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Among Harvard's Libraries: The revolution in the college library

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Citation Carpenter, Kenneth E. 1991. Among Harvard's Libraries: The revolution in the college library. Bulletin 1 (4), Winter 1990-1991: 3-5

Citable link https://nrs.harvard.edu/URN-3:HUL.INSTREPOS:37364396

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Among Harvard's Libraries

The Revolution in the College Library

ore than a new breeze is stirring in one of the most powerless? Not that he M Widener. A revolution is taking place. stayed in that position very long. From 1958 In the College Library a new culture is being to 1970, De Gennaro worked as Reference created, major organizational shake-ups are Librarian, Assistant Director, Associate Uni- occurring, and everything about the library versity Librarian for Systems Development, is being examined anew. The leader of the and Senior Associate University Librarian. revolution is Richard De Gennaro, since 1 Everyone who uses HOLLIS benefits June the Roy E. Larsen Librarian of Harvard directly from his work of that period, since College. De Gennaro was primarily responsible for When A. Michael Spence, then Dean of what is now called the OW (Old Widener) the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, announced database. It consists of the records that were De Gennaro's appointment on 4 April, the produced when major portions of the Wid- senior Harvard librarians who were gathered ener shelflists were converted to machine- for the announcement burst into spontane- readable form, a project that was among the ous applause. Today, the applause would not earliest in libraries to employ the computer. be so general: revolutions are hard on every- Along with returning to the scene of past one. It is not pleasant to be asked---or major accomplishments, De Gennaro has required-to cast aside cherished practices the satisfaction of doing so after a lifetime of and modes of thought; neither is it easy to preparation for a truly difficult managerial live with the sense of insecurity revolutions job. From Harvard, he had gone in 1970 to foster. The number of people putting in the University of Pennsylvania as Director of long, long hours is large. Unease, tension, Libraries and Adjunct Professor of English, anxiety are widespread, even among those and then in 1987 he had become Director of many who are also elated with the transfor- the . In those posi- mation that is underway. Such is the reality tions he learned from doing, and he has also of the Library today. Or, so learned from study, as a participant in the it seems to this writer, who watches the Harvard 's Advanced Man- College Library from the sideline of the agement Program. University Library Director's Office. De Gennaro thus comes to his latest posi- The leader of the revolution would not tion feeling that he has the managerial skill find it possible to say, "This hurts me more to accomplish his goals. And most impor- than it hurts you." Quite the contrary. He tant of all, he believes that he knows what loves the job and believes completely in the should be done. Senior officials elsewhere in necessity of the changes he is leading. But, the library and, it seems, in the College and meet with him at a quarter to six on a the University's Central Administration also Thursday afternoon, and some of the spring believe that he knows what should be done. has gone out of him. This is a man who day De Gennaro thus brings to the job a level of after day, almost certainly until late at night, support and a combination of personal and is giving himself fully to the task he has intellectual qualities that make him the ideal undertaken. person to lead the revolution. Part of what makes the hard work so But a revolution to what end? gratifying to him is that he has returned to Because a revolution in a library is like a Harvard, and who would not find it pleasing revolution in a country-you can change the to return to head an organization in which leadership, but that does not alter the coun- some thirty years earlier he had begun as try or institution-the end point is not fully 4 HARVARD LIBRARY BULLETIN

