FOGG OF THE EVENING

Last year the closing of the libraries late in the afternoon and all day Sunday aroused a great deal of protest. Justified as an economy measure, these regulations have proved a nuisance, and, particularly in the case of the Fogg Museum library, have made studying hurried and difficult. In most libraries it is at least possible to take out books for study overnight, but here many of the books are so valuable that they are never allowed to leave the building. Furthermore almost every course in Fine Arts requires that a certain number of photographs be memorized, and reproductions of these cannot be removed from the Museum. It is therefore only possible to study Fine Arts before five o'clock on week days. This is the more difficult as many courses demand laboratory work to be done in the daytime, and the library serving both Harvard and Radcliffe is crowded as well as small. Accordingly, many concentrators spend their mornings at lectures, their afternoons making color charts, and their evenings twiddling their thumbs and praying they will pass their courses in Fine Arts.

To keep the museum library open at night involves only the use of the electric lights for a few hours, and one attendant. Even though the libraries were closed to save money, the Fogg Museum should be made an exception, if not throughout the year, at least during the hour examinations.