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CRIMSON ALUMNI NAMED CONSULTANTS OF LIBRARY

HERBERT PUTNAM '83 IS DIRECTOR OF INSTITUTION

Novel developments in the Library of Congress which are making it less and less necessary for American scholars to go abroad for research work, and are transforming the library into an informal university were described by M. A. DeW, Howe '87, member of the Board of Overseers and a consultant at the library, in an interview with a CRIMSON reporter.

"Books," said Mr. Howe, "are measuring sticks of our progress, and will continue to exert an enormous influence in the shaping of American civilization. So it behooves every American to know what the nation itself is doing through books for that civilization.

"Under the direction of Herbert Putnam '83, during the past thirty years the library has grown to be the largest of its kind in the western hemisphere, with 4,000,000 books. But there has been growth in other than physical lines. Dr. Putnam is making a great experiment hitherto untried.

"He has assembled eight consultants, men of proven capacity in their various branches of scholarship, whose sole function will be to give workers at the library the benefit of their experience."

The consultantship in English and American literature and biography is filled by Mr. Howe, in classical literature by H. N. Fowler '80, in science by Alfred C. Lane '83, and in philosophy by W. A. Hammond '85.

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