CLOSED TODAY

The wheels of practical administration of the University frequently get well fitted into a groove and continue to turn in that same position, no matter how inconvenient the position may be for the student victims. This is the condition with the present hours of availability of some sections of the Library, particularly the collection of books located in the Fogg Art Museum.

The so-called basic courses, like History 1, Government 1, and Fine Arts 1c and 1d, never have been laden with an excess of the books demanded for collateral reading for each test. Since the directors of these courses consider the schoolboy system of weekly or fortnightly tests to be a necessary part of them, they might lessen the burden by more efficient administration of the library. It is inconvenient enough to be obliged to wait for books during the hours that the library is open, without being hampered by the further stringent regulations in force at Fogg. There one finds the use of books outside the Reading Room verboten. In the case of volumes of prints, some slight cause exists in the possibility of damage in transit; but for ordinary textbooks there is no reason for not having the same opportunity of taking books to one's room as in the other departments of the Library.

The greatest annoyance is, however, the closing of the Fogg Reading Room on Sunday. The importance of the Museum among Harvard's thousand-and-one sights would hardly suffer if the Reading Room were kept open Sunday afternoon and evening; and disturbance to readers would be avoided by shutting off that room as is done during weekday evenings. Certainly the condition of the student swamped by the exactitudes and executions of outside reading deserves the amelioration afforded by these two measures.