Bryn Mawr College - Bryn Mawr Yearbook (Bryn Mawr, PA)

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Miss MacBride Mr. Weiss and Mr. Anderson SOCIAL SCIENCES ELIZABETH AIKEN GORDON GROSVENOR JANE BRAUCHER 22

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THE LIBRARY HALLS or, Environment ' s Victim The other day when enraged by one of the reserve room scrambles which always ensue be- fore a quiz, we were suddenly seized with a wanderlust, an imperative desire to get away from it all and be utterly detached from our- selves and everybody else. Thinking to achieve a remote pinnacle of detachment from which to survey the great campus mecca, we tried roving up and down the library halls. Surely, we reflected, one should be able to escape from oneself in studying a place which may be thought of as the center of an enormous net- work, embracing the whole of man ' s intellectual, emotional and factual history, — well, not all perhaps, as we nostalgicallv considered the radio, the movies, and the latest copy of Life. Heretofore when we had wanted to forget we had taken a quick run to the vill to patronize the drug store, and, disgraceful to say, found it a very elevating experience. This method, however, our conscience told us, was psycholog- ically wrong; we should lose ourselves in some- thing bigger than we are, rather than lose an ice cream soda in something bigger than it. Thus we embarked on what was for us a totally new experiment in self-effacement. In the first place it was impossible to be detached in the library halls. Every time we tried we were ensnared in an emotional or phvsical tangle. For example, while seeking inspiration by gazing at a professor ' s door and trying to absorb some of the cosmic brain waves which must be issuing thence, it suddenly occurred to us that we had met that door on another occa- sion. Then we remembered issuing from it, not like a cosmic brain wave, but like a disconcerted child bearing a paper marked 60. With an uncomfortable sense of defeat we turned to an engraving of the Colosseum, trying to feel some of its cold indifference in our heart. Here we learned another lesson, namely, that though one may erase himself effectively from his own consciousness, it does not follow that he can remove his physical presence from the consciousness of others. Unaware of this simple law, we wandered down the corridor with a stony heart and glassy stare, only to have a resounding collision with an impressive person- age. A horrible mixture of black frustration, disillusionment, and the now-not-quite-so-im- pressive personage, flooded our consciousness. Our emotions as well as our body felt unbal- anced: our mind seemed warped; and we had lost perspective, or rather we had a very good perspective of us, the library, and someone else, looming large and blotting out the world. By now we felt rather like a cross between a psychological problem, and a human interest story. Our mind was working feverishly, an event of which to take advantage, so we con- tinued the train of thought. Gradually the whole four years of library experience came into focus. It seemed as though we had undergone a constant process of embalming. The earliest picture showed us blundering around the halls like an insect in a burrow with movements about as meaningless. We scuttled to the re- serve room and got a book; we returned it and got another, until suddenly a glimmer of in- spiration hit us and we beat it down the burrow to the water cooler. At least the idea that there must have been some intellectual justification for these actions was comforting, but we couldn ' t remember that part of it now. As the process of embalming continued we acquired the library whisper and the library shuffle. The next step was to become impervious to every one else ' s whispering and shuffling. In time we were able to gaze curiously through the open doors on a corridor and not be startled at catching a pair of glaring eyes in return. We even became so hardened that we could demand an extension without trembling. Painting such dramatic mental pictures, we proceeded around the halls until we reached the art sem, when habit reminded us that our pic- torial reminiscences had no composition, no flowing line, no plasticity. This blow to the ego brought us back to earth with a bang. What was the use of being an unencumbered intellect if you could not do any better than this at the end of your college career? At this moment Taylors striking four suggested an antidote for the embalming. Though we had almost suc- ceeded not only in losing ourselves but in get- ting lost, there was still an escape. With a bound we extroverted ourselves out of the li- brary, dashed to the Inn, drained a cup of tea and once more felt strong enough to face our intellect. 21

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Ground Breaking: May, 1938 April, 1939 MAY TO SEE LIBRARY WING STARTED Art and Archeology Departments to Profit Most {Contributed in News try-outs) Last June the college saw the symbolic, gilded spade break the ground where the long-wished- for new library wing is to stand, completing the square of the cloister according to the original plan. Mr. Sidney Martin intends to harmonize the architecture with the rest of the building. After long consideration and hard work on the part of the committee, the plans have at last been approved. This spring they are expected to be let for bid, so that this year ' s graduating class may see the actual work on the new wing started. One of the greatest inconveniences of the li- brary has been lack of space. The art and archeology departments, which have had to con- fine the greater part of their activities to the inadequate sem on the second floor, have been the most cramped. Their pictures, now scat- tered throughout various corridors, will reside on the third floor of the new wing. Below, will be a sem pre-eminently for graduate students, and lecture and class rooms, designed for the showing of slides. Monitors as well as students will rejoice to hear this news. No more endless shifting of seats in order to see the screen! In the basement faculty and students can en- joy cloak rooms as luxurious as those in the new science building. The pride of the com- mittee, however, is the stacks planned for the first floor. Opposite the row of shelves, windows will prevent duplication of the cata- comb-like atmosphere of the central stacks. Un- ■ der each window will be a study chair and table with a small shelf just above it. These are to be built like Rhoads ' furniture, on extremely simple and practical lines. In addition to the art and archeology books, the new stacks may contain some of the classics to relieve the crowd- ing in the main library. We foresee art majors going to conferences and lectures, taking out books, studying, and thus spending three-quarters of their time in the same building, as many science majors do now. Work- ing most of the time in one building may be limiting, but we feel that the confinement is more than outweighed by the advantages of sav- ing time and eliminating unhealthful sprinting in bad weather. After all there are always week-ends for change of scene. 23