80 



i^ 



100 YEARS EXPLORING LIFE, 1888-1988 



Students still in attendance during the war. The students wanted to know 

 what was inside the false ceiling. Taylor responded that there were probably 

 only dead birds, which aroused the curiosity all the more. So the students 

 pulled up benches and crawled in for a look. They found books. Bushels of 

 books. Some had long since been replaced when they were discovered as 

 missing, but here they were, bird-stained and rain-beaten. Nobody recorded 

 what happened to the unexpected treasure. 



What is more amazing, however, is that the journals remain in their 

 proper places. The staff checks carefully to ensure that volumes are not 

 misshelved. The researcher can generally find nearly all of the material 

 sought, though the journals sit on the shelves in alphabetical order by title, 

 which sometimes sends the reader to each of five different stack levels in 

 search of any particular subject. Because of the tradition of gathering books 

 and continuing journal subscriptions even during tough economic times, 

 the MBL Library has full runs of a large number of rare journals. Roughly 

 80 percent of the journal tities go back to the first volume. In 1924 and 1925, 

 the General Education Board's gift of $50,000 provided sufficient funds to 

 purchase back sets of incomplete runs, which filled out the collection. In 

 addition, the board provided an endowment for library use. 



A recent $2.5 million matching grant from the A. W. Mellon Foundation 

 provides a further endowment for the library and puts its operation on a 



The card catnlo^uc when it 

 was in the main reading 

 room. MBL Archives. 



