Education School Plans New Library Building

The Graduate School of Education is beginning plans for a new library and may apply for funds under the Higher Education Act to finance its construction.

The present Ed School library, located in the basement of Longfellow Hall, has room for about 150,000 books and seats only 75. There are roughly 850 students at the Ed School.

Edward G. Kaelber, assistant dean of the Ed School, emphasized that "the need for a new library is immediate," but guessed that it would not be completed for three or four years. There was never any thought of including a library in the recently completed Larson Hall, Kaelber said. The Ed School, which has long been housed in scattered frame houses and brick buildings, needs one or two new buildings plus a library, he continued.

One of the first problems in planning the new library, Paul A. Perry, assistant to the Dean of the Ed School, noted, is finding a site for it. "The Dean jokes that the only space left is the air over the Cambridge Common," he said.

Fund raising will be another problem, and the Ed School may ask for help from the federal government. Although the size and facilities of the proposed library have not yet been decided, the cost is likely to be upwards from $3 million for construction, equipment, and staffing, Perry said. The Higher Education Act, passed by Congress on Wednesday, doubles the appropriations available under the Higher Education Facilities Act of 1963 for construction of graduate school buildings.