College and Research Libraries By R . E . E L L S W O R T H Colorado University's Divisional Reading Room Plan: Description and Evaluation1 R. E. Ellsworth is director of libraries at the University of Colorado. A NALYSIS of the literature of university library planning w i l l show that the enthusiastic articles usually published at the time of dedication seldom contain a sequel which justifies or disproves the fine claims of the original statement. W h e t h e r this is so because there is nothing to say or because w e librarians are unable or u n w i l l i n g to discuss our errors is difficult to tell. T h e same analysis w i l l show that the numerous articles w r i t t e n have a great deal to say about styles of architecture, equipment and furniture, n e w tricks and gadgets, but very little about h o w all these are to contribute to the educational programs of their university communities. It seems almost as though everyone had come to accept the traditional setup of a building as inevitable, w i t h differences of opinion possible only in terms of relative emphasis. O n e need only read M u n t h e ' s and Branscomb's w e l l - k n o w n books pub- lished last year, or talk w i t h some of the 1 T h i s plan was derived f r o m m a n y sources: t h e f a c u l t y of the U n i v e r s i t y of Chicago G r a d u a t e Li- b r a r y School; f r o m several public libraries organized on the same basis, especially the Enoch P r a t t Li- b r a r y ; a n d f r o m several u n i v e r s i t y libraries. S t r a n g e l y enough, Brown U n i v e r s i t y a n d t h e Uni- versity of Colorado have used the same plan, each one a p p a r e n t l y u n a w a r e that the other was doing so. more critically minded members of the profession to discover that our library buildings have fostered an attitude t o w a r d studying that leaves much to be d e s i r e d — if one's o w n observations and thinking have not already done that. O n e obligation w h i c h W e s t e r n e r s take seriously is their responsibility for experi- menting. In terms of college architecture, t w o factors w o r k in our f a v o r : first, our buildings are usually paid for f r o m taxes, not from wealthy donors; second, w e are so isolated and so ignorant, relatively, that the heavy hand of tradition serves only to w a v e over our heads, creating a refreshing breeze. T h e splendid example set by the U n i - versity of N e w M e x i c o in adapting the native Indian Pueblo architecture to their n e w library building is noteworthy, w h i l e the C o l o r a d o State C o l l e g e of Education has demonstrated a new and interesting method of bringing the instructional pro- gram of the college into the library. W e hope that the University of Colorado, too, w i l l have made a contribution by showing w h a t the subject divisional plan can ac- complish in a university library. A r c h i t e c t u r a l l y speaking, the new li- brary, dedicated last June, but opened for service January 5, 1940, f o l l o w s the cam- pus style developed by M r . C . Z . K l a u d e r MARC hi, 1941 103 for the university.2 It complements the nearby Rockies w i t h their j a g g e d upturned strata of sandstone, their pungent harmony of line, mass, and color, their crude jumbledness and their almost overbearing massiveness. T h e campus buildings are constructed of local sandstone, each stone a slightly different combination of brown, red, and purple, w h i c h in mass tend to make the buildings become a part of their surroundings. T h e building cost $500,000 w i t h $40,000 added for equipment. It con- tains a million and one-half cubic feet of space, it w i l l seat about sixteen hundred students, and w i l l house over a million volumes. I t can be expanded to double its present size. T h e interior achieves its effectiveness through simplicity of design, material, and decoration. Fluorescent lighting is used in all the reading rooms and some day w i l l be installed in all smaller rooms. T h e tables, chairs, and reading-room shelving w e r e designed spe- cifically for the building. A system of ventilation created especially for our dry climate enables us to keep the reading- room temperatures in the middle seventies even during the hottest part of the sum- m e r — w h i c h is much appreciated by our summer school students w h o come from the M i d d l e W e s t and the South. So much for the structure, w h i c h is interesting and unique, but not so im- portant as the educational plan. A Working Program In the first issue of College and Re- search Libraries, December, 1939, I presented the hypotheses underlying the plan. T h e building has been in operation since J a n u a r y , 1940, and these hypotheses 2 See c u t s in the D e c e m b e r , 1939, n u m b e r of Col- lege and Research Libraries. may therefore now be stated and discussed in terms of a w o r k i n g program. F o u r divisional reading rooms form the nucleus of the service. T h e s e w i l l be presented as they function for the uni- versity community. First, freshmen and sophomores find assembled for them in the L o w e r - D i v i s i o n Reading Room a