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University Daily Kansan Wednesday, Oct. 28, 1964
Watson Controllers 'Don't Mean To Pry'
By Corrine Newberry
As a rule, women guard the contents of their pocketbooks as if they carried the wealth of Fort Knox and the wisdom of Solomon inside.
Eut there are four people on campus to whom they are more than willing to open wide their great, sprawling bags of treasure, with no indignation or hard feelings.
They are the exit controllers at Watson Library who are trying to make available the material used in Watson every day.
"WE AREN'T POLICEMEN, we aren't guards," said Harry Davis, who sits at the basement exit from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. every day, "and hope we aren't regarded that way.
"We are here to serve the student body with what should be a simple check against honest, unintentional mistakes, which might prevent someone else from having material he badly needs." Davis said.
The control desks at the main floor and basement exits of the library were installed and put into use this fall because students were having increasing difficulty obtaining material called for most frequently in undergraduate work, James L. Mayfield, deputy circulation manager at Watson, said.
"I WOULD ESTIMATE." Mayfield said, "that 75 per cent of all the large university libraries in the United States have come to employ this method. in a real attempt to serve the students in general.
"Under the pressures of the work demanded of today's undergraduates," he said, "honest mistakes and forgetfulness concerning the library come easily. We feel these exit controls might be 'reminders' for students. They know the desks are there, they remember it, and they know to check their borrowed books more carefully."
Shows
7:00
9:10
Mayfield said the overall average cost of a book is usually about six dollars. "And some of these fine arts books run as much as $27.50," he said.
Previously, exit controls were used only at the stacks and circulation desk.
"But this didn't solve the problem of losing books," Mayfield said. "We have finally come up with the present arrangement, in hopes the student body will understand our purpose and will benefit from it."
"I don't think people really mind stopping at the desk to let me see the books, briefcases or other material they're carrying," Davis said. "It takes so little time, and I think they all realize it's not a matter of prying or being policed.
Just at that moment the whistle sounded and the rush outside began and Davis was busy again.
"Hey," he joked with a girl carrying a tiny clutch purse, "got any unabridged dictionaries in there?"
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VI 3-6333
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