SLIPS AND NOTES

A professor gives out a reading assignment to a class of two to three hundred students. An hour later a few energetic students race to Widener and draw out the available copies of the hook to be read at leisure in their rooms. These copies will be surrendered the morning of the next test in the course and not before.

In the meantime what happens to the average member of the class? One of three things. The University has the second largest collection of books in the United States, and of the two million odd volumes in its possession, the aforementioned Average Member is interested, quite naturally in just one. He goes to the reading room with more hope than wisdom, secures a slip, and puts in his application. He finds the book in use and seventeen men ahead of him on the waiting list.

Next, he makes his way to the Delivery Room, fills out six application slips for the six different editions of the book catalogued, and hands these in. After a ten minutes' wait they are returned with the verdict: "All in use . . . for a month. Do you wish us to notify you?"

His third resource, if the assigned reading is in an English course, is the Farnsworth-room. But somebody is before him. The whole class knows the exact position of the book on the Farnsworth shelves and the Average Member gazes at the empty space where it belongs.

Suppose the Average Member fortunate enough to procure a copy in the reading-room at some time when the rest are at meals, say quarter past one or eight minutes after six. He retires to a table,--to have other seekers gaze hungrily over his shoulder, and after an hour he is forcibly relieved of his prize.

What is the solution? One would be to have the assignment publicly read in Sanders Theatre at a time when the entire class could be present. Another way out would be to place the book under glass in the Treasure Room with certain pages open at fixed periods.

Or the professor, before making the assignment, might have a greater number of books reserved in the Reading Room. And the time for which copies of the book, could be taken out from the stacks might be shortened form one month to one week. Then the thoughtful undergraduates who remove the available copies as soon as the assignment is announced, just to have them at the room when they want them, would use and return them. If they needed more time, an extension slip could be signed at the end of the first week. In a small number of cases the borrower might be inconvenienced; but the great majority of Average Members would be benefited greatly. And some of them might pass the test.