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Show l*'-z)HI Thursday, April 20, 1972 Dear Dr. Atiya, I am sending on some letters that appear to be personal. Sorry that we opened one of them by mistake, that is, I did, but I didn't read it. You authorized me to open letters from the American Research Center in Egypt and to forward those that were personal, but naturally not other personal mail. So far the American Research Center has not sent anything. We are all happy today to have received Lola's card. We miss you bothe Every day somebody asks about you. Today a young man whose name I should certainly know from years past wanted to know when you are coming back. I am shocked at my forgetfulness where names are concerned. Faces I can remember, but names escape me. As for news of the Library, I'll tell you the worst first. David Laird is leaving on July 1st to take a fine position as Director of Libraries at the University of Arizona. I am including Dr. Madsen's memorandum about Dave, which reached me as a bombshell last Friday afternoon, since I had no idea of such a prospect. I am sure it is hard for Dr. Madsen to lose him. It is tough for many of us in the Library too, who have appreciated David's reasonable attitude towards our problems. He told me he had hoped to stay on here a few more years to work with Dr. Madsen, but such an opportunity doesn't turn up at one's own will, so he must go, of course. He wants eventually to live in the Southwest - in Indian country - so he can't pass up this offer. Who can take his place as such a good helpmate to Dr. Madsen I don't know. Good news is that today we received a new microfilm cabinet, one with ten drawers. I figure it will accommodate 750 reels. It seems we can have the bottom drawer of the old cabinet remodeled to take another 755 reels. So perhaps we can manage for a few years longer. I can't remember whether before you left we talked about consolidations of collections that are to be made in the Library in order to meet budget reductions - Behavioral Sciences with Social Sciences on the ^-th floor and Fine Arts with Literature on the 5th. Since Fine Arts, which will come up from the *fth floor to the present Behavioral Sciences area , is a considerably smaller collection than that of Behavioral Sciences, it has occurred to me that this is the time for us to ask for some of the space to the north of our Middle East Library beyond your office. So I called Dr. Cooley to come over and discuss the idea, which found favor with him, then I wrote a memorandum for him to bring to the attention of the Library Administration. I don't know whether my request will be considered, but there is no harm in presenting it. Actually I suspect we will get the space if the cost is not too great for enclosing it. The Levey collection has now been moved up into a room on the second floor, where bookshelves and tables for it will be installed. So far it has not been unpacked, but I am sure it will be by the time you come back, as I encountered Dr. Madsen today downstairs, who said he had just been |