College and Research Libraries LUCIEN W. WHITE Seating Achievement in Larger University Libraries A questionnaire was sent to the thirty-six largest university libraries in the country inquiring as to their current ability to seat their students. Thirty-two replied. They indicate that the larger libraries, as well as those in private universities, were generally able to seat larger propor- tions of their students than were smaller libraries and those in state institutions. Plans indicate that these averages will be considerably improved by the year 1970. THE STANDARDS for seating in academic libraries are generally well known. The most familiar of these, developed by the Association of . College and Re- search Libraries, recommends reader stations for at least one-third of the stu- dent body in colleges and universities granting the bachelor's and master's de- grees. There is a dearth of inclusive and cur- rent information, however, with respect to actual percentages of library seating maintained among types of academic in- stitutions, although such information would be extremely helpful for planning purposes. The most recent general sta- tistics available are for 1957 and pro- vide seating ratios derived from reports from institutions in the United States representing 95.7 per cent of the enroll- ment in higher education. These reports showed average seating percentages for the fall 1957 enrollment to be as indi- cated in Table 1. 1 It is apparent from these figures that, 1 U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Wel- fare; Office of Education, College and University Facilities Survey; Part 3: Inventory of College and University Physical Facilities (OE-51007, 1965), p. 389. Mr. White is Director for Public Service Departments, University of Illinois Library, Urbana. as of ten years ago, academic libraries in every category fell considerably short, on the average, of meeting generally recognized standards of seating. Wheth- er the over-all average has improved in the last ten years is difficult to determine in the absence of adequate statistical ev- idence, but the impression of many ob- servers has been that the trend is in the direction of providing reading stations for an increasingly larger proportion of the student population. Certainly the greatly augmented ex- penditures on academic library buildings in the last few years would lend strength to that belief. In 1957, for example, only $20,800,000 was spent on new library construction and rehabilitation projects TABLE 1 Types of Institution Public Private All types 13.4 16.0 University . 15.1 12.3 Liberal arts college 12.7 19.6 Teachers college 15.6 16.1 Independent technological school . . 9.5 6.8 Theological and religious school 25.7 Other independent professional school . 13.8 11.7 Junior college 9.0 22.1 Technical institute 6.5 5.0 I 411 412 I College & Research Libraries • November 1967 TABLE 2. SEATING STATISTICS FOR LARGER UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES Institution a Harvard Yale Illinois Columbia Michigan California-B. Cornell Stanford Chicago Minnesota Princeton Wisconsin Penn. U. Indiana U. Ohio State Texas U. Duke Northwestern New York U. North Carolina Johns Hopkins U. Washington Virginia Louisiana State Iowa U. Missouri Michigan State Kansas U. Brown Florida Kentucky Oklahoma U. a Arranged by size of book collection. b Central Building. c 25 square feet currently provided. d Includes students in Master's programs. Library Seats Current 6,381 1,152b 3,892 4,208 5,783h 4,591m 4,466 4,000 2,474 4,457° 2,946 4,220 3,242 2,700q 4,010 4,241 1,764V 1,349 1,219>' 2,813 1,400 3,631 1,240 2,068 2,575 2,850 2,500 2,020 1,366 3,172 2,228 2,360aa Seating Add. Seats Ratio Ratio Expected Expected Current 1970 1970 43.0 600 40-45.0 13.5 1,600b 27.5 13.4 1,905 18.5 25.0g 3,150 37.0 20.5 2,923 17.0 6,448 24.0 32.0 158 30.0 36.0 36.0 33.0 1,706 47.0 12.3° 2,800° 15.0° 62.0 572 73.0 14.0 4,145 23.0 27.0 1,571 36.0 10.0q 5,500q 25.0q 10.0 4,ooor 2o.or 15.5 1,052 16.5 25.ov 2,547V 54.0v 16.0 2,2oox X 6.0 4,800 25.0 21.0 1,909 28.5 22.6 255 13.0 2,250 20.0 16.0 300 15.oz 11.0 14.0 2,500 20.0 16.0 6,250 25.0 7.0 3,000- 10-15.0 5,500 13.8 1,085 18.2 27.0 600 37.0 17.6 1,221 19.9 16.8 1,272 21.8 15.3 2,304 20.8 Standard for Undergrad . none 25.04 37.0g I 25.0 25.0 25.0 20.0 30-38.08 18.0 35.0 40.ox 25.0 25.0 25.0 20.0 25.0 30-37.0 30.0 25-30.0 15.0 e 25 per cent standard for doctoral students in areas with high laboratory research demands; 60 per cent standard for doctoral students in areas with low laboratory research demands . t 10 per cent -standard for faculty with high laboratory research demands; 50 per cent standard for faculty with low laboratory research demands. g Does not take into account student readers from affiliated institutions such as Barnard and Teachers College. h Does not include 5 off-campus libraries. I No official standard. Minimum