The Coop Remodels

To the casual shoppers in the Coop this summer, all seems quiet and cool, but few realize that frantic, behind the scenes preparations are in progress to handle the hoard of students expected to descend upon the Square in September.

Expediting the book lines, which last year moved with agonizing slowness, is an important feature of the renovations. As many students will recall, the first floor rear, regular book department was entirely inadequate both in September and February as a result of the huge influx of veterans.

More good news to students is the fact that many titles that were on the unavailable list last year are now apparently in abundant supply as a result of publishers' ability to catch up with back orders and the Harvard Faculty's willingness to choose assigned books in advance.

After observing last year's confusion, the Coop immediately planned for this fall's anticipated rush. It had tenants on the second and third floors of the Coop Building at 1400 Massachusetts Avenue move elsewhere to make way for the renovations.

On the second floor a book counter extending 60 feet in one direction has been set up. Arranged in back of this long counter are 10 book storage sections. This innovation is expected to enable clerks to move the line at an unprecedented rate in the comparative comfort of a large, well-lighted and ventilated room.

"Our main object is to avoid having any man stand in more than one line to get his various books," George Cole, manager, said yesterday. Consequently, all college text books will be available in this one section. It is also planned to route the book lines so that no man will have to stand outside in freakish New England weather.

The placing of all college texts in this special room will leave the regular first floor book department in the main store free for law school books and also publications of general reader interest.