Busy Baker

ONE index of Dartmouth's intellectual health is the record of growth and activity at Baker Library. And the past academic year was a particularly busy and successful one in Baker, it is learned from the annual report recently presented to the President by Richard W. Morin '24, College librarian.

Perhaps the most interesting fact reported is that the actual use of Dartmouth's excellent book collections, as represented in circulation figures, increased substantially for the second successive year. The increase—8% at the main desk—was greater among students and faculty than among non-college patrons. "For those concerned with measuring undergraduate literary intake in terms of decimals," Mr. Morin stated, "it will be of interest to note that the main circulation desk alone issued during 1953-54 to each student in the College 12.13 books on the average, as compared with 11.27 books in the preceding year." The 76,758 withdrawals involved in this statistic were supplemented by approximately 144,000 student withdrawals at the reserve desk, where class assignments are handled; and with Baker's open stack policy, there is no telling how many additional thousands of books were used in reading rooms and study cubicles.

Total holdings of the Dartmouth libraries passed the 725,000-volume mark last year, with new acquisitions numbering 15,000 volumes. About 90% of these new books were added to the central library, with the balance going to Tuck and Thayer Schools. The number of periodicals, including newspapers, received in the central library rose to 1,975.

With collections growing and space limited, Baker Library last year began a determined effort to get rid of duplicates and other books no longer needed; but the 1200 volumes disposed of "constituted scarcely more than a tentative nibbling at the problem," Mr. Morin admitted.

A special problem of growth exists apparently in connection with Baker's superb map collection, which ranks 13th in size among those held by colleges and universities in the United States. Some 11,000 new items were added last year. A special sub-committee of the Faculty Committee on the Library has begun a study of the place of the Map Library as an aid in fulfilling the College's educational purposes.