READING ROOM RITES

There is a serious deficiency in the administration of books reserved on the open shelves in the Main Reading Room of Widener Library. These books may be taken out Saturday evening and not returned until Monday morning. Such an arrangement is quite admirable from the standpoint of abstract liberality, but is necessarily harmful in frequent instances where examinations are held early in the week, and one student has control for two days of several books important in the course. Probably this situation arises rather from the neglect of the individual instructors than from inefficiency in the Reading Room itself; but it should be remediable without relying on faulty memories or a shifting of books from the open shelves to the desk every time an examination is imminent.

The plan adopted this year by the Fogg Reading Room should be perfectly workable in Widener. A system under which the Museum Library was closed Sunday, and books could be obtained only for the Saturday-to-Monday period, has been replaced; at present the Reading Room is open Sunday; and, more important, books must be returned at that time on-week-ends preceding examinations. There is no reason why the extension of this requirement to Widener should work a hardship on any students; certainly it would be of benefit to most.