WE hope that, on the completion of the new wing of the Library, a change will be made in regard to the alcoves. Beyond the name, the catalogue necessarily gives the most unsatisfactory and meagre information in regard to the character of a book. In half the time it ordinarily takes to find the Library boy, one could, if allowed to enter the alcoves, discover whether a book would answer his purpose; while the proposition that a free access to books stimulates reading is proved by the fact that more books have been taken from the shelves containing the new books exposed for examination than from any other collection of the same size in the hall. Students would be no more apt to take books from the alcoves without getting them charged than from the reference and the new-book shelves. We would suggest that certain alcoves containing books that can be replaced easily be thrown open to the students, with the understanding that the continuance or discontinuance of the system will depend on whether the students use or abuse the privilege.