In fall quarter 1949, the Romance Languages Department offered its first phonetics laboratory as an aid to pronunciation of words. Records were played giving the correct pronunciation of words, followed by a pause sufficiently long enough for the student to repeat them. The laboratory was available only to students in introductory language courses, each of whom had two half-hour sessions in the laboratory each week in addition to the three class meetings a week. The fourth floor of Ayres Hall was for years known as the “Language Lab Floor” for the 100+ booth language lab that operated on the library principle, providing students with tapes required for the various language courses. When the Humanities and Social Sciences Building was completed, the Language Laboratory was moved there. The concept was expanded to a Language Resource Center when the reopening of Ayres Hall following its renovation provided appropriate space for the center in the Alumni Memorial Building.