4                                   .Michael I. Sovern

As all of you have honored Cohmibia, 1 hope you will accept
our honoring you with the plaques that will remain on perma¬
nent display so that all who enter here will know that this crea¬
tion did not spring full-blown from the head of Zeus. Margaret
and Alan Kempner, your long and generous leadership will al¬
ways be remembered by Columbia and bv the thousands who
visit the Exhibition Room. In their behalf, I thank vou. It is most
fitting that the name of Corliss Lamont will be forever linked
with our new rare book reading room. And my warm thanks to
Louise T. \A'oods and the distinguished friends who liave lion-
ored the nicmor\' of Geor£;c D. Woods so generously and so
appropriately.

Among the joys of this evening is the chance to greet and
thank each one of \'ou personally—the special Friends of the
Libraries, the leaders of the Graduate Faculties Alumni, and more.

And now ma\' I introduce someone \'ou know well, who will
make a presentation to Gordon Ray and the Friends. Site is tlie
dedicated and energetic protector and augmentor of the Columbia
collections which, as you know, are housed in twenty-six libraries,
none more spendid than this. She is the best vice-president any
president could ha\-e—Pat Battin.
 

PATRICIA BATTIN

Those of us who live and work in the Columbia University
Libraries as we move about these outstanding collections and
treasures of recorded history are reminded daily of the tradition
of passionate commitment to that vision of excellence for which
the University and its Libraries are so justly renowned and to
which out President, .Michael Sovern, adds a special luster. His
legendary brilliance and extraordinary energies, dedicated to his
special vision of a new and vital Columbia, serve as a continuing
stimulus to all of us to make his dream a reality. Tonight, the
dedication of this handsome facility adds to that long tradition of