangl~ lying be- tween 34th and 36th Sts. and between Spruce and Walnut-is the ground along the west side of 34th St. from Irvine Audi- 113 torium northward to Woodland Ave. There · is room for a building about I 7 5 by 390 feet, and plans already approved for the regrading · of the campus will give us a ground. level at the main entrance on the west front approximately one full story above the ground level on the 34th St. side where, presumably, the service entrance will be located. On one end of this site the present university library stands, within which there are two special structures housing the H. C. Lea Memorial Library and the Furness Memorial Library. It was our first thought that we must en- deavor to incorporate at least some part of our old structure in the new and that, in any case, we must manage to keep the old library in operation in its present building until enough of the new structure had been erected to enable us to move in and begin operations there. But it soon appeared that such a p~an would almost certainly lead us into some very serious and, in the long run, costly mistakes. Therefore, we have now decided that we ought to begin by planning the very best library which we are capable of planning upon the ground which is at our disposal, without taking any account of the existing building. After that we shall consider whether any use can be made of the existing building, either as an operating unit while the new building is under con- struction or as a permanent pa~t of the new structure. In short, while we have every desire to avoid waste and the great incon- venience of two movings, we are deter- mined not to let these considerations stand in the way of the best permanent solution of our problems which our situation ;w.ill permit. As I have already indicated, one of our serious problems is the loss of books through theft, and we have been forced to the con- clusions that, whatever the inconveniences of such an arrangement, our new library should hav~ only one public exit and that this exit must be rigorously controlled through guards and turnstiles and the in- spection of brief cases and luggage. But having made the building as safe as we can at the exit, I am in favor of the greatest possible liberality and freedom of movement inside. There will, presumably, have to be some limitation upon stack entrance for lower undergraduate classmen. But I am far from being in sympathy with the policy which has prevailed in some of our research libraries of excluding from the stacks all but a very privileged few. It is my belief that working space in individual carrells in the stacks costs less than seating space in a general reading room and that it is often much more satisfactory. I, therefore, favor the greatest possible latitude in admitting students to the stacks. Let us cut our losses by taking the trouble to scrutinize rigorously all who leave the building, but inside the building let us have the greatest possible freedom in order that all whom we serve, even though they be not above the rank of undergraduate, may really have direct contact with the books upon our shelves. Plan for the Future The more we have worked at our prob- lems at Pennsylvania, the more . strongly the conviction has been borne in upon us that, however carefully we plan, conditions which we had not anticipated will arise in the years that lie ahead which will necessi- tate important interior changes. We are, therefore, determined to have a building laid out on what I believe is commonly called the "unit principle," or the "unit plan," the purpose of which is to make possible easy and relatively inexpensive re- arrangements of the interior structure. The present declared policy of the U niver- sity of Pennsylvania looks , to the mainte- 114 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES nance of a fairly u~ifonp. . student attendance after the war and, theoretically, therefore, it ought to be possible to plan a library which, in the spaces allotted to service and to administration, would be very nearly permanently satisfactory, leav- ing only the space devoted to book storage to plague the future with the problem of expansion. But who shall say that the present declared policy of the university will not change or that conceptions of the . space requirements of library service and administration will remain unaltered? To my way of thinking the most unchanging thing about this problem of library plan- ning is the fact of change itself. It seems to me not at all unlikely that as the un- certain future unfolds before us, we shall find ourselves wanting to make an inter- change . of space even between the three JJ)ajor portions of our building ~hich are devoted to book storage, to service, and to administration; and, therefore, we are ask- ing that the whole building be planned horizontally in standard distances equal to the distance between the centers of the uprights supporting the ranks of the stacks ( 4 ft., 5 in.) and that vertically it be planned in standard distances equal to the height of one story of the stacks ( 7 ft., 7 in). It is my understanding that standard sections of wall, designed for use in "unit plan" buildings, are now being manufactured, which may be taken do.wn and re-erected without serious waste. This is a subject about which I am not well in- formed but on the basis of present informa- ' tion I favor a very extensive use of such removable walls. In any case, I favor a building so constructed as to give the greatest practicable inner flexibility so that present decisions-which with the greatest possible care and wisdom may soon be out- moded-may bind and embarrass those who. come after us as little as may be. MARCH~ 1945 Ventilation and Lighting In view of the incurable noisiness and atmospheric dirtiness of the location which we have been obliged to choose, it seems to me imperative that our new building shall be in some degree soundproofed and that it shall be artificially ventilated throughout and air-conditioned. At least the stacks must be air-conditioned, and I personally am convinced that for the location which we have chosen and in a climate such as we have in Philadelphia, the entire building should be air-conditioned. I acknowledge the defects of air-conditioning as at present operated, but strides of progress are cur- rently being made, and I believe there is good reason to expect that soon after the war it will be possible to get an installation of air-conditioning apparatus which will give a highly satisfactory