The Radcliffe Library

With the opening of Lamont, Radcliffe girls have grown more conscious of the inadequacies of their own library and more bitter about them. Some of these will be alleviated in the rebuilding plans which President Jordan will announce next week. Improvements in lighting, ventilation and efficiency will probably be included. But, according to the statements of the head librarian other shortcomings may be ignored.

It is unlikely, for example, that the changes will include facilities for smokers. As it is, girls studying in the Fiske Room not only interrupt their own studying when they go out for a cigarette, but also distract non-smokers. If smoking were limited to one room, perhaps in the basement, the cost of effective ventilation would not be extravagant and it would be a considerable convenience to all girls. Another universal complaint, which will probably not be fully corrected in the new scheme, concerns the straight wooden chairs. They might have done very well in the more straight-laced days forty years ago, but they seen uncomfortable now. These two defects should be considered before final plans are crystallized.

There are a number of other complaints not relevant to President Jordan's forthcoming improvements. They are small points of confusion or inefficiency which the administration and the Library Committee of the Student Government should be made aware of. For these a special complaint-box ought to be stationed in the library, so that a girl can convert a gripe into a suggestion or an argument on the spot, instead of waiting until she is near the catch-all "Beef-Box" in Agassiz.

But one of the chief weaknesses of the library is the honor system. It is common knowledge that some girls, realizing that they will not be checked at the door, walk off with books and return them at their leisure. In many cases where the number of available books is limited, a small number of girls can prevent a large number from studying. This, in turn, leads many upholders of the system to cheat on it merely to keep themselves from being cheated.

Last fall, the vote of the entire student body upheld the honor system by a margin of only eighteen votes. Another vote, called in the near future, would very probably result differently. Students would have fresh in mind the experiences of reading period, when the pressure especially undermines the system. Freshmen, now more fully acquainted with the failings of the honor system, would be likely to switch their votes. The honor system in the library is a luxury which cannot be afforded at present.