Among Harvard's Libraries: Use of Harvard Libraries

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Citation Carpenter, Kenneth E. 1992. Among Harvard's Libraries: Use of Harvard Libraries. Harvard Library Bulletin 3 (3), Fall 1992: 3-4.

Citable link http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:42663110

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Among Harvard's Libraries

UsE OF THE HARVARD LIBRARIES irreplacable collections of research materials. Undeniably, a tension exists between those he articles in this issue of the Harvard Li- two responsibilities, and it is heightened by T braryBulletin are all based on material in the physical deterioration of library materials the Harvard Library, and each is written by a which threatens their very survival. scholar without a regular Harvard affiliation. The libraries of the university have dealt This coincidence makes one wonder whether with their broader responsibility by creating the Harvard Library deserves its reputation as special libraries or collections within libraries, a restrictive institution. Inquiry suggests that from which material does not circulate at all. it both does and does not. The distinction is Almost all libraries have, of course, adopted not necessarily between borrowers and non- the same solution, and the only difference in borrowers, but between two categories of this respect between Harvard and others is the material. Some printed books (about two mil- size of the non-circulating collections. lion), plus manuscripts, photographs, etc., no Table r is an attempt to delineate it nu- one borrows, but everyone, with or without merically. The numbers given should be a Harvard affiliation, may consult them on- taken as suggestive only. In part, that is be- site, and all users do so on the same terms. cause many are estimates. Another reason for Other books, millions more of them, may be considering them suggestive is that much also be consulted on-site by scholars without material, even when printed, is not counted a Harvard affiliation, just as they do in the individually. The Houghton Library does not, other mega-libraries of the world. Borrowing for instance, tally thousands of broadsides of of these materials is, however, a right granted the Risorgimento era. Another striking ex- only to those affiliated with the university or ample are the playbills in the Theatre Collec- those who pay for the privilege. tion, those from the Wendell Collection The Harvard Library can be termed a hy- alone being said to number about 90,000. The brid. In its collections it is a unique scholarly same applies to material in other libraries: the resource, like the other mega-libraries with Law School's count could be multiplied, if it which we compare ourselves: the Biblio- were to count the many thousands of separate theque Nationale, the British Library, the Li- laws in its collections. brary of Congress, and the New York Public Even with the omission of the Medical Library. The three national libraries are essen- School's dissertations, which are often early, tially non-circulating collections, and the rare, and valuable but are not elsewhere in the New York Public Library, though it does library's statistics, the above figures show that have circulating libraries throughout the city, the special collections of the University num- does not lend out those materials housed in ber r ,29 r ,ooo printed volumes, about ten (or forming part of) its central collection at percent of the total twelve million in the 42nd Street. Although it has collections that Harvard Library. With the medical disserta- rank it among those libraries, Harvard does tions the quantity of non-circulating printed not have the same responsibility to serve as a books and pamphlets rises to about two mil- last resort for a nation. It has a primary respon- lion volumes. All of these materials may be, sibility to the students and faculty of its uni- in fact must be, consulted on the spot by re- versity, and fulfilling that obligation calls for searchers. The number is likely to grow sig- lending books out whenever doing so does nificantly in future years, as more material is not conflict with the more general duty of housed at the Harvard Depository but made maintaining for scholars of present and future available to readers through special collec- generations, wherever they may be affiliated, tions or libraries. 4 HARVARD LIBRARY BULLETIN

TABLE I: PRINTED BOOKS IN SPECIAL COLLECTIONS

VOLUMES

HARVARD COLLEGE LIBRARY Houghton Library ...... 375,000 (includesthe TheatreCollection; this numbercovers the entireprinted book collectionof the Houghton Library,whereas the othernumbers below cover only materialin special collections) Harvard-Yenching Library ...... 40,000 Special collections in other libraries ...... 50,000 (includesthe Fine Arts Library,the Kummel Libraryof Geology,the Loeb Music Library,the Tozzer Libraryof Anthropology,and the Map Collection)

OTHER LIBRARIES OF THE FACULTY OF ARTS AND SCIENCES Museum of Comparative Zoology ...... 14,000

OTHER FACULTY LIBRARIES Business School ...... 40,000 Design School ...... 9,000 Divinity School ...... 130,000 Education ...... 52,000 (includesboth the textbookand publicschool reports collection, plus approximately 7,000 titles in the privateschool collection, which are arrangedb11t not cataloged) Law School Library ...... 300,000 Medical School ...... 200,000 (600,000 dissertationsare arranged,but not cataloged)

UNIVERSITY LIBRARY University Archives ...... 94,000

RADCLIFFE COLLEGE Schlesinger Library ...... 3 8 ,ooo

TOTAL: 1,342,000

To the above non-circulating materials no to borrowing. To do otherwise would be should be added more than I IO thousand feet an irresponsible neglect of our duty as stew- of manuscripts and archives, millions of pho- ards of a resource that cannot be replaced. tographs, and vast numbers of other pictorial and ephemeral materials, including maps. Doris Wilkinson on African Americans in 1850 Most of it is non-circulating, though some- at the Harvard Medical School times available for classrooms. Although the amount of such material may The article by Professor Wilkinson is espe- be surprising, so is the degree, at least to this cially commended to all readers of the Harvard writer, to which other circulating materials is Library Bulletin. It reproduces documents that made available to scholars without a Harvard tell the story of one of the most fascinating affiliation, albeit on a non-circulating basis. A incidents in Harvard history. In the fall of 18 50 telephone survey of libraries shows that the three African American students, and a remainder of the twelve million volumes in woman as well, applied for admission to the the Harvard Library may also be consulted Medical School. The African Americans were on-site without fee. Local users without a initially admitted, but after protest and Harvard affiliation will generally be expected counter-protest, they were denied readmis- to use the Boston Public Library or another sion. The documents, limited here to the Af- institution if it can fill their needs. There are rican Americans, include letters, drafts of also time limitations on use, without fee, of letters, petitions of students, and printed the Tozzer Library and Widener-one week newspaper and journal articles. The story is per year in the case of Widener. told straightforwardly and non-judgmentally In short, access is possible, the same kind through the documents themselves, but no of access provided by the major tax-supported reader can put down this article without hav- libraries of the world, some of which also re- ing been moved, many of us, no doubt, to quire proof of scholarly need. Like those self-recognition and new insight. other libraries, Harvard says yes to access and Kenneth E. Carpenter