4 THE LIBRARY AND PUBLICATIONS 



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miracle is that the system works. Loss due to theft is lower than in almost 

 any other instit\.itional library in the country. The absent-minded professor 

 may wander down the hall to jot down a reference and intend to bring the 

 volume right back. The book is therefore temporarily lost and unavailable to 

 other readers, but such books almost always find their way back to the 

 library— eventually. 



Sometimes books return in an unorthodox way, as they did one time 

 during World War II. University of Michigan cytologist and botanist William 

 Randolf Taylor occupied an upstairs room of one wing of Old Main, the 

 room at one connecting corner in the U-shaped building. The false ceiling 

 had openings in it, which raised the curiosity of the small number of 



A quiet place to work: one of 

 the sixty-eight desks located in 

 the MBL Library stacks. 

 MBL Archives. 



