University Maintains Photostating Facilities in Basement of Widener

Buried below ground level in the basement of Widener Library is the photostating service. This non-profit organization photostats University records, exams for small courses, and material for scholars at other universities.

The service's most significant work, according to its director Charles L. Grace, is "helping to keep the University's material in one piece." Grace reported that his staff frequently supplies outsiders with photostats of a few pages of rare books so the library need not send away whole volumes. In this way, Grace said, the University runs less a risk of losing its valuable possessions.

All bequests to the University are photostated by this office, with copies going to the Secretary of the Corporation, the Treasurer, and the Comptroller. Transcripts of students' records are also produced in this office--right now it has been swamped with requests for copies to hand in with Fulbright fellowship applications.

Faculty Uses Services

Faculty members use the service quite a bit. I.A. Richards, University Professor, has had the group microfilm slides for his Basic English and Basic French work., L. Don Leet, Ph.D. '30, professor of Geology, uses the service to have seismology graphs reproduced.

The photostatic service began in 1920. Its first equipment was a Leica camera, which the staff heard about through an advertisement in the CRIMSON.

Today, as then, it stands on the bottom floor of Widener serving a necessary function and having as its neighbors the stored books of the University Press and the air-conditioning units of Houghton and Lamont Libraries.