My journey to Widener Vault, which I had heard so much about, no longer functioned as a den of sin.

"The Vault used to contain what we call XR material," said Kevin M. Tierney, the circulation supervisor. "Playboy, Yellow Silk [a journal of erotica], "The joy of Sex" and other assorted erotica. People think XR stands for X-rating, but I don't know what it stands for."

Unfortunately, most of the contents of the Vault were sent to the New England Depository in Boston a few years ago for space reasons.

"You can make a request for something from the Depository, and it will arrive within one working day," said Tierney. "Or you can go over there and walk around."

Only library staff were allowed into the Vault, but students could request to look at materials. "We had requests for XR material about once or twice a week. I remember once a couple had requested "The Joy of Sex' and they were all over each other while they were waiting for it. However, the book had been stolen, and they were pretty disappointed.

"Also, a lot of Playboy pictures were torn out of the magazines. I remember a whole group of magazines from the '60s and '70s had all the fun stuff ripped out."

The Vault still exists, but it no longer contains anything of prurient value. Along with the Widener X-cage, it contains "high-risk, high-theft" material, including rare books, old books and "XM" books, which are miniature books a few, inches long. No nudie pictures, though.

So while hardcore pornography is nonexistent on campus (except if privately purchased), Playboys are available for your reading pleasure. Of course, you only read it for the article.