Boylston Blackout

Although Boylston Hall casts an exemplary evening shadow over its corner of the Yard, College Library officials are not trying to set an example for the University's dimout. Yet this would be a far better reason for closing the traditional home of Freshman History, Government and Economics studying than any they have to offer. Boylston Reading Room was closed when its head librarian got drafted at the beginning of the second session of Summer School. Now, rather than search too vigorously for a substitute, library officials are limping along on a make-shift summer arrangement that is unable to support the nearly normal enrollment in the College and in these social sciences. While assimilating the values of using a large university's research library, Freshmen are wasting time getting books and threatening to distend Widener's walls during November hours and reading period.

The Widener Reading Room contains 264 seats; if pushed to the utmost, 310. Economics A has 455 enrollees, Government 1, 425, and History 1 has 341. When the usual hour exam and reading room traffic hits Widener, most late-comers will be studying on the marble stairs. The Union library no longer will be able to accomodate part of the Freshman class since that building has been given over completely to the Navy. Nor will the House libraries relieve the congestion since each House library has only one copy of each basic book in History, Government and Economics.

This disastrous overcrowding of Widener is not the only reason Boylston should be reopened immediately. Widener fails to maintain the traditionally smooth organization of courses like History 1. Although books are being brought over as they are needed, the History, Government, and Economics department is besieged with the complaints of disappointed book-seekers. And the staff in the larger library is not so patient with the Freshmen as the men in Boylston were. In Boylston the full paraphernalia of assignments, maps and Shepherds were easily accessible. Now even the textbooks have to be dug out from the material of dozens of advanced courses. Officials of the department declare that the new system is injurious both to the student and to the department. The students are having a difficult time getting books from a staff harrassed by its usual burden of work, and the mismanaged distribution of syllabi in Government and History disrupted students' reading schedules.

The problem might be solved by distributing more than one copy of the textbooks of these three courses to the various House libraries. But to get an equitable distribution would be more complex and expensive than to re-open Boylston. The College Library will not save more than $1000 by keeping Boylston closed all year. Furthermore, a librarian can be transferred from Widener to Boylston without disastrously crippling the staff. He should be transferred immediately. Boylston should be re-opened at once. In three weeks November hours will send three men to fill every single chair in the University's lone course reading room. The warm glow of hours spent in Widener will not make a D in History I look any brighter.