collection of about 8000 books and periodicals which have been c a r e f u l l y selected to meet their needs. T h i s w i l l be developed up to 15,000 volumes. E a c h department of instruction places here a group of books (reserved books are shelved in w i t h non-reserved books in one single call-number order) w h i c h it w o u l d like to think of as the common intellectual heritage of all univer- sity students, whether they are to be poets or engineers. G e n e r a l and elementary texts, books w h i c h have been w r i t t e n to explore w h o l e fields, to establish relation- ships, or to create a desire for further knowledge in the field represent a f e w of the types of publications placed in the rooms. Magazines on Open Shelves A small collection of newspapers and magazines like Harpers, Atlantic Month- ly, the New Yorker, and Life are kept here, and publications on vocational guid- ance form one group, all on open shelves. Reserved books may be used w i t h i n the room as long as the reader can stay, and each reader goes directly to the shelves for his books. H e asks for help only w h e n he needs it. If the particular book he w a n t s is in use, the chances are good that he w i l l find a substitute f r o m the hundreds of titles on the same subject. T h e re- served books bring him into the library, but the non-reserved books, which he finds constantly jostling his elbows, lure him 104 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES into further reading. T h e collection, however, is not too extensive for freshmen to absorb. C o m f o r t a b l e upholstered chairs are there if he cares to stay long hours, or if he wishes to relax a f e w minutes w i t h the New Yorker. Ho?nogeneous Reading Group Since the lower-divisional reader is sur- rounded not by awesome faculty members, chosen from a high-school teaching posi- tion for her ability to understand and help freshmen bridge the gap between high school and the university. She is not a library technician but a reading adviser. She has to know good library housekeeping principles, but her main task is to help young learners understand the tools and techniques of their c r a f t . She does this both individually and collectively. F o r L O W E R - D I V I S I O N A L R E A D I N G R O O M sophisticated and university-wise upper classmen, and finicky graduate students, but by other inexperienced and restless freshmen whose reading problems are like his, the clientele is a homogeneous reading group. H e isn't self-conscious about ask- ing questions about things that are obvious to an upper classman but p u z z l i n g to a freshman. T h e lower-divisional librarian w a s group instruction she has her office and a conference room, seating fifteen students. F o r larger groups she uses the M u s i c Room on the top floor. T h e reading room is L-shaped and is broken up into ten small units by double book shelves placed across the room. (See illustration.) T h u s , the librarian, or an instructor, can sit down w i t h a student and discuss his problem w i t h o u t disturbing many other MARC hi, 1941 105 readers. T h e librarian is a teacher and is given professional rank according to her education and experience. Since all four reading rooms are administered similarly, the f o l l o w i n g description w i l l serve for all of them. Single Checking Desk A checking desk at the single entrance is staffed by student assistants w h o ex- amine each book taken from the room. Since the checker is a f e l l o w student, not an adult " p o l i c e m a n " to be tricked, stu- dents accept his task w i t h easy amicability — a n d very f e w books are stolen. W h e n pressure on a particular title becomes too great, it is placed on a small closed reserve section at the checking desk. T h u s far, there have never been more than fifty titles at this desk. W h e n the divisional librarian is not on duty, her place is taken by a graduate student assistant whose special field of interest relates to the contents of the divisional room, and w h o has served for several years as a student assistant. T h e s e people accept their responsibilities seriously and are able to supervise the room and answer many of the questions which come their w a y . T h e y know w h e n to refer a question to their superior and w h e n to answer it themselves. T h e training they receive in this w o r k gives them an insight into teaching problems that w i l l add great- ly to their repertoire when they become teachers or librarians. Second, three upper-divisional rooms e x i s t — t h e Science Room on the main floor, the Social Sciences and the H u m a n i - ties Rooms on the second floor,—for the upper-divisional and graduate students. Each of these rooms is identical to the lower-divisional room in size, shape, ar- rangement, and administration. T h e collections, however, include the more ad- vanced publications w h i c h the faculty think w i l l be read most by upper-division students. T h e collections are selected by faculty members of each department in consultation w i t h the divisional librarians. Reserved books are shelved alongside