result. It is of the utmost importance that our new library be as perfectly lighted as pos- sible. Time was when this requirement would have called for a great deal of atten- tion to natural lighting, and in a building of the contemplated magnitude it would have been necessary to have large light wells to prevent the interior from being impos- sibly dark. However, such wells take up a lot of precious space and cause a building to be badly "spread out," and with the progress of artificial lighting it now seems possible to do away with such interior wells. They are still used very effectively in so recent and admirable a building as the li- brary of the University of Illinois, but in a situation such as we have at Pennsylvania, where space is very limited, it is clear to me that we should do our utmost to get a satisfactory installation of artificial lighting and that we should pay less attention than we would have done a few years ago to natural lighting. I am sure that you must all be conscious, as I am even painfully conscious, of the 115 ' - difficulties of getting a building with the very best devices of air-conditioning, arti- ficial lighting, etc., such as I have called for. I am sure too that any of you who have actually tried to plan so great and complex a structure as a university library are conscious, even as I am conscious, of your inadequacy for the task. I am certain that there would be much to be gained if those of us who are struggling with planning postwar libraries-a fairly numerous com- pany--could come together in a series of conferences and endeavor to help one another through discussion of mutual prob- lems and through listening to representa- tives of the building trades and others who may be able to help us. I was, therefore, delighted when I learned that President Dodds, of Princeton, had taken the initia- tive in promoting such a series of confer- ences and I very much hope that this effort will meet with early success. Interior Ar:angement Time is lacking for me to do more than speak of a few of the features of interior arrangement which we hope to get in our new building. I am more than anxious that we shall have upon our main floor an arrangement of service desks, catalogs, reading and refer- ence space, bibliographical service, and essential nonpublic depa.rtment work which shall make for the most economical and efficient operation possible for a library of such dimensions as ours. The p~oblem is particularly difficult because we have to provide for such large collections of catalog cards. Apart from our shelflist, we have three large catalogs. We have, first, the catalog of the university libraries (this is the most' frequently used) ; second, the Philadelphia Union Library Catalogue (the next most frequently used) ; and third, the Library of Congress Depository Catalog, • which has been reinforced so that it too is a union catalog. This last, as you all know, is. in process of being printed, and I per- sonally would think it logical to remove it and depend on the printed text. But the printed text falls short of being really satis- factory for use with the naked eye and it has certain other drawbacks which facilitate · an easy argument against it. There is, therefore, intelligent resistance to the pro- posal to remove the depository catalog, and what our ultimate decision will be I shall not at present undertake to say. In any case, it is clear that our problem of interior arrangement at the principal service center of our proposed new library is much com- plicated by the necessity of providing for large and much-used collections of catalog cards. But, whatever the diffic~lties, we shall do our utmost to provide, in a convenient working arrangement on the main floor, for the catalogs above ·mentioned, for the circulation desk and service, for the main and reference reading room and reference service desk, for the periodicals reading room and service desk, for the Philadelphia Bibliographical Center-an independent, but essential, collaborator which we have agreed to house-for a bibliography room, for working space for the accessions and cataloging departments, and probably, though not certainly, for the main admin- istrative offices. If it is found that all these features cannot be accommodated on the main floor without sacrifice of stack space at this level, I am fully prepared to face such a sacrifice, for I am convinced that such an assembly on the main floor is really necessary in the interest of efficiency, though time is lacking at this moment to explain more fully the layout which I have in mind. 1 1 The circulation desk is the center of the libra.ry's activity and should occupy a fairly central position, and the distance from the main entrance of the build- 116 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES Seminar Rooms Of the detailed arrangements which we have in mind for the lower floor and for the upper floors of our building, there is also not time to speak. We are making fairly extensive plans for rare book or treasure rooms and for special collections, since Philadelphia seems to us to be a city in need of such equipment and since it has long been a center of book collecting on such a scale as to encourage us in t~ying to develop an outstanding collection of treas- ures. Our plan for seminar rooms will per- haps be of interest to you. To carry on a small seminar tradition (which has now come to be of fairly long standing at Penn- sylvania), we propose to have a good many seminar rooms opening off from a corridor from which there will be direct access to the stacks. The rooms will be of two types and several sizes. Type A, of which one will be assigned to every teaching depart- ment so desiring, will be primarily study in_g to it. should be kept as short as circumstances wlll permtt. Opposite the circulation desk, or in any case cl~se ~t h~d, s_hould be located the catalog of the . umverstty hbranes. The main and reference readmg r?om, by r _eason of its very size, must extend ~o a ~onstderable dtstance. but i t must be cie a rly borne m m~nd th.at there is heavy traffic between it and the ctrculahon desk and the university libraries cata- log, and, therefore, distances should be kept as short as _possible: Also it mu st be remembered that the mam _readmg room houses the principal reference colle~t10ns of. our l~br'!