Widener Set To Modernize Over Summer

Widener Library will undergo a $300,000 modernization and beauty treatment this summer, University Library Director Keyes D. Metcalf said last night. It will be the first renovation job since the building was built in 1915.

The current plans have nothing to do with recent debates on whether or not the library should combine branches of its huge catalogue in the large room on the first floor.

One improvement calls for the old fright elevator to be replaced by a new, automatic one. A five-foot hole must be dug in the cellar to provide space for some of the apparatus involved.

Will Replace Lights

Next to go will be most of the present lights in the library. Flourescent ones will take their place. Table lights in the reading room will also be replaced by a more modern type.

New catalogue cases have been ordered, although Metcalf said that this was done before the debate on combining catalogues arose. He added that they were needed in any event.

The periodical room will come in for its share of changes, too. There will be new shelves built around the walls, and floor cases in the middle of the room. Metcalf said that many of the much used periodicals had been put in the stacks because there was no room for them outside.