non-reserved books and the specialized journals and reference books in that field. C u r r e n t issues of journals are kept in one place w i t h i n the rooms, w i t h a f e w com- fortable chairs close at hand. A type- w r i t i n g room is available in each of these rooms so that students may bring their o w n machines, or rent one if they c h o o s e — also a M o n r o e calculating machine. B y this provision w e eliminate some of the necessity for charging out periodicals and reference books. Each divisional room opens directly into the stacks and access is open to all. N o one can leave the stack room w i t h o u t passing a guard desk. Five Seminars Available Five seminars separate the reading rooms for the humanities and social sciences. T h e s e are not reading rooms; they house no permanent collections. F a c u l t y members w h o wish to conduct a seminar in one of them take to the room the books that are to be used at the time, or may send someone for a book w h e n the need arises. Smoking is permitted in the seminars, and at least one faculty member brews coffee for his M o n d a y evening group. Each divisional librarian in the upper- divisional rooms has an academic training up to at least the M a s t e r ' s level in one of the subject fields in her particular divi- sion. She also has the usual minimum library training, but her technical duties are not extensive. She, like the lower- divisional librarian, has to know library 106 ' COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES technique, but her most important task is to be a bibliographic adviser to students w h o have gone through the elementary learning stages, and w h o are probing about on the frontiers of knowledge. N o one reading room is, of course, large enough to house even a majority of the important books in any one field. Each room includes the books which the faculty thinks w i l l be used m o s t ; the rest are kept in the stacks on the same floor level as the reading room concerned. O n l y four of the possible ten stack floors are now in- stalled, which means that the above prin- ciple is not being followed as completely as it w i l l be w h e n the installation is com- plete. Cubicles for Graduate Students T h i r d , graduate students make their headquarters at cubicles in the stacks or in rooms established on the third floor for that purpose. P a r t of the material they use w i l l be in the stacks and part in the divisional rooms. A l l of it, unless re- served, may be taken to the cubicles for as long as it is needed. F o u r t h , faculty members engaged upon a specific research project involving library materials have access to faculty studies w h i c h become their w o r k i n g space w h i l e the project is on. T h e y too, of course, find their publications in the divisional rooms and in the stacks. T h u s , the library can be said to be planned on a subject basis in terms of w h a t might be called the learning or studying levels of the readers. I t should be obvious, however, that print and the reader cannot always be fitted into this logical pattern. T h u s , several special rooms have been provided. First, w e wished to see if we couldn't make government documents more easily accessible at a smaller cost than they are in libraries where they are cataloged ac- cording to subject and shelved w i t h other types of materials. W e established a separate Documents Division in which all documents are checked in and shelved according to the Superintendent of D o c u - ments classification system, w i t h a supple- mentary system devised by M r . R a y n a r d S w a n k , the documents librarian, for state and local documents. T h e reading room includes the current and most used ma- terial, while the older publications occupy the t w o bottom floors of the stacks. D o c u - ments are not entered in the card catalog except by serial title, nor do they go through the regular acquisition process. Access to them is by w a y of the document catalogs. T h u s , w e can afford to handle the many thousands of items which w o u l d otherwise swamp the technical processes division. Browsing Room Maintained Second, a browsing room is maintained for those w h o wish to smoke w h i l e they read and w h o like to roam around among a relatively small collection of n e w books. T h e open-shelf divisional plan makes a browsing room less necessary than it is in most libraries, but even so it is desirable. T h i r d , reference books, periodicals, sub- ject bibliographies, pamphlets, and news- papers which do not belong to any one division are kept in a general reference and bibliography room on the main floor. T h e room is not large because its clientele is limited. -Fourth, the main circulation desk, that bete noire of graduate students, still exists here but for a different reason. W h e n a book is shelved in one of the reading rooms a guide card is filed in front of the main entry in the catalog and a card is filed in MARC hi, 1941 107 the master circulation file. W h e n a stu- dent sees this, he goes directly to the indicated room for the book and charges it there. If no guide card is