ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a new field of knowledge, has determined for the first time accurate figures of the disappearance, exchange, and loss rates of umbrellas in American academic libraries. As library annual reports have indicated for some time—one need only cite, for example, the famous passage found in column 1,303 of the Annual Report of the Library at Alexandria for 250 B.C.— the disappearance, exchange, and loss of umbrellas are phenomena closely associated with libraries. The device automatically photographs all umbrellas which pass by it along with the individual who is carrying it; by use of an ultra-micro-computer attached directly to the umbrella sensing device all of the information contained in the photographs is compared, analyzed, recorded, and tabulated. The Molesworth Institute is in the initial stages of planning a research project which will investigate that problem as it relates to libraries.
