Better to Read

Librarians are traditionally a stodgy lot. The faculty committee on Libraries, however, deserves commendation for breaking tradition and imposing a three-hour limit on the circulation of Lamont closed research books. Come Reading Period, the glorious era of hidden volumes and missing books may be ended. Desks will no longer provide a sanctuary for reserve volumes; with Bursar's card checks, the invading hordes from neighboring colleges will be eliminated.

Yet the Committee disregarded the most important suggestion made by a special Student Council group. A great many people hide books and keep them out of circulation simply because they do not wish to study in Lamont. The buzzing lights, the oft-inadequate ventilation, and the noise and crowding of Reading Period make the building undesirable for concentrated work.

Reserve books should circulate outside Lamont to make the new three-hour system fully effective. At Radcliffe, such a system has operated with great success--and without the loss of books the Faculty Committee evidently fears. Unless books can be removed from the building, Lamont will remain an overgrown study hall--which Harvard should have outgrown.