A Source of Agony

Despite a change of management, the lines for sourcebooks were too long again this fall. Students reported waiting nearly an hour during peak times to purchase their readings. And the new forms are a nuisance to buyers.

Officials of Harvard Printing and Publications Services (HPPS), which took over the sourcebook stockroom this summer from the Science Center management, say the lines have not been longer and claim the forms are necessary to comply with copyright law. According to HPPS Director James Gill, HPPS did extend its hours and hire five temporary employees to accommodate the rush.

But these steps were clearly inadequate, as the lines seemed at least as long as in previous years. In addition to the cumbersome forms, the process was made less convenient by other changes:

*HPPS abandoned the large, clear signs that let us know which sourcebooks were in and how much each cost. In their place, HPPS uses letter-sized sheets and lists the books in no useful order.

HPPS eliminated the cash-only express line, forcing everyone to wait for credit cards to be approved and checks to be filled out.

To be fair, HPPS has made several improvements: the hours of the stockroom were sufficiently student-friendly; we no longer have to trek to HPPS' old location at 1730 Cambridge St. to purchase any course materials; students can now pay for sourcebooks by MasterCard or Visa; and HPPS provides students copies at 5 cents a piece and easy and relatively inexpensive access to a fax machine.

Still, these moves do little to mitigate the inconvenience of purchasing a sourcebook. Wasting an hour queuing up or being forced to do without assigned readings until lines shorten puts students in a jam.

Gill seems committed to improving the situation. "We already have a number of ideas for how to streamline the operation for spring term and will be doing a through post-mortem just as soon as things settle down," he wrote in and- e-mail. Given Gill's enthusiasm, we suggest that HPPS expand its space in the Science Center and hire more people to deal with the long lines.

HPPS clearly has had mixed success thus far. We trust Gill will indeed take steps to shorten sourcebook lines before spring semester rolls around, in the dead of winter.