Stemming the annual tide of complaints, the student telephone office has published a preliminary list of undergraduate phone numbers, although the regular telephone book will not be available until its usual distribution date in early November.

The books were sent to the houses and to the first-year mail boxes on Monday.

"A lot of undergraduates wanted the information early, and this gives them the chance to call each other," said Mallory LaSonde, project manager for the University telephone directories and the initiator of the project.

Seven thousand copies of the preliminary directory have been printed, LaSonde said, since the directory will only be distributed to undergraduates.

The final student directory will include both undergrads and graduate students, LaSonde said, and 17,000 copies will be printed and distributed throughout the University to professors, support staff and students.

The phone books this year will include 25 pages of advertising bought by Harvard Square establishments.

The money from the advertising will be used to help defray the cost of the producing the book, LaSonde said.

Unlike the paper directory, the on-line version is proceeding more slowly than years past.

Franklin M. Steen, director of Harvard Arts and Sciences Computer Services (HASCS), said he received a letter from the office of the University's general counsel requesting that specific student information such as room numbers not be put on-line because of safety concerns.

In addition, Steen said he had to pay particular attention to students who wanted their numbers to remain unpublished, considering the wide accessibility of the World Wide Web by those outside of the University community.

"What we publish [on-line] outside the University is subject to stricter scrutiny," said Steen.

HASCS received approval from the registrar to put the phone directory on-line Thursday afternoon, and Steen said it should be up and accessible to students within the next few days.

"What I want to do is post it ASAP," said Steen. "Every year I get complaints from the students about it not being available from the beginning."