College and Research Libraries EDWARD B. STANFORD Residence Hall Libraries and Their Educational Potential Over the years the library press has consistently emphasized the im- portance of adequate support standards for residence hall libraries, but the requisite support levels have not always been maintained. A survey of institutional experience with such libraries indicates that they seldom succeed without adequate funding and continuing ad- ministrative oversight from the institutional library system. Cases are cited, and reservations as to their value are proposed. Needed re- search is identified, and guidelines for theiT establishment aTe sug- gested. THOSE INVOLVED in higher education to- day or who are familiar with the prob- lems arising from rapidly burgeoning student populations in colleges and uni- versities are aware of the tremendous in- terest and concern that is being widely felt with respect to the role and func- tion of student housing. In past years universities and colleges generally felt little responsibility for providing resi- dence halls with facilities beyond those required to furnish shelter and meals for students. Today, there is increasing interest in experimenting with new types of campus housing that will contribute directly to the intellectual, cultural, and social development of students during their college years. New awareness of the educational potential of residence hall libraries is indicative of growing in- terest in creating in student living quar- Dr. Stanford is DiTector of Libraries in the University of Minnesota. This paper was presented on April 2, 1968 in M inne- apolis, Minnesota, at the annual confer- ence of the National Association of Student P ~rsonnel Administrators. ters facilities where enriched learning experiences, as well as rooms for sleep- ing and eating, .are provided. Writing on this subject in 1958 Dean E. G. Williamson of Minnesota, in an article entitled, "Students' Residences: Shelter or Education?" mentioned dor- mitory libraries, but warned that they must have substance if they are to be effective. He said, We need to perceive clearly that it is not a sufficient intellectual program to pos- sess a library of discarded mystery stories and old novels as stimulants of things in- tellectual. Rather should the residence li- brary be stocked with basic reference books, at least to the extent of a good encyclopedia . And those who provide lead- ership in the dormitory management, up- perclassmen, and graduate counselors, would also be committed and reasonably skilled in using informal and casual re- lationships of the lounge, the library, the dining hall, and the private room to feed intellectual content into what otherwise may well be vacuous conversation. 1 1 E. G. Williamson, " Students' R esidences: Shelter or Education?" Personne l and Guidance Journal, XXXVI (February 1958), 396-97. I 197 \ ' 198 I College & Research Libraries • May 1969 Responses elicited by the present author from various colleagues, describ- ing residence hall library programs in their respective institutions, indicate that the validity of Dean Williamson's com- ment is clearly supported by experience. If the provision of library collections in student housing facilities is to be ed- ucationally meaningful, such efforts re- quire careful planning, continuity of su- pervision and administration, and a sub- stantial commitment in funds on a re- curring basis. The experience among the institutions from which recent in- formation has been received suggests that too frequently dormitory collections have been established when one or two individuals with great enthusiasm have been willing to spearhead an initial ef- fort which, unless sustained by others in subsequent years, has soon led to dis- illusionment, as losses have depleted original holdings and the remaining books and broken files of magazines have fallen into disuse. Residence hall libraries have survived and prospered only where continuing and specifically assigned responsibility for the on-going management and enrichment of collec- tions has been provided. OBJECTIVES AND GoALS Since the House Plan at Harvard, made possible in 1928 through the gen- erosity of Mr. Edward S. Harkness, rep- resents one of the first significant efforts to develop residence hall libraries in an American university, the rationale of this plan is worthy of mention. The idea behind the Harvard system was to in- tegrate the work of tutors and students, under the guidance of resident "Mas- ters," to make these houses genuine liv- ing and learning centers and "to breathe new life into the instructional methods of Harvard College through the very channel which was to restore to under- graduate life some of the social values it had offered before the college became merely one unit in a great university."2 In order to provide the facilities for implementing this goal, each house was designed with spacious, comfortable, and attractive library quarters, and the book collections were selected by the Master of each house, to serve a wide diversity of undergraduate reading in- terests. In the case of Lowell House the goal was to create "a scholarly gentle- men's library to appeal to literary tastes and to encourage potential biblio- philes."3 Gradually some differences in emphasis developed among the various Harvard houses, with one stressing more materials in the humanities, while others leaned more heavily toward the sciences. When, in 1930, conservative critics ques- tioned the need for the outlay these li- braries represented, in a university al- ready so richly equipped for academic pursuits, one alumnus defended the en- terprise in the following eloquent re- sponse, "It is in the hope of contriving an intellectual climate ever more friendly to that mysterious ferment which here and there causes to rise in some human breast the yeast of a creative life pur- pose."4 Another apologist wrote, "The books they contain may be seen not as tools with which instructors teach men a few things, but as windows through which students may discover many things."5 More recently Nevitt Sanford wrote, in urging enriched concept of student housing, "We must find ways to bring the intellectual life of the college into the establishments where students live. We must create campus-wide student- faculty or faculty-student communities in which the social need of students, far 2 Frank N. Jones, "The Libraries of the Harvard Houses," Harvard Library Bulletin, II (Autumn 1948), 362. 