Accessing past final exams recently became easier.

Students can now access fall 1997 and spring 1998 exams on the Web at www.fas.harvard.edu/~exams/.

In the past, old exams were available only on bound volumes at libraries across campus including Lamont, Hilles, Cabot and some House Libraries.

I think it's going to be helpful in making the exams more readily available for students who want to consult them," said Associate Dean for Undergraduate Education Jeffrey Wolcowitz, whose office oversees the collections, authentication and distribution of past exams.

Head of Reserves Services in the Lamont Library Lawrence Marcus and Lamont employee Scott Britton were responsible for putting the exams online.

Only those exams submitted by professors for Web publication are available online. Bound volumes of past exams will no longer be published beginning with fall 1997 exams.

Heather E. Cole, librarian of the Hilles and Lamont Libraries, wrote in an e-mail message that improving student access to past exams motivated the move from bound volumes to the Web.

"Maintaining these volumes-binding, shelving, and reshelving them-did not always guarantee that the texts of exams would be available when students needed them," Cole wrote.

She added that the bound volume collection was often missing pages or even whole volumes.

The project to put exams online began last year when Cole and Marcus approached Wolcowitz with the idea of putting past exams online.