BOOK STALLS

Thus far the May Reading Period has flowed along with an untroubled course, and in general without the opposition and many of the defects that characterized its initial employment. Evidently all the participants have extracted something helpful from the January experiment, for this spring assignments are better proportioned, students less perplexed as to the exact intent of the Period, and the Union and Widener more completely furnished with the stuff by which examinations are passed.

In its special departments the College Library has found a most effective means of avoiding congestion in its main parts. Lowell Memorial, Child Memorial, the German Library, and the other rooms that fringe the top floor of Widener, are sufficiently equipped to house the necessary books in many literature courses. The climb is long, its turns wearying: the elevator is inconveniently placed, and all too often it is in flight when most desired; but the reward is silence, less confusion, generally greater comfort than is possible in the main Reading Room. To many students the special libraries were unknown before the introduction of the Reading Period last January; this spring has seen an increased use of them, and at present they function as a highly valuable release for the overcrowding on the second floor.