During the year 1916-17, the use of books at the Widener Library was greater in every respect than that of the previous year, according to the annual report of W. C. Lane '81, Librarian. After April, 1917, however, the increasing interest in military training told heavily upon the use of library books, and the figures for those months lowered the average for the year to some slight extent.

In his report on the Library, W. C. Lane '81, Librarian, records the following comparative figures on the use of books at the Widener Memorial Library during the years of 1915-16 and 1916-17: Use of Books.  1915-16 1916-17 Recorded at Loan Desk: 1. Lent for home use,  55,730 60,621 2. Reading room use,  45,415 54,233 3. Study use,  1,254 1,598 4. Stall use,  5,789 11,269 Total,  108,188 127,721 Overnight use of Reference Books: General reading room,  14,612 13,348 Lower reading room,  6,332 5,421 (formerly Harvard Hall).

In speaking of these figures the report says:

"The increase in these figures for 1916-17 was to be expected, since in the previous year the use of the Library was diminished during the process of removal in the summer, while the stalls of the stack were not properly equipped for use until February. A comparison month by month between the two years shows a marked increase during the fall and winter months of 1916-17 as compared with the same months of 1915-16, but from April on, with the more active interest in military affairs there was a distinct dropping off in all figures even