WE CORNELLIANS
Another page from 'We Cornellians': an illustrated Cornell history, ca. 1940
This panel from "We Cornellians," the 1940 illustrated look at Cornell University by then-undergraduate student Steve Barker '41 and published by the Cornell Cooperative Society, looks at Cornell University Library - which was among the first college libraries to allow students to borrow books, to use electric lights, and to be open 24 hours a day. Note: The reference to "climbing 141 steps" to play the chimes is an error; today, as in 1940, it is 161 steps to the very top of the tower (146 steps if you count just to the chimes playing stand level).
Today, the library's collection - more than 8 million print volumes, nearly a million e-books and 5 million journal article downloads per year - covers diverse fields such as hip-hop and punk, East and Southeast Asia, labor, agriculture, hospitality and Liberian law.