3 Ibid., 363. 4 Ibid., 371. 5 Ibid . from being suppressed, are brought into the service of the intellectual aims of the college."6 In 1940 Harvie Branscomb, in his vol- ume Teaching With Books, urged that dormitory facilities make provision for library materials to enrich the educa- tional opportunities of resident students. The theory back of dormitory collections, he wrote, is "that a student will pick up a book in the lounge and browse for fifteen minutes or half an hour, when she would not bother to go to the library for a book." Once interested, through such browsing, he indicated, the book would then be taken into one's room and completed. 7 THE PROBLEM OF ScoPE The provision of libraries in student living facilities can serve a variety of functions, and in order to be successful the purposes and objectives of such col- lections must be well defined in advance. Should dormitory libraries be purely recreational? Should they comprise pri- marily "great books" or "world classics" in various subject fields? Should they stress popular "escape" reading? Should they focus on "best sellers?" Should they include journals of some academic sub- stance, or should they provide primarily popular magazines and newspapers for leisure reading? Or should they perhaps emphasize a "well-rounded" collection of good books in all subject fields-or should they attempt to reflect the "gentlemen's library" concept? Finally, should they stress or include required or optional course-related books to provide more convenient access to assigned readings that otherwise would have to 6 Nevitt Sanford, " Ends and Means in Higher Edu- cation," Current Issues in Highe r Education, 1962 in " Higher Education in an Age of Revolutions" ( Asso- ciation for Higher Education : Proceedings of the Seventeenth Annual Conference on Higher Education). p. 19. ,. Ibid. Residence Hall Libraries I 199 be obtained from the "reserve room" in the general library? Should dormitory collections emphasize hard-bound titles, presumably of enduring valu.e, or should they liberally provide paperbacks that ought possibly to be considered expend- able? These are some of the questions that need to be thought through in de- termining what role residence hall li- braries should try to fulfill in a given campus situation. And they should be squarely faced before substantial funds are committed to the building of such collections. The scope of the collections compris- ing the University of Indiana dormitory library plan suggests the educational po- tential they are designed there to serve. Their purpose, writes the librarian is, To have a well balanced collection of both recreational and study materials, but perforce the ever rising enrollment we are experiencing increases the student load of our residence hall libraries. Emphasis on browsing with a good art book or an il- lustrated book on a foreign country, read- ing a current magazine, or listening to a good recording remains an important fac- tor in selecting materials for these libraries; for what serves to broaden horizons out- side the classroom is always a rich reward to the student who uses his residence hall library. Dr. Branscomb, cited above, noted that not all dormitory libraries have been successful, and he emphasized the ne- cessity for collections sufficiently large to reward repeated browsing and the need for continual enrichment of initial collections through well-selected addi- tions of new titles. One device he pro- posed for the accomplishment of such enrichment was the rotation or inter- change of books among different dor- mitories, a practice that some institutions are following successfully today. He criticized the lack of basic reference tools that seemed to characterize most 200 I College & R esearch Libraries • May 1969 residence hall libraries he had seen. On the educational implications of such col- lections, Dr. Branscomb suggested that to build up the habjt of turning to li- brary sources for information and to clarify various historical facts is an edu- cational contribution of the first rank If dormitory collections are worth doing at all, he asserted, the first object of at- tention should be a carefully selected set of reference tools. A mere few hundred volumes are not sufficient to make any significant impact on students' educational experiences. The likelihood of finding a needed book in a collection of only a thousand vol- umes is rather small. To have any real educational potential, a residence hall library must have a basic reference col- lection, a good selection of periodicals, and total holdings of .at least several thousand volumes. Institutions interest- ed in developing basic reference collec- tions for residence hall libraries will find the list of ninety-six such titles compiled in 1966 by Pennsylvania State Universi- ty useful. At retail prices this proposed collection would cost approximately $1,500. More recently Penn State issued a more modest list representing the thirty-one most used titles from its basic list. The cost of this more selective col- lection would come within $400. CURRENTLY OPERATING RESIDENCE HALL LIBRARIES Let us now turn to the status of resi- dence hall libraries today. Where are such undertakings now operating suc- cessfully, and what are the characteris- tics of such libraries? From the corre- spondence received it appears that Michigan State, with libraries in its "living-learning units," Southern Illinois University, the University of Indiana, UCLA, University of Illinois, and Syra- cuse University, each with several dor- mitory libraries, .are among those that apparently have successful programs. Similarly, Princeton University, with its Julian Street Library, seems to have a viable and successful operation; and Pennsylvania State University has re- cently launched the first of a series of similar collections. The house libraries at Harvard, now with sizable collections of considerable breadth, should also be included in this group. In recent