The one thing missing for the studying student, it seems, is food.

"Cafe Lamont was frequently the number one thing for [students who responded to the survey]," Cole says.

But because of a lack of space, she says, that cafe is unlikely to materialize anytime in the future.

Moreover, Cole says the amount of man-hours necessary to keep the food sold in such a caf from migrating into the stacks is prohibitive.

"I just can't see investing staff time in telling people they can't take food into the library," she says.

Fond Memories

Undergrads past and present remember Lamont as more than just a place to check out the reserve reading, and say it will be etched in their memories as a significant component of their college days-but the reasons are different for each person.

"When [students] fell asleep reading their book[s] you could turn their pages back," writes undergraduate prankster Dean Masouredis '74. "When they awoke you would see if they remembered where they had been or if they would re-read the material again."

Brian Wescott '84 recalls listening to his Shakespeare readings on vinyl LPs to decrease study time. "Because Shakespearean actors enunciate so clearly, I could play the records at 45 rpm and get through them even faster," he said.

"The best part about Lamont for me as a senior," Emily R. Sadigh '99 writes, "has been how much it has been a center for reunions with friends I met my first year."

After all the hubbub about architecture and exclusion, Lamont Library has emerged an essential part of undergraduate life at Harvard. As a prophetic Crimson writer recognized in 1949, "Lamont Library is here to stay."