Western Michigan University - Brown and Gold Yearbook (Kalamazoo, MI)

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Library The new library stands at the nt)rth end of the campus, looking out across the valley to the east, north and south, the finest prospect from the hill-top. The building faces the south, with broad terraces leading to the entrance, which is a copy of an old Italian doorway. The building itself is on the Renaissance type, of tapestry brick, with copings and cornice of terra cotta. The main entrance lobby is spacious, with a marble floor and columns of Bedford stone. At the right is the charging desk and directly back of it are stacks for reserve books. The stack well in the south east corner, back of the delivery desk, has four decks of standard steel stacks, furnished by one of the best manufacturers of book stacks. These are equipped with an electric book lift and elevator. The stack construction allows for two more decks above, when the space is needed, giving in all a capacity of about seventy thousand volumes. This additional space will be used for lecture room until it is needed for stacks. Just at the right of the entrance is a small room for the card catalogue, making it easily accessible to students and desk attendants. The corresponding room at the left is the li- brarian ' s office, and beyond this is a staff work room and a faculty reading room. The long reading room, thirt -eight by one hundred fifty feet, two stories high, and with a beautifully arched ceiling, fills the whole north side of the building. High windows give light, and smaller ones below look out to the hills far to the north. A wide fireplace prom- ises cheer for dark winter days, and the spaciousness and fine proportions of this room will make an inviting place for reading. The second floor is given up to lecture and seminar rooms, to be used at present for classrooms, and has also a well-lighted lobby for displaying valuable books and pictures. The lower floor, which is all above ground, also has class rooms, checking rooms, and an unpacking room, which has a book lift comiecting with the staff room on the next floor. During the years in which the enrollment has increased so rapidly, students have been patient with the crowded conditions in the old library. Students and faculty will now rejoice in the building which gives comfortable housing for books and readers, and adds dignity and beauty to the hill-top.

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an efficient college. The large campus will permit the enlargement necessary to accommodate the developments being made and those that may be made in the future. Beside the five buildings for college work, including a new library, the Training School accommodates 285 pupils. The Richland, Portage, Michigan Avenue, and Paw Paw schools are also under the administration. It is in these that students are permitted to practice the theories of education. Including the one room country school, the consolidated school, the township unit, the large unit, and the city school. Western is the best equipped institution of its class in the country for teacher training. With the completion of the library work will immediately begin on the men ' s new gym- na sium. This building will face Oakland Drive, being located opposite the heating plant. Being 170 feet long and 86 feet wide, it will consist of basement, main floor, second floor and running track. The basement will be adequately equipped, including a large baseball cage, two hand-ball courts, quarters for wrestling and boxing, locker rooms, varsity team room, including massage room and shower, visiting team room, and separate quarters for the High School. There will be a fourteen lap track, four class rooms, four offices, special and corrective exercise rooms, and storing quarters. This addition to the present accommodations will increase the desirability of attending Western. Significant in itself, it represents one of the ever increasing strides with which the institution yearly progresses. And in the future is seen a stadium that may soon ma- terialize as a result of increasing enthusiasm. That, with many other things, are just be- yond our present horizon.

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