years, as Michigan State has constructed enormous residence hall complexes at some distance from the university's main library, it has de- veloped .a strong and growing program of satellite libraries, each serving the residents in a cluster of high-rise dor- mitory buildings. Indiana and UCLA likewise have active, well-organized sys- tems of such libraries, coordinated and staffed under the direction of the uni- versity library adminish·ation. UCLA provides a computer-based list of sug- gested titles for these collections, com- plete with catalog entries, call numbers, and price information, for the guidance of students who, in each dormitory, rec- ommend titles to be purchased for their library. The university library also main- tains an updated magnetic tape printed catalog of each library, and .a Union Catalog of the holdings of all residence hall libraries, showing the location of specific titles. CHARACTERISTICS OF SucCESSFUL PROGRAMS It appears from the experience of these institutions that certain basic char- acteristics have been common to the ef- fectiveness and success of their pro- grams. Iri each case the continuity of development, guidance, and staffing has centered in the university library. And in each case regular hours of opening and service have been maintained. In institutions where the entire effort has been dependent on volunteer help, resi- dence hall libraries have usually failed or fallen into decline in a relatively short time. It appears that when such an un- dertaking is left by default as everyone's responsibility, it becomes no one's re- sponsibility, and withers on the vine. For success, therefore, dormitory li- braries require - continual attention and help from the library administration. A second element essential to a suc- cessful residence hall library program is the active support and personal involve- ment of students and faculty members. This is achieved often through student- faculty advisory committees and through patron participation in selecting and recommending holdings, as is the prac- tice at UCLA. FINANCIAL SuPPORT A third element, and one that should be taken into .account before an institu- tion embarks on a program of residence hall libraries, is the need to provide regular and relatively substantial fund- ing for such libraries-not simply to cover the initial cost of buying books and placing them in a dormitory read- ing room or lounge. Since the level of funding required for a successful pro- gram can represent .a significant ele- ment in overall library support, and therefore must be weighed in relation to other library needs, the maintenance of separate residence hall libraries involves an on-going commitment both by the library and the university ad- ministration, and therefore represents a basic decision of overall institution- al policy. In 1962 Princeton Univer- sity reported, for its one residence hall library, an initial cost of $30,000 plus an expected $5,000 a year for de- velopment. Indiana, supporting ten such libraries with total holdings of over 36,000 volumes, reports a budget of $40,000 for these units, while UCLA, with five dormitory libraries, devotes over $30,000 a year to their operation. FAcToRs AFFECTING UsE The evidence concerning the use of residence hall libraries varies widely Residence Hall Libraries I 201 among institutions. Some report a great deal of use, particularly where course- related materials are heavily represent- ed. Others suggest that while the use appears to be heavy, much of it seems to be of a study-hall nature, with mini- mal use of the collection. Very little in- formation is available on the kinds and amount of reading that takes place in these libraries. Most of them maintain only afternoon and/ or evening hours , and their success in some cases seems to relate both to hours of opening and to the distance of the dormitory com- plex, with a high concentration of resi- dent students, from the main campus library. In a study of its several dormitory li- braries undertaken at Syracuse Univer- sity during a sample period last year, the use of various libraries exclusively for study (with no use of the collection) ranged from 36 per cent to 70 per cent. The use of these libraries for reference and browsing ranged from 20 per cent in one unit to 46 per cent in another. Possibly it is significant that the library most used for reference work was a dormitory for freshmen, and the library rnost used as a general study hall was in a mixed residence serving all four undergraduate classes. While these data are only indicative and cannot be con- sidered conclusive, they seem to con- firm the impression reflected in responses from other institutions that the use of residence hall libraries is more heavily oriented toward the study-hall function than toward use of the collections, ex- cept where course-related materials, oth- erwise requiring a trip to the main li- brary, were represented in the dormi- tory collections. ExPRESSIONs OF DouBT Not all of the responses received from college and university librarians favored the development and maintenance of residence hall libraries. On the negative 202 I College & Research Libraries • May 1969 side letters were received from several librarians who, after having tried such programs, had become disillusioned. ln such cases it generally appeared that their collections were either minimal to begin with or had not been kept up, or that the responsibility for the enterprise had depended largely on individual volunteers, with little continuity. Several respondents noted that book losses re- sulting from lack of regular staffing and supervision had led to general apathy on the part of all concerned. One such librarian in a small mid- western college, after enthusiastically starting a dormitory library program some years ago, stated, "Without regular staffing these were all looted and scat- tered indiscriminately ... especially in the men's dorm the collection simply melted away. My conclusions are that unless these are set up as staffed and controlled collections . . . it is not worth investing money in them . . . or expect- ing much of them .... The great preva- lence of paperbacks since 1958 has taken considerable pressure off of this kind