After a year and a half of construction, the Houghton Rare Book Library, will be officially opened Saturday evening by ceremonies at which Arthur A. Houghton, Jr. '29, the donor, and President Conant will speak.

Also present at the dedication will be William K. Richardson '80, who gave the Richardson Room in the library, and Roy E. Larsen '21, president of Time, Inc., and a member of the Board of Overseers.

The Widener annex will be open to students Monday morning after the ceremonies Saturday and a reception for members of the Faculty and their wives on Sunday afternoon.

Air Washed and Filtered

The new building fulfills a great need by providing adequate and modern storage and reading facilities for a quarter of a million of the University's most valuable books. In order to preserve the volumes, the humidity and temperature will be kept constant, and the air will be purified by chemical washing, filtering, and electrical precipitation.

Houghton, who is vice-president and director of Corning Glass Works and president and director of Steuben Glass. Inc., has had an interest in the proper care of rare books ever since he started collecting them in his undergraduate days. His collection of manuscripts of John Keats is the best extant, while his general collection has few rivals.