Tuesday, June 16, 1964
Page 2
Summer Nebraskan
Library's 'Subject -divisional' System Emulated
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By Kay Matlson
"The literature on univer
sity libraries contains numer
ous articles reinforcing or in
dorsing a particular form of
organization. On the other
hand, there are few pieces
containing new and original
ideas on how to organize
books, the buildings which
house them, and the people
who work with them.
"As a result of this situa
tion, certain model and pro
totype university libraries
(e.g., the Lamont at Harvard
(undergraduate); the Love at
Nebraska (subject -dm
sional); and the Firestone at
Princeton (interspersed) are
picked out for seemingly end
less discussion and imitation.
"Libraries such as these
represent sort of the opinion
leading or 'avant-garde' ele
ment among university li
braries. As resources permit,
the lesser university librar
' ies seek to emulate these
building and organizational
models." (THE LIBRARY
QUARTERLY, January, 1962)
This is high praise for the
University of Nebras
ka's Love Memorial Library,
but what exactly is "subject-
divisional?" It begins when
large collections are brought
together by subject matter to
serve groups of related de
partments of instruction.
In the late 1930's, Ralph
Ellsworth, then and now di
rector of libraries at Cohv
rado University decided that
the only reasonable way to
meet student and faculty de
mand for greater diversity of
reading materials would be
to divide the library's con
tents along three broad sub
ject lines social sciences, hu
manities, and natural sci
ences. This was twenty-five years
''ago; the University of Ne
braska followed five years
later and developed the Colo
rado plan with a divisional
library serving the human
ities, the social studies, and
sciences.
"This idea was not new at
the time," says Frank Lun
dy, director of libraries at
Nebraska, "the big public
libraries, such as Los Angeles,
California had been doing it
for fifty years, but Colorado
did built the first building in
a large university designed
for m a j o r research collec
tions."
Lundy stresses the fact that
"the divisional plan refers to
the scheme of organization, it
is not a building plan."
At Nebraska one hundred
thousand books and other ma
terials were carefully selec
ted for the subject-divisional
purpose from the half million
In the stacks and were ar
ranged by content In a series
of large reading rooms. The
assigned readings are on open
helves in call number se
quence with the rest of the
collection. Shelving these
books with the rest of the col
lection has the advantage of
continuously acquainting t h e
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SOCIAL SCIENCE READING ROOM Students take advantage of Love Memorial Library's "subject-divisional plan. This plan divides the library's contents into social science,
humanities, and natural science. There is a reading room for each of these divisions. , ,
Libraries that cannot afford, they acquire better divisional , cal I subject oroer oncogen
io mre suoieci specialists iur kiiuw-iiuw. . . . ,
, , J .5. . . u!-r l:(i ehniiH areas spattered & b 0 U t. AU
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student with other books on
the same subject.
The reading rooms, which
Lundy calls the student's
laboratory, are broken up
into small study areas. These
areas are surrounded with
books on the same subject.
The graduate students and
faculty are not forgotten;
there are sixteen seminars
which serve as graduate
study rooms and forty faculty
studies which are separate
rooms.
At Princeton and North
western, there are no division
al reading rooms, but the
book stacks are open to all
students. Of this Lundy says,
We believe that it is no
service to the undergraduate
student with a problem to
solve or a paper to write to
turn him loose among a mil
lion books consisting mostly
of research materials."
According to Lundy, t h e
completely open book stack
in the large university is a
'lazy man's way" of solving
the problem of undergraduate
library service. But no stu
dent at Nebraska is ever de
nied his right to browse
among the stack collections if
he wants to do so. (Although
the situation is changing, on
many campuses undergradu
ates are not given free access
to the book stacks.) ( tered exclusively through six
In the majority of libraries individuals. For example, the
which have installed the sub
ject-divisional plan, the cen
tralization of materials in the
social sciences and humani
ties has not been difficult;
however, attempts to do the
same with collections in the
natural sciences have not
been so easy.
Lundy explains, "The nat
ural sciences are basic to
many departments; whereas
the chemistry department
wants its own collection, then
the microbiology students
have to travel back and forth.
Separating the natural scien
ces scatter books around for
many departments."
The subject-divisional plan
includes staffing and manage
ment, also. Director Lundy
runs the library through the
Library Council which is or
ganized directly under him in
the command structure, rath
er than off to the side in
some sort of staff relation
ship.
The heads of the three Love
Library divisions (social sci
ences, humanities, and sci
ence and technology) and the
directors of the three outside
division (agriculture, law.
and medicine) all belong to
the Library Council. Other
outlying units are adminis-
St. Poul
Methodist
Church
12 & M
STUDENTS ALWAYS WELCOME
Dr. Clarence Forsberg Prtaching
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ipii
if
55.
assistant director for science
would supervise the dentistry
library.
The Library Council is a
decision-making body and
each of the six divisional li
brarians has a voice in the
formulation of policy, There
are ten library departments
the largest being agricul
ture, law and njedicine.
At Nebraska all librarians
members of the faculty and
all have appropriate aca
demic rank. Some fifteen or
more are members of the
University Senate. Some
have achieved the rank of as
sociate professor. A Master's
degree is essential to being a
librarian.
The "dual assignment" pro
gram operates at Nebraska.
assign all available subject
specialists to the divisional
reading rooms where they
both catalouge and do ref
erence work.
There is currently a con
troversy over the degree to
which reader service is im
proved through the location
of subject specialists in the
divisional reading rooms. For
example, a specialist in
American literature and fine
arts in the humanities divi
sion cannot offer service in
the other areas of foreign
languages, music, religion
and philosophy. An attempt
to solve this problem at Ne
braska has been to rotate
narrow subject specialists
throughout a division until
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A brief explanation should
be given -to the organization
of the two libraries, Harvard
and Princeton, which were
cited along with Nebraska
for superior leadership.
Harvard excels in t h e
undergraduate library. Three
major research libraries are
maintained for graduate stu
dents and faculty. There are
ninety other libraries in the
Harvard complex. (Harvard's
annual budget is three million
dollars while Nebraska's is
$750,000.)
Princeton's interspersed
plan operates with all library
materials arranged in a logi-
possible space is tree ana
able to be utilized. While
fewer librarians seem to be
needed, more reliance is
placed on the clientele to ac
quire familiarity with the li
brary plan.
What about the cosi of the
subject-divisional plan? It is
not expensive. The cost is re
lated to the size of the stu
dent body, to (he length to the
schedule of hours of service,
and to the quality of service.
"The trouble is," says Lun
dy, "many libraries are try
ing to do too much with too
few." ,
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