desirable is 25 per cent average. For science students, 15 per cent; for hu- manities and social science students, 33 per cent. J No official standard. Minimum desirable is 50 per cent average. For science students, 50 per cent; for grad- uate students in humanities and social sciences would like to provide 100 per cent for those engaged in writing dissertations, 33 per cent for others. k No official standard. Modest standard might be 16 per cent in humanities and social sciences, 4 per cent in sciences. I Includes allowance for aisles. m Law students and · Law Library excluded in all figures. n No specified standard, but 25 square feet is commonly used in planning. o Minneapolis and St. Paul campus only. P In closed one-station carrells. q Bloomington campus only. r Esti.tnated. • For humanities, 30 per cent; for sciences, 33 per cent; for social sciences , 38 per cent. t For sciences 25-30 per cent; for humanities and social sciences, 45-60 per cent. u For sciences, 10 per cent; for sciences, 50 per cent; for humanities, 55 per cent. v Includes Law and Medicine. The Law Library provides seats for 100 per cent of law students and faculty. The Medical Center Library now being planned will seat 100 per cent of its students and most of the faculty. w Applies to General Library. More space will be allowed in Medical Center and Law Libraries. Seating Achievement in Larger University Libraries I 413 TABLE 2 (Continued) Institution a Harvard Yale Illinois Columbia Michigan California-B. Cornell Stanford Chicago Minnesota Princeton Wisconsin Penn. U. Indiana u. Ohio State . Texas u. Duke Northwestern New York U. North Carolina Johns Hopkins U. Washington Virginia Louisiana State Iowa U. Missouri Michigan State Kansas U. Brown Florida Kentucky Oklahoma u .. x Humanities and social sciences only. Y Washington Square only. z Ratio expected in 1975 is 35.0. aa Norman campus only. Standard for Grad. none 25-5o.oe 37.0 l 25.0 25-60.9 25.0 33.0 25-60.0t 20.0 75.0 8o.ox 50.0 25.0 50.0 35.0 30.0 30-37.0 50.0 35.0 40.0 by all academic institutions. By 1962, the amount spent had risen to $58,700,- 000.2 This increased to $79,000,000 spent in 1963 and to $90,000,000 spent in 1964. But the most impressive advances oc- curred in 1965 and 1966 when expendi- tures for academic library construction soared to an average of over $288,000,000 per year-almost fourteen times the $20,800,000 expenditures in 1957.3 It would be logical to assume that alloca- 2 Theodore Samore, "Academic Library Buildings: Needs, Legislation, Inventory,'' College and Research Libraries, XXV (July 1964), 296. 3 The Bowker Annual of Library and Book Trade Information (New York: R. R. Bowker Co., 1966), p. 32. Standard Sq. Ft. Sq. Ft. Sq. Ft. for Allowance Allowance Allowance Faculty Undergrad. Grad. Faculty none varies varies varies 40c 40c 40° 10-50.0t 30 30 30 30 30 k 301 40 1 64 1 25n 25n 30 32 80 25-30 30-35 25 40 60 25 25 60 25 18P 45 25 25-27 25-120 20-25 30 60 20-25 25-30 60-70 10-55.ou 30 30-40 40-86 4.0 30 35 40 25w 28W 28w 25.ox 25 25-30 72 10.0 25 25 50 15 48 5.0 25 30 50-60 75.0 25 30-35 40 30 30 10.0 25 35 50 25.0 30 20.0 30 30 48-96 25 25 25.0 25 45 60 10.0 25-30 30 100 tions of these proportions, representing the significant impact of the Higher Edu- cation Facilities Act, should eventually have a favorable effect on library seating achievement in spite of increases in en- rollment and the factor of inflation. In order to determine the extent of library seating currently provided or ex- pected in the near future in larger uni- versity libraries, the University of Illi- nois library recently queried the thirty- six university libraries in the United States with book collections of one mil- lion or more volumes. The questions cov- ered not only seating ratios but square- foot allowances per reading station. Since 414 I College & Research Libraries • November 1967 the column headings in the accompany- ing tabulation (Table 2) are necessarily brief, the survey questionnaire is given below for purposes of clarification if needed. QUESTIONNAIRE 1. Total number of seats now provided 2. Percentage of student body for which seats are now provided --- 3. Additional number of seats expected by1970-- 4. Percentage of student body for which seats are planned by 1970 -- 5. Percentage figure used as a standard for undergraduate seating --- 6. Percentage figure used as a standard for graduate seating --- 7. Percentage figure used as a standard for faculty seating-- 8. Square feet per reading station al- lowed for undergraduates --- 9. Square feet per reading station al- lowed for graduates-- 10. Square feet per reading station al- lowed for faculty -- Thirty-two replies were received, and the results are presented in the accom- panying tables 2, 3, and 4. These show that the median seating ratio for the uni- versity libraries in this survey is some- what above the average