Hilles Library Shifts Weekend Hours

Hilles Library went on a new schedule this weekend, two months after the councils of the three Quadrangle Houses requested a change in its Sunday hours.

Hilles now opens at noon on Sunday, two hours earlier than before.

Nancy Toff '76, co-president of the South House Council, said yesterday that students asked for the change because Hilles library was not open as early on Sundays as some of the Harvard House libraries Quad Houses have no libraries of their own.

Extra Cost

Lucy M. Manzi, Hilles librarian, said yesterday that she has trimmed two hours from Hilles's Friday schedule to avoid extra cost for the two additional Sunday hours. She said the changes are permanent.

Manzi said she made the decision at a December meeting with the presidents of the councils of North, South and Currier Houses and the Dean's Committee on Hilles Library.

Toff said the former Sunday hours of Hilles were an inconvenience to freshmen assigned to eat at the Radcliffe Houses on the weekend who wanted to study at Hilles between brunch and dinner. She said they often had to wait in the Houses living rooms for an hour after brunch, before Hilles opened.

"We have enough trouble getting the freshmen up to Radcliffe on the weekends," she said. "The least that we could do is to be hospitable to them when they come."

Simple Demands

"Student demands were simple enough to meet," Manzi said, "after all it is so quiet around Hilles on Friday nights, and Sunday is the time when everyone really seems to want to use the building."

Harvard College Librarian Louis E. Martin praised Manzi's decision yesterday, saying that he thought she had "acted very responsibly in the matter."

The schedule change followed two other Hilles Library policy changes Manzi implemented last year at the request of the South House Council.

Since the December meeting between Manzi and the council, Manzi has restricted smoking on the second and third floors of Hilles and has responded the Hilles grill.

The grille is now run under Harvard management after unsuccessful operation by an outside caterer.