BACK TO NORMALCY

The announcement that beginning next Monday the library will reopen in the evening for the remainder of the year will be hailed with relief by all students of the University, both undergraduates and graduates, for it means the end of an unfortunate economy measure which has hampered the progress of scholarship since September, 1932. It has seemed incredible that of all the possible ways of saving money, Harvard should fix upon the closing of the library, the very heart of the University. It has seemed even more incredible that it should persist in the measure long after its error had been almost universally recognized.

The opening of the reading room and the stacks will be a special blessing to graduate students and instructors, for whom the hours after six o'clock constitute the only convenient time for study and research, and to undergraduates living outside the Houses, who have hitherto had no access ot library facilities for their evening study. The restoration of the old hours will also end the congestion in the stacks which has resulted from the increased volume of work to be done in the afternoons and it well mean an increase in the opportunity for the borrowing of books without breaking up the afternoon.

The fact that the decision to reopen the library was taken immediately after the close of the examination period is a perfect example of the way in which the red tape of Harvard officialdom can hold up reforms when they are most needed. But the student will be inclined to forgive the needless delay, confident that the University will not again allow a policy of indiscriminate economy to interfere with the availability of the library.