If you've gone to Lamont some time in the past two weeks, you may have noticed little black boxes attached to the front of the gates at the main entrance. Additionally, you may have ignored them, swiped your ID anyway, and proceeded through the swinging gates as usual.

Well, swipe no more! The new black boxes are proximity card readers that allow patrons to tap and go instead of swiping, according to Beth Brainard, director of communications for Harvard College Library.

As it turns out, work needed to be done on the Lamont turnstiles (the gates) themselves, and Harvard College Library figured, why not give the new card readers a try? Brainard added that the old magnetic strip readers are going to stick around for patrons with library stack passes that aren't programmed with the technology for the proximity readers.

"This is a pretty simple thing," Brainard said.

The extra two seconds you save means an extra two seconds to socialize in Lamont Cafe. Enjoy.

Photo courtesy of Xi Yu/The Harvard Crimson.