of dormitory use." Another college librarian, from New England, wrote, after telling of an ex- periment that dwindled after the origi- nal faculty ·dormitory resident left the campus, "I question now whether, in a highly centralized campus where few students need to walk more than a block to the main library's browsing collection, the educational advantages could ever justify the expense of selec- tion, processing, and supervision which the library would have to assume" to maintain dormitory libraries. Still another respondent, from a ma- jor university where dormitory libraries were enthusiastically established and later abandoned, feels that a house col- lection would have to be quite large to be really useful, and that the creation of such large units would dilute the li- brary's resources without solving the problem of book access. He believes, however, that a well-selected reference collection in each house would serve a real need, but that its cost should not be borne by the university library. He concluded that although no one can deny that residence hall libraries have educational potential, only a very small handful of students make use of that potential. The reason, he says, is that, as reading studies showed twenty-five years ago, "Most students read little beyond what is required. by their course work." These, then, are typical of the negative responses received. Most librarians would doubtless like to feel that they personally, by pro- viding conveniently accessible and en- . riched collections, could somehow sti~­ ulate students to read, on their own initiative, beyond the requirements of their course .assignments. They recog- nize as competition for student time. the many other activities now available on college campuses, as well as the in- creasing amount of reading students must undertake in preparing papers, special projects, and independent study assignments. Some librarians apparently feel that unlike the teaching faculty, who have frequent personal contacts with students, there is not much, be- yond p~oviding attractive and conven- iently located browsing collections and displays, that the library can do to af- fect student reading habits. It was quite evident from the varied responses received that librarians them- selves hold. widely varying opinions on the subject of dormitory libraries. This brief presentation has attempted to touch upon these varying points of view. It would appear, on balance, that where concentrations of students, at some dis- tance from the library, provide situations where residence hall libraries may fill a real need, such undertakings can con- tribute effectively to the total educa- tional program, provided the library can devote the funding and leadership that is required. Whether residence hall li- braries should be developed on a given campus will depend on its own local sit- uation with respect to the location and character of its student housing facil- ities and the interest and willingness of students, faculty, and the library ad- ministration to support and participate in such a program. NEEDED RESEARCH One element that requires more study and research than has yet appeared in literature involves the question, "What do students do, or want to do, in their free time?" If they are largely preoccu- pied with dates, bull sessions, ping pong, pool or billiards, sports and athletics, work for student organizations, practic- ing the guitar, listening to hi-fi, driving around, or attending dances, concerts, lectures, movies, and the theater, then possibly the hope of stimulating volun- tary student reading through enriched residence hall libraries may be doomed to failure. If, on the other hand, there is evidence that on a given campus, resi- dent students have substantial free time for such reading, and are not primarily engaged in a variety of other outside activities, then there may well be a rich opportUnity for making residence hall libraries a significant element in their total campus educational experience. GUIDELINES FOR PLANNING Most of the librarians who have resi- dence hall library programs in operation readily acknowledge the educational potential of such libraries as a supple- ment to what the main campus library can offer. Their re~ponses suggest that to be effective such collections should include at least ( 1 ) a modest collection of reference tools, where factual infor- mation can be quickly located without Residence Hall Libraries I 203 having to make a trip to the central li- brary; ( 2) a selection of at least a dozen general periodicals including news and commentary on contemporary affairs; ( 3) a generous representation of the most heavily used course-related books for assigned and collateral reading; ( 4) a modest but carefully selected collec- tion of new books of recreational ap- peal; and ( 5) a few of the world's great popular classics in attractive editions. Collections made up primarily of com- plete sets of Victorian authors, however beautifully bound, or of surplus books not needed by the central library, should be avoided, however great may be the temptation to fill up the shelves with such material. Free or cast-off books are usually no more inviting than cast-off clothing. Books for residence hall li- braries should be selected and purchased with their day-to-day use in mind, and collections should be regularly enriched with new titles and weeded at least an- nually to remove deadwood or they will wither on the vine. In short, to use an overworked cliche; one gets from resi- dence hall libraries only what he is will- ing to put into them. Probably an appropriate admonition to institutions considering the develop- ment of residence hall libraries is to analyze their local situation in terms of campus geography, library attitudes, student and faculty interest, the philoso- phy of its student personnel program, and-not the least-the cost of main- taining such libraries in relation to over- all library support. Then, if the climate appears favorable, it should be urged that if such a program is undertaken, it be guaranteed sufficient financing and . on-going advisory support from the li- brary to assure that the educational po- tential envisioned for the project will be realized. • •