-ries and that the reference servtce desk 1s a pnnctpal feature of it. This desk s?oul4 be so located as not only. to give the reference hbranan easy command of the room but also as to make it possible for him to make frequent use of the catalo~s. of the bibliog_raphy room, and of the Biblio- g~aphtcal Ce~ter, ~htle moving over the shortest dt_st~nces ~htch circumstances will permit. The Btbhographtcal Center, which makes constant use of t~e Philadelp_hia Union Catalogue and must have it nght under tts hand, needs also to have convenient access to the bibliography room and to the main reference collections in the main reading room as well as t? the L.C. Depository Catalog. I hope it will be !'osstblc: to hav:e the bibliography room located at some convement pomt b!!tween the Bibliographical Center ~nd the roam readmg room. Finally, it is of much tt?portance that the work space used by the acces- stons a~d cataloging departments shall be so located as to gtve the!ll e~sy a_ccess. to the depository catalog and t_o ~he umverstty hbranes catalog, with access to the btbl~ography room, the ~ibliographical Center, and the mat~ :eference coll~ctw~s not .too far beyond. The pen?dtcals room, wtth tts servtce desk, will, I am convmced, have to be located at some distance from the mat~ center of l~brary activity, but I am extremely anxw.us to keep tt on the main floor, and I suggest that tt be so located as to open off from one end of the main reading and reference room and that there be. a dir.ect passage from it to the traffic center at the ctrculatwn desk and the university libraries catalog. MARCHJ 1945 rooms with shelving for pertinent book collections. Type B will be soundproofed and will be designed for the holding of classes. The type A rooms will be arranged in pairs with a type B room between each pair. Thus it will be possible for research to be carried on in the type A rooms with- out disturbance while classes are being held in the adjoining rooms of type B. Finally, let me say something about stacks. It is, I believe, generally agreed that stacks should have a central location and that other parts of the library should be built around them, but I am not con- vinced that it is wise to have stacks entirely surrounded by other parts of the building. Such an arrangement spreads out other parts of the building and tends to decen- tralize service and give long and time- consuming lines of communication. To have the stacks surrounded on three sides seems to me as far as we ought to go. It has beeri customary for a good many years for stacks to be con?tructed in the form of a deep well or tower of the same, or nearly the same, dimensions all the way up and to have them pretty well sealed off from the rest of the building by a surround- ing wall. Such an arrangement doubtless makes for certain economies, but I have come to doubt the necessity or desirability of having stacks so rigorously separated from other parts of a library and I believe that such an arrang ement may make for uneconomical and inefficient planning of other parts of the building. In our own case it seems to me probable that st~cks of adequate and uniform size carried from the bottom to the top of our building would interfere seriously with the . efficient, cen- tralized plan of reading rooms and services which we want on th_e main floor. There- fore, as I have already indicated, I am recommending that o~r stacks at this level be cut far into in order to get the space 117 I which we need for main floor features . . On the other hand, on the upper floors and on the lower floor it seems to me likely that we shall have more space than we need for nonstack features, and, therefore, I am pro- posing that at these levels the . stacks be broadened out to cover a larger area. Stack Capacity As to the over-all size of our stacks, we are planning for a capacity of about two million volumes. By this, I mean two million volumes when the shelves are about 8o per cent filled with books, for no li- brary can function with its shelves com- pletely full. One mentions such figures with strange emotion. So far as I know, no library has ever been built with stacks that were large enough; and now we have all been reading Fremont Rider's revolutionary book2 with its appalling formula according to which research libraries double every six- teen years and its brilliant proposal that a large part of our research collections be put in microprint on the backs of catalog cards. Does this proposai perhaps mean that great book stacks are no longer needed? Mr. Rider himself, in spite of the enthusi- asm with which he has advanced his pro- posal, does not think so. But how large stacks shall we need? I personally am convinced that Mr. Rider's book will, per- haps in the fairly near future, lead to revo- lutionary consequences, that large classes of our research materials will be placed on micro-cards, and that much of the pressure 2 Rider, Fremont. Th e Scholar and the Future of the R es earch L i brary . New York City, Hadham Press , 1944· 2 J 6 p. • on our book stacks will be relieved. Yet I am not anticipating the complete overthrow of our traditional library economy, and my pre6ent guess is-it is little more than a guess-that we shall not make a mistake in going ahead and building stacks in our new library for approximately two million volumes. Moreover, I am still of the opinion that we need to contemplate the possibility of our stacks becoming overfull in the not very distant future and that we still need to build with an eye to possible expansion. For ps there seem to be two possibilities, and we are asking our archi- tects to explore both. One is to go higher into the air, the other is to go to the west- ward underground. Of the two alterna- tives, the underground solution seems to me preferable, but I am not sure, and happily it is not my responsibility to make the decision. When shall we have this library of our dreams? I wish I could give a definite answer to this important question, but I dare not. This much i can say: The U ni- versity of Pennsylvania recognizes such a new library to be its first need. We have studied our requirements and have agreed upon them in considerable detail. They have now been turned over to the architects, who are in the stage of making preliminary studies and drawings. But the road that lies between preliminary drawings and a finished building of the contemplated mag- nitude is a long and arduous one and, as I said in the beginning, the world into which we are coming .after the war is to me a dark subject. I repeat: We are confronted with a situation which calls for faith. 118 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES