d It has been suggested that this phenomenon functions as a soundless alarm and that someone tamihar with the structure of the whole could detect the whereabouts of an intruder from charac tenstic vibrations of the reflected light Like so many facets in the library this suggestion has not been investigated So unnerving can the movement of the reflections be, however, that all researchers inside the library are required to wear cushioned slippers and to move deliberately The dimensions of the chambers seem not to be scaled to human proportions, this per ception is especially strong on level 10 There are no doors between rooms, passage from one chamber to another is through a 20 meter by 10 meter archway Standing m the core room on the tenth level with galler KS stretching away in six directions, one s mind balks at the distances conveyed as the RAKIS FINDS 431 RAMALLO rooms diminish toward the six vanishing points, and one feels located at the center of a mirrored room, rather than at the nexus of hundred-meter hallways It is difficult to see how a human being can have a sense of the whole at any level below the fourth, yet workers ifi the library have surprisingly uniform reactions to various levels Those with a strong sense of direction respond comfortably to symmetrical levels such as 5 and 9, their discomfort increases (though not greatly) in the asymmetrical trefoil levels of 4 and 7 But most unexpected was the reaction to level 6, that level is unique in that it is bilaterally symmetrical along the norm-south axis, but asymmetrical along the east west axis Workers on the level unconsciously align their desks to face either north or south When this was noticed, certain psychological tests were conducted In one, half of the carrels brought into the central room were arranged facing north or south, and half facing east or west Workers invariably chose die north-south desks When all the desks in the room were bolted to the floor facing east or west, subjects would begin their tasks at the desks, but within minutes they would carry then papers to another level The fear of greatly decreasing the efficiency of translators on die sixth level brought the experiment to an end, but the sixth level was later replicated at the University of flsmersy on Diana for additional testing The eighth level was unchallenged for producing a negative effect on its inhabitants, but since no crystals-indeed nothing of any kind-was stored on this level, it presented no problems Why Leto n created the library IB this form, and whether this was in fact its final form, are questions that will not soon be answered Perhaps die different levels satisfied some cyclical need for symmetry, asymmetry, and randomness Perhaps, as Tolver Arb has suggested, level 8 was created dur ing a period of insanity Perhaps as many have speculated, the library was in a continual process of creation, with new levels being opened as materials accumulated Certainly the space was available within die no-room of the Holtzman Sphere, many more chemi-bers could have been excavated Yet to all these suggestions there are problems no lev el shows signs of earlier or later construction (so far as we can tell) than any other The only entrance or exit is the tunnel on the tenth level, it was from there that the work must have begun The dazzling discovery of the crystals should not blind us to the fact that in the structure of the library itself there are a multitude of puzzles, the answers to which may tell us much that is valuable about the psychology of the builder of the library, and hence much about the empire that he maintained for so long W E M Further references IXIAN NO-ROOMS Hadi Benotlo Leto s Library Structure and Function L brary Confra lenity Extra Series 7 Adib 1 Haddad / Fell Into the Past Anakis Studies 17 (Giumman United Worlds) Toiver Arb The Levels of the Rakis Library Studies in Imperial History 23 87 104 Ismnl al Habaqi My Lfe and Times (Caladan Interplanetary News Service Books) RAMALLO, REVEREND MOTHER ALYNDA.