Summer Reading

The summer school student who sits studying in his Yard room two months from now, with sweat pouring down onto his book and blurring the type, with mosquitoes buzzing around his ears, and with sopping handkerchiefs tied around his neck and forehead, will not understand why Lamont Library, the College's only air-conditioned building, is closed. He will not be too impressed with the questions of finance that will prompt the administrators of the library in their meeting today. He will be hot, hot and bothered.

The Director of University Libraries has estimated the cost of keeping Lamont open all summer at $10,000--most of which would go for air-conditioning--and the University feels that the money could be better spent elsewhere. This may very well be so, but there is no real excuse for treating the summer students as poor relations and denying them the regular College facilities. About 1500 undergraduates are expected to attend the summer school, and this number surely justifies some expenditure for their comfort and convenience.

If it is actually impractical to keep the library open for the entire summer, perhaps a less costly plan could be devised to open it at least one or two days of the week, and certainly for a couple of weeks before final exams. Staff would present no problem; the University plans to have librarians checking and classifying the books for part of the summer, in any case.

When the administration makes its final decision on Lamont today--a summer shutdown was tentatively scheduled before the building was opened--it should consider carefully the possibility of having the library open for part of the time. After all, to close an air-conditioned building during the summer because it is air-conditioned does seem a little bit absurd.