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| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Recurso educativo Open Access |
| Language: | en |
| Published: |
1979
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED194116 |
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Table of Contents:
- The Undergraduate Library: Lamont and the American Experience. Oberg, Larry R. College Libraries Construction Programs Higher Education History Library Expenditures Library Facilities Library Planning Undergraduate Students This review of the literature on undergraduate libraries, the historical context from which they arose, and their status at the end of the 1970's points out that a long tradition of lack of concern for undergraduate bibliographical needs was broken dramatically in 1949 by the construction of Lamont Library, the Harvard undergraduate facility. Although designed to solve problems unique to Harvard, Lamont was an exemplary construction that soon captured the imagination of the academic library world. It became the model for a rash of new libraries aimed at satisfying "unique" undergraduate needs. These libraries proliferated during the 1950's and 1960's, a period of accelerated growth in academe. By the 1970's, however, the general financial retrenchment of American colleges and universities had virtually halted new construction. Further, the thesis that presumed the needs of undergraduates to be somehow "different," as well as the advisability of facilities effectively segregating them from the rest of the academic community, came under attack in the professional literature. Few undergraduate libraries were built during this period and several were closed or converted to other uses. A bibliography of 24 references is included. (Author)