Widener, in Search of New Image, Remodels Ladies' Rooms, Elevators

Austere Widener Library may not be as streamlined as Hilles or as congenial as Lamont, but it's trying.

By February, it will have ladies' rooms big enough for more than one lady and elevators that measure up to modern safety standards.

Widener's ladies' rooms date back to the days when girls' were not encouraged to study there, Richard DeGennaro, associate librarian, said yesterday. The small, dingy bathrooms will be retiled, repainted, relighted, and enlarged. On the main level, workmen will close off an alcove outside the bathroom and turn it into a powder room.

"We like girls to study here," DeGennaro said. "Maybe this will be an inducement."

Library officials will replace the oldfashioned iron-cage type elevator cabs with new ones and install electronic call-recording devices.

Three years ago, a book-chaser in Widener got his foot caught in the elevator shaft. This aroused concern over the "antiquated" and "potentially dangerous" state of Widener's elevators, DeGennaro said.

With the new electronic devices, students will no longer be snubbed by passing elevators and will zip from floor to floor in half the time it takes now, he said.

The total cost of Widener's minor surgery will be about $95,000. For an additional $160,000, the Faculty of Arts and Sciences will install fire and smoke warning systems in Widener, and also Lamont and Houghton, DeGennaro said. They are already a feature of Hilles.