University of Virginia Library

Standing Joke

Depending upon how
serious the problem of getting
books is to you, the U. Va.
library is either a standing joke
or a nagging inconvenience.

But I was pleased to
discover that in spite of its
embarrassing inadequacies, our
library performs with success,
and, indeed, great distinction
one function: It may be unable
to satisfy the academic
demands of students and
faculty, it may be incapable of
maintaining quiet in its reading
rooms, (the Reference Room
in particular providing the
sundry entertainments of a
busy bus station), and it may
playfully maroon
stack-dwellers in darkness well
before the announced
closing-time (undoubtedly to
offer students a unique tactile
experience of the environment
as they grope for their books
and the exits); but it achieves a
glorious semblance of
efficiency in the administration
of fines and the epistolary