Real and Imaginary

(Ed. Note--The Crimson does not necessarily endorse opinions expressed in printed communications. No attention will be paid to anonymous letters and only under special conditions, at the request of the writer will names be withheld.)

To the Editor of the CRIMSON:

The solution offered by your recent editorial for the unavailability of books at Widener seems a poor remedy for a condition which exists far more in imagination than in reality.

An examination of the card catalogue will show numerous editions of almost all the better known books in every field. When these are used in connection with a course they naturally are taken out, and as few do collateral reading more than two weeks before it is due, I cannot see how your proposed time limit would alter the present situation. Widener's reputation for never having books when needed is largely due to the fact that every student in History 1 or French II expects to find his copy of Lynn Thorndike or "Cyrano de Bergerac" in English waiting for him a day or so before the date set for the paper or examination. Furthermore, the number of call numbers erroneously copied is by no means small, and many students spend an hour or more in the delivery room simply because they do not put down the call numbers of several editions on one card. Still others pay no attention to the date of publication given in the card catalogue and are very much surprised to find they were asking for a valuable first edition. . .

I would suggest, however, one slight remedy for this unavailability of books. The library's only method of calling in books from officers of the University is by means of a postal card. Books called for by students have been reported out to professors for as long as ten years, although such a period of time is unusual. Most instructors and professors do keep out a large number of library books, however, and for long periods of time--longer than is necessary even for such an crudite faculty. More stringent regulations would easily eliminate this, and not cause overmuch annoyance to those concerned. Arthur T. Hamlin '34.