Library Committee Refuses Increased Fine for Widener

The proposed 25 cent a day fine and loss of Widener privileges for overdue book holders has been turned down by a special library sub-committee, Keyes D. Metcalf, Director of the University Library, announced yesterday.

The committee's decision means the continuation of Widener's present five cent a day fine on books drawn over two weeks.

Metcalf also said that the Library has decided to abandon its policy of allowing students to borrow bound volumes of periodicals. Faculty members will retain this privilege but will have to return the volumes within a week.

The committee refused the 25 cent fine because it was characterized by what Metcalf termed "economic discrimination." Such a fine would mean little to many students financially well off, Metcalf said. Only the poorer student, he continued, would be affected by the proposed change in the fine system.

Plans for the loss of privileges as a punishment did not meet with approval because the committee felt it was too easy for an offender to use another student's name to avoid the penalty.

Douglas W. Bryant, administrative assistant to the Library, and Edwin B. Newman, lecturer on Psychology, formed the two-man sub-committee considering the Library's fine system.