"Dunster Library has little besides the standard works in the various disciplines," said Alyssa R. Bernstein, the House librarian. "Its collection is not up to date. The House has not been running this as a research library, nor have they been acquiring new books for quite a few years."

"As far I as I can tell, Eliot Library is more a study space than a real resource for books," Cooney said, and I think most of us would agree with her characterization of House libraries as a place for "cozy study and daydreaming."

But does this make any sense? Shouldn't the books be the point of the library?

Many--but not all--House librarians agree that students should be able to use the books they manage for us. "It would be good for people to have a better sense of what is there," said Shannon O'Neil Trowbridge, Winthrop House librarian, echoing a common sentiment. When I have brought the issue up with students, there seems almost universal appeal-who wouldn't want a better sense of the books in the House library next door, if it could save a trip from Mather to Tozzer, Andover or Hilles?

Students will be even more convinced when they hear the story of Jacalyn R. Blume, the Lowell House librarian. "I do feel very strongly that the House collections need to go on HOLLIS to keep them vital and useful, and to keep interest in developing the collections," she wrote in an e-mail message. "I particularly realized this when in a single term, a few springs ago, there were over 700 students enrolled in classes about the Renaissance"--'The Renaissance in Florence' and 'Michelangelo'--"and I heard students complaining that all the books in Lamont and Fine Arts were out, and I had at least a dozen books on the shelves of the Lowell House library that would have been appropriate."

Those who oppose adding House library books to HOLLIS generally cite the current popularity of libraries qua living rooms; students use the Dunster library, Bernstein said, "not just to study but to be among their fellow House members and enjoy its peaceful atmosphere." But questions of atmosphere, circulation and House privacy can be addressed House by House; the benefits of bringing reserve reading to the Houses and enlivening the dusty House stacks seems the first task. If our hero--or someone like her--is reading, she should tell her House Masters or HoCo to voice these concerns and work on finding funding. After all, aren't books what a library is for?

Adam I. Arenson '00-'01 is a history and literature concentrator in Lowell House. His column appears on alternate Fridays.