LIBRARY AND READING PERIOD

The agitation which was intended to impress the turnkeys of Widener's reading room seems to have died a natural death, helped along, no doubt, by the wet feet and stiff necks of November 23. But although he is satisfied with the necessity of the Library economy, the average undergraduate has a vague feeling that the reading period will require considerable readjustment and that no provision whatsoever has been made for that purpose.

Under ordinary conditions, the House Libraries have been able to cope with the added numbers, and student have been able to adjust their programs to the new schedule. But close observers feel that House Libraries will have enough neither of the required books nor of seating accommodations to meet the reading period influx. Moreover at a time when it is obviously essential for many students to use the limited number of prescribed books, they regard it as a questionable policy to allow individuals to hold them for a period of fifteen hours.

There may be small reason for such an attitude; House Libraries may be more than adequate to meet the increased demands of the reading period. And certainly, from the point of view of the Widener budget, any readjustment would be disturbing. But to the uninitiated these questions seem to require serious attention and a full answer. If the 'House Libraries are inadequate, why must that discovery be made only after the reading period has begun? Why cannot the House and Widener Librarians confer, with reading lists before them, and come to some informed decision? These loom prominent in the undergraduate view of the problem. They will not be answered by unexplained denials and references to higher authority.