obvious from the first hundred days. De heightened efficiency in processing materi- Gennaro has, however, made it clear that als, and a rational preservation operation. change is upon the Harvard College Library. But they fostered others as well. All heard Rhetoric there is, but not rhetoric alone. On the message that the old ways would no Tuesday, 4 September, the day after Labor longer continue. De Gennaro got across the Day, De Gennaro announced that an Area idea that there would be in the College Studies Department had been formed, Library a new institutional culture. What he headed by Charles Berlin, Lee M. Friedman wants is unmistakably clear, and he is get- Bibliographer in Judaica. In addition to ting it. In the halls, on the paths of the Yard, Judaica, the Department consists of the one catches phrases about work. Work is Middle Eastern and Slavic divisions. something that those employed in the librar- On the same day of 4 September, a new ies are expected to do more of. series of governance meetings was instituted While De Gennaro is encouraging a cul- and one recent, albeit venerable institution, ture of work, he is also trying to foster a the Associates meeting, was abolished. pragmatic approach and to discourage per- Along with a restructured Department fectionism. Cataloging backlogs are no Heads Group, De Gennaro instituted longer acceptable, and neither is the lament bi-weekly Tuesday Meetings, that they exist because of lack of staff. Pro- with attendance by invitation and "limited to cess the books, or don't buy them. That's those who are directly involved in the mat- the message of the new culture, and it has ters being considered." A month later De certainly been conveyed by means other Gennaro announced that the Harvard Col- than general exhortation. An effort to end lege Library would undertake a strategic backlogs was one apparent reason behind planning process, and on 30 October, he creating an Area Studies Department. RichardDe Gennaro announced his intention to restructure the As important as is a new culture and more two major departments in Widener, Collec- efficient, rational practices, De Gennaro tion Development and Cataloging and Pro- aims at still more. Here are some of the cessing. In their place will be three depart- remarks he made at the start of the retreat ments: American and English Studies, that began the Strategic Planning Process: European Studies, and Cataloging Services. "The Dean has set some new ground rules In the future the same individuals will have for the Library. The Faculty of Arts and Sci- responsibility for acquiring materials as well ences (FAS) can no longer continue to as processing them. increase the Harvard College Library budget On 15 November, the College Library by ten to twenty percent a year, as it has for Preservation Department was formally inau- the past ten years. There is evidence that gurated, a step presaged on 2 August. On these increases may have contributed to the that date, De Gennaro announced that Car- Library's financial and deferred-work defi- olyn Clark Morrow's appointment as cits by relieving us of the necessity of facing Malloy-Rabinowitz Preservation Librarian in up to our problems and setting priorities. the University Library would be joint with We can exact no more exceptional budget the College Library. The new department, increases without clear goals derived from a with a staff of thirty-four people, was cre- rational planning process. There will be no ated by bringing together people from vari- approval of new library space in the Yard ous parts of Widener. As easy as thai: may unless it is an essential component of a larger sound, it violated one of the unwritten ele- master plan for dealing with the Library's ments of the traditional Widener ethos: You long-term space and programmatic needs. may add on, but you do not take away. Finally, the planning process is essential if we In the meantime the rumor circulated that are to set goals for the FAS [fund-raising] the budget for acquisitions had been cut. campaign. And it has been, officially one-time, in order "The College Library has been living off that the Librarian of Harvard College could the Metcalf Plan for the last fifty years, but have some unallocated funds directly at his this plan no longer serves us effectively. We disposal. That, too, was a shock, for the tra- need a new master plan, a new strategy that dition has been that book funds are the top will be appropriate to our time as Metcalfs priority in the budget. was to his. The changes, of course, furthered a num- " came to Harvard as ber of goals: improved decision making, Director and Librarian of Harvard College in Among Harvard's Libraries 5

1937. Widener was overused and filled to placed on helping users. The library still has capacity; Metcalf faced a crisis. His concept millions of books on the shelves in Harvard was to relieve the user, staff, and stack spaces Yard, but millions are also stored elsewhere. in Widener by building three new libraries: Although some materials are collected as one for special collections (Houghton), one part of a cooperative arrangement with other for undergraduates (Lamont), and one for of the nation's libraries-to insure that some lesser-used materials ( Deposit kinds of little used research sources continue Library). All three were completed by 1950. to be available-De Gennaro's library "The transfer of collections from Widener emphasizes the most heavily used materials to Fine Arts, Music, Pusey, etc. continued and has multiple copies of many titles. No the Metcalf strategy. Building new space in matter if coverage is not as great; copies can the Yard and transferring materials to other be transmitted electronically, and delivered libraries made it possible to cope with the in whatever form is desired to a faculty growth of the collections while continuing member's office. And the user can find out to make them available on open, browsable what is available, because HOLLIS serves as shelves. These steps extended the life of the a gateway to bibliographical databases else- open-stack library for fifty years. where. (Of course, it also contains records "In the 1990s our space is again filled, and for all of Harvard's books.) Along with pro- we need to develop a new grand strategy viding access by author, title, date, key- appropriate to our time and its changed con- word, call number, perhaps even to tables of ditions." contents, HOLLIS also serves as a gateway That statement can almost give the to the map catalog, to the prints in the impression that money is fuelling De Genn- Fogg, the dramatic portraits in the Theatre aro' s revolution, but this observer sees in it Collection, the Visual Collections of the Fine much more. De Gennaro has a vision of a Arts Library, the photographs at the Busi- new library, one that he would like to bring ness School, etc., etc. about even if the Faculty of Arts and Sci- Something like this is the vision of the ences were to increase the library budget by future library that De Gennaro wishes to ten to twenty percent. create. Although new technology makes it We seem to be at a crossroads. Follow one possible and perhaps inevitable, De Gennaro path, and the only course is to build a new does not want to wait to see if it evolves; it library in or near -and not probably cannot. And he seems to feel it's just a new library but one that consists of not even possible to proceed slowly, given stacks in which will be shelved millions of the mental transformation that is required. books. It's an attractive path, indeed, one Moreover, if you know where you want to that many of us wish it were possible to go, that's where you want to put your pursue wholeheartedly. financial resources. If you cannot go down Follow another path, and Harvard either both paths, embrace the one that seems the revamps Widener or builds a new library. In inevitable future-and then put every bit of it is a great reference collection, instead of energy and intelligence into making that the mediocre one that is limited by the space future as attractive as possible. Or, to switch in the reading room. It has in it CD-ROMs metaphors, don't shiveringly wade into the and computer terminals and a staff that can water; dive in, and then enjoy the surfacing assist users both to find books and to learn their way with the new technologies. And in this newly created library, more emphasis is Kenneth E. Carpenter