THE IMPREGNABLE FORTRESS

In many fields of concentration, especially in English, the instructors are continually urging students to exceed the prescribed minimum of reading and go farther afield in the direction of their particular interests. This sort of study presupposes a collection of books such as the house libraries, with their limited appropriations, can hardly hope to equal. The ambitions undergraduate, thrown back upon Widener, finds himself cut off from a magnificent collection of books in the stacks by the ponderous machinery of the delivery desk. Here the delays and uncertainty of the requisition slip system militate greatly against an effective use of the library.

Plainly it would be a great advantage if the privilege of access to the stacks, which is now limited to graduate students and seniors writing theses for honors, could be extended to a larger group of deserving students. Properly controlled by the tutors, there is little reason to believe that the privilege would be abused. The serious research student has already learned to respect a library, and guided by a few signs, he is not likely to misplace books in the shelves, as the library authorities seem to fear.

Widener, relieved by the house libraries of the heavy traffic of routine study, can now become to the advanced student more valuable than over before.