for all university libraries as reported in the fall 1957 fig- ures. However, those libraries with col- lections of over two million volumes show a markedly higher median. This seems to result chiefly from the prepon- derance in that group of private univer- sity libraries (seven out of eleven) which have attained higher than average seating ratios, while those libraries with holdings of b etween one and two mil- lion volumes are preponderantly librar- ies of public universities (fifteen out of twenty-one) which show low er than av- erage seating accomplishment. The lower seating performance of the public university libraries in this survey is undoubtedly related to the substan- tially greater enrollment increases ab- sorbed by those institutions in the last decade in comparison with enrollment increases in the private universities. A v- erage full-time enrollment of the public universities in this survey is now 23,648 as opposed to 9,421 for the private uni- versities, and the relative increase in the last decade has been 67 per cent for the public universities as opposed to 22 per cent for the private universities .4 On the other hand, the seating needs of the greater numbers of graduate students, proportionately, in the private universi- ties tend to elevate somewhat the seat- ing ratio of the private university librar- ies, although this factor would be a minor one in assessing the overall differ- ence in performance between types of ' Based on comparable statistics of enrollment for 18 public and 13 private universities as r eported in School and Society, LXXXV ( D ec. 7, 1957) , 373-74 ; XCV (Jan. 7, 1967), 11-1 2. TABLE 3. SEAT ING PERFORMANCE B Y TYPE OF LIBRARY P er cent Median Media n Increa se of Seating Seating Seats Ratio R a tio Range Range Expected 1966 1970 1966 1970 1970 Libraries over a million volumes 16.0a 25.0b 6.0-62.0 10.0-73.0 73.8" Libraries over two million volumes 25.0" 30.04 12.3-62.0 15.0-73.0 49.3" Libraries between one and two million volumes 15.5e 22.4t 6.0-27.0 10.0-54.0 94.5e Private university libraries 27.0g 37.0h 6.0-62.0 27.5-73.0 56.3g P11blic university libraries . 14.0 1 20.4 l 7.0-21.0 10.0-28.5 85.1 1 " Based on 32 replies from 36 libraries in this category. t Based on 18 re plies from 24 libraries in this category. b , , 30 , , 36 , , , " g , " 13 " , 14 , , , , , 11 , 12 , 11 " 14 , 11 , 12 " 19 , 2 2 , 21 , 24 , 17 , 22 Seating Achievement in Larger University Libraries I 415 TABLE 4. SEATING STANDARDS BY TYPE OF LIBRARY Libraries over a million volumes Libraries over two million volumes . Libraries between one and two million volumes Private university libraries . . Public universities libraries Standard Seating Ratio for Undergraduates 27.oa 28.0 e 26.5! 34.0g 24.3h Standard Seating Ratio for Graduates 40.oa 37.86 41.6! 53.4g 35.6h Standard Seating Ratio for Faculty 22.6b Square Foot Allowance for Undergraduates 27.2c Square Foot Allowance for Graduates 30.3 c Square Foot Allowance for Faculty 56d a Average based on 19 replies from 36 libraries in this category. b 11 11 11 12 11 11 36 " 11 • No distinctive variation between types of libraries. c Average square foot allowance based on 27 replies from 36 libraries in this category. No distinctive variation between types of libraries. Represents in many cases individual enclosures without counting aisle space, stairs, etc. d Average square foot allowance based on 22 replies from 36 libraries in this category. No distinctive variation between types of libraries. Represents in many cases individual enclosures without counting aisle space, stairs, etc. e Average based on 4 replies from 12 libraries in this category. f II II N 15 N II 24 N II II N " 5 " 14 II 14 N 22 libraries included in this survey. 5 Other local factors affecting library seating re- quirements, such as the nature of the curriculum, quality of the book collec- tion, adequacy of student housing, pres- ence of residence hall libraries, and number of commuting students are all variables which may have a bearing when considering the needs or achieve- ment of individual libraries. The most optimistic sign arising from this survey is found in the responses to 5 Based on enrollment percentages in Library Sta- tistics of Coll~ges and Universities, 1963-64; Institu- tional Data (OE-15023-64), p. 8-59. the questions relating to expected in- creases in seating accommodations and seating ratios by 1970. The great major- ity of libraries expect to make significant advances in seating performance by 1970, as is illustrated by Table 3. If these expectations are realized the total num- ber of reading stations in the thirty-two libraries surveyed will increase from 97,318 in 1966 to 169,191 in 1970, an in- crease of 73.8 per cent, and the median seating ratio will rise from 16 per cent to 25 per cent, substantially narrowing the gap between seating achievement and seating standards. • •