present, he assumes the book is in the stacks and either asks for it at the desk or goes for it himself. T h e circulation librarian spends little time circulating books (thus far, about eighty books per d a y ) , but a great deal helping users of the catalog. F i f t h , the technical processes are located on the main floor w i t h direct access to the receiving room, the stacks, the main card catalog and circulation desk, and the gen- eral reference room. Music Room on Top Floor Sixth, a large music room seating up to one hundred and seventy-five people provides a place on the top floor w h e r e music can be brought more closely into the instructional program of the university and into the daily lives of the students. T e a is served at the phonograph record concerts w h i c h are given daily, and the room is available for concerts and for classes w h i c h use music materials. W e try to encourage the idea that students should listen to good music as part of their daily study activities. Seventh, space is provided for a local historical collection on the third floor. H e r e a librarian sorts, catalogs, and makes available the mass of material which must be organized if a local history collection is to contribute to the culture of the region. E i g h t h , a large extension library has been provided on the basement floor, near a film storage room so that the university can, if it wishes, centralize all its visual aid materials into one unified service. D u r i n g our eleven months of occupancy w e have experienced one f u l l academic cycle, and although this is too short a time upon which to make a final evaluation, certain problems, facts, and relationships have established themselves. A brief dis- cussion of these w i l l serve as a tentative evaluation of the plan. First, is it possible for each department to select a teaching collection of f r o m three to six thousand volumes, w h i c h can be taken f r o m a storage location into an instructional situation? It can be argued that a better plan w o u l d be to spread out the stacks, keep all books there and allow free access to them. T h i s might be prac- tical in a college library w h e r e the book collection w a s culled rigorously and where the students w e r e c a r e f u l l y trained in bibliographic methods. B u t in a large university library the stacks must neces- sarily contain much that is irrelevant to the student's w o r k and w a s t e f u l of his time. F u r t h e r , most students, certainly freshmen, w o u l d flounder and be utterly confused by access to so much material. O u r divisional collections contain more than any student can read, and yet they are small enough for undergraduates to w o r k w i t h . D u r i n g N o v e m b e r 1940, 5869 non- reserved books w e r e circulated f r o m the library. O f these, only 1026 w e r e taken f r o m the stacks; the rest came f r o m the divisional rooms. Inasmuch as w e and the faculty have had little to guide us in choosing the reading-room collections, it seems reasonable to assume that w e can soon expect, a f t e r another year's experi- ence to circulate 90 per cent of the non- reserved books f r o m the various reading rooms. T h e stacks are thus being restored to their original f u n c t i o n — s t o r a g e . Number of Reserved Books Cut Second, is there any real advantage in abolishing the traditional reserve room 108 ' COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES and intershelving reserved and non- reserved books in a subject-divisional room? T h i s innovation has proven to be the strongest feature of the plan for it has eliminated the noisy confusion and mass production atmosphere of the reserve room and it has caused students to examine and read many books which otherwise w o u l d never have been seen. Furthermore, it enables the faculty to cut down on the number of books placed on reserve and makes it possible for us to free that 30 per cent of the reserve collection which librarians have been claiming are never used. T h e plan also enables the faculty to see in one place an instructional collec- tion for any particular subject, and to consider the stimulating qualities of the collection on the students. T h i s is diffi- cult to do under the traditional plan except through the medium of the syllabus, which is a poor substitute for direct access to books. Interrelations among Various Fields T h i r d , w h a t happens to those subjects that belong in more than one divisional room? M o s t of us are aware, of course, of the vast number of interrelations among the various fields of knowledge, and there- fore in locating particular titles and col- lections some very lively discussions have occurred. A l t h o u g h the final decision is sometimes based on arbitrary grounds, w e find the process stimulating to faculty and students. T h e latter, especially, are forced to consider relationships which previously had been mere abstractions to them. F o r instance, a student in the "Ideas in A m e r i - can L i t e r a t u r e " course, w i l l find the pure literature in the Humanities Room, but the supporting books on history, economics, political