Lamont Work Proceeding Smoothly

Construction work on Lamont Library in continuing according to plan, but the opening date of the building will not be known until Friday, December 10, Keyes D. Metcalf, director of the University Library, disclosed yesterday.

Workmen on the $3,000,000 project are completing plastering and installation of the stacks, are well along in laying the floors, and have begun painting.

Uncertainty as to delivery of needed materials makes it impossible to set a definite time for the library's opening, Metcalf said.

Week End

When the building itself is completed, it will take only a week end to fill Lamont's stacks. Metcalf explains the job is completely different from that done recently at Princeton, which had to move 1,000,000 books when it opened its new library.

Only 75,000 books must be moved from Widener to Lamont. Should bad weather prevail at moving time, the underground tunnel which connects the two libraries will be used. At Princeton, the entire transportation job had to be done above ground, with weather a hazard during the operation.

Construction work began in July, 1947, when excavations for the foundation were dug.