Thomas Benton (a pseudonym of an associate professor of English at a Midwestern liberal-arts college) describes most college libraries of today as being clean and well-lighted, with metal shelving, veneered tabletops, and banks of computers. He fears that in 20 years, college students will regard books as a "quaint technology"--the way they now regard 33 RPM records--and laments the eventual disappearance of the tactile pleasures of the great university library. For others who find that they miss the old labyrinthine libraries with subterranean vaults, oak-paneled walls, barrel-vaulted ceilings, tread-worn library ladders, dusty old tomes, and exquisite architectural details, he recommends several books: (1) "Treasures of the New York Public Library" (Abrams, 1988); (2) "The Most Beautiful Libraries in the World" (Abrams, 2003; and (3) "Libraries" (Thames & Hudson, 2005).