science, sociology, and education w i l l be found in the Social Science Room, w h i l e psychology w i l l be in the Science Room, and certain documents in the D o c u - ments Room. T h e student w h o sees each of these publications in its proper subject setting and in its relation to A m e r i c a n literature can hardly escape thinking about relationships. T h e small amount of time he " w a s t e s " in hunting his books is probably w e l l spent, for the process itself is educational. Some fields like journalism, home eco- nomics, pharmacy, and public speaking, which do have a professional subject litera- ture of their o w n but which rely heavily on the older disciplines, present a peculiar problem in that the professional litera- ture can be kept in one place, but the literature of the " p a r e n t " disciplines w i l l be located elsewhere. T h i s may annoy those w h o take professional pride in hav- ing all the books they use in one place, but it seems logical to keep the literature of basic disciplines together and let the read- ers go from one to another. Quality of Service Improved Fourth, how do the supervisory and administrative costs compare w i t h those of other libraries ? T h i s is not easy to answer because comparisons are difficult, but if one includes the departmental library costs involved in most universities, the differ- ences are not great. T h e n , too, the quality of service has to be considered. T h e service given by the four divisional libra- rians and the t w o special librarians is probably much better than that possible under the general reference-reserve room combination, for no one librarian can be expected to serve eight or nine hundred students w o r k i n g in all fields of k n o w l - edge as w e l l as can a librarian w h o is w o r k i n g w i t h t w o hundred students study- (Continued on page 192) MARC hi, 1941 109 eastern university librarians, for organiz- ing a special division in the L i b r a r y of Congress to act as a clearing house and advisory agency for all cooperative library undertakings. Such a department might assist in such matters as regional catalogs, surveys of resources, divisions of collecting interests, and cooperative storehouses. In reply, A r c h i b a l d M a c L e i s h , L i b r a r - ian of Congress, expressed the willingness of the L i b r a r y of Congress to assist in this program, if it is requested by the librarians of the country. M r . M a c L e i s h stressed the fact, however, that the L i - brary of Congress must have added sup- port for any n e w ventures, and that the library is decidedly short on top adminis- trative officers. O n motion of H a r r y M i l l e r L y d e n b e r g , the conference voted to approve M r . Boyd's proposal and to support it in any practical fashion. Colorado University's Divisional Reading Room Plan (Continued from page 109) ing in one divisional area. T h u s far, no one on the campus has complained that too much service of a high quality is given. It is true that f u l l professional service is not provided fourteen hours a day, but w e take the position that eight hours of highly specialized service is better than fourteen hours of average service. W e are discovering that the graduate student assistants w h o have w o r k e d several years in the library can handle in a reasonably competent manner the elementary refer- ence questions in their subject fields. F i f t h , w h a t about the problem of disci- pline in the reading rooms w h i c h are broken into small units? Perhaps college students in this area are more mature than is the case elsewhere, but w e doubt it. F r o m the first day the new building opened, students have acted as w e had assumed they w o u l d . N o one has to take books to get his assignments done; there- fore, f e w books are lost. T h e reading rooms are quiet. In other words, provide a scholarly atmosphere and students w i l l act accordingly. Sixth, w h a t has been the result of break- ing up the periodical collection and placing the specialized journals w i t h the rest of the subject literature for each field? In general, readers find that this plan saves them time, because of the ease w i t h w h i c h they can go f r o m the books to the journals. A f e w people, however, miss the general periodical room w h e n they read current issues in several fields. Unless the fields are related, such readers have to go to t w o or three rooms. T h r e e other questions w i l l be discussed at a later t i m e : ( 1 ) the advantages and disadvantages of the Science-Divisional R e a d i n g Room versus separate depart- mental libraries; ( 2 ) the effect of this plan on the w o r k of the general reference l i b r a r i a n ; ( 3 ) the advantages and disad- vantages of a separate documents librarian. S u m m a r y : this discussion has attempted to describe the divisional-library program of the University of C o l o r a d o L i b r a r y w i t h a tentative and partial evaluation of some aspects of the program. F u r t h e r aspects w i l l be discussed in the f u t u r e . 192 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES