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Harvard Library is the umbrella organization for
Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of highe ...
's libraries and services. It is the oldest library system in the United States and both the largest academic library and largest private library in the world. Its collection hold over 20 million volumes, 400 million manuscripts, 10 million photographs, and one million maps. Harvard Library holds the third largest collection of all libraries in the nation after the
Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The libra ...
and
Boston Public Library The Boston Public Library is a municipal public library system in Boston, Massachusetts, United States, founded in 1848. The Boston Public Library is also the Library for the Commonwealth (formerly ''library of last recourse'') of the Commonwea ...
. Based on the number of items held, it is the fifth largest library in the United States. Harvard Library is a member of the Research Collections and Preservation Consortium (ReCAP); other members include
Columbia University Libraries Columbia University Libraries is the library system of Columbia University and one of the largest academic library systems in North America. With 15.0 million volumes and over 160,000 journals and serials, as well as extensive electronic resource ...
, Princeton University Library, New York Public Library, and Ivy Plus Libraries Confederation, making over 90 million books available to the library's users.    The library is open to current Harvard affiliates, and some events and spaces are open to the public. The largest and most recognized building in the Harvard Library system is
Widener Library The Harry Elkins Widener Memorial Library, housing some 3.5million books in its "vast and cavernous" stacks, is the centerpiece of the Harvard College Libraries (the libraries of Harvard's Faculty of Arts and Sciences) and, more broadly, of the ...
in
Harvard Yard Harvard Yard, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is the oldest part of the Harvard University campus, its historic center and modern crossroads. It contains most of the freshman dormitories, Harvard's most important libraries, Memorial Church, seve ...
.


History

Harvard's library system grew primarily from personal donations, including from John Harvard and John Hull. John Harvard was a Puritan minister who accumulated 400 books spreading word of his faith. These volumes were left to Harvard, initiating the library's collection. The works in this collection soon became obsolete, as Harvard Library quickly changed to an academic institute and found little need for the theological titles. Until 1676, the library was based in Old College building. That year, it moved to Harvard Hall, where it remained until 1764 when the building and the library's entire collection was destroyed in a fire. The collection had 5,000 titles and was the largest collection in British America before the fire. By 1764 it was the largest library in British America, with 5,000 volumes, but disaster struck that year when the library was destroyed by fire. A new Harvard Hall was built, and 15,000 books were collected to create the new library. After the fire, readers in the library were not allowed candles or lamps and if there was a fire burning in the hearth, a librarian or assistant had to be present. Patrons were allowed to borrow and return up to three books at a time on Friday mornings and were allowed to keep them for up to six weeks.
Thomas Hollis V Thomas may refer to: People * List of people with given name Thomas * Thomas (name) * Thomas (surname) * Saint Thomas (disambiguation) * Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, and Doctor of the Church * Thomas the Ap ...
, great-nephew of one of the university's early benefactors, began shipping thousands of specially chosen volumes to the library. Hollis continued to send books regularly until his death in 1774, and he bequeathed £500 for the university to continue acquiring books. This became Harvard's first endowed book fund, and the fund has grown annually since. Harvard Library's online catalog, HOLLIS, a
bacronym A backronym is an acronym formed from an already existing word by expanding its letters into the words of a phrase. Backronyms may be invented with either serious or humorous intent, or they may be a type of false etymology or folk etymology. Th ...
for "Harvard On-Line Library Information System", is named after him. In 1841, with space limited in Harvard Hall, the library was moved to Gore Hall in 1841. In 1912, the library moved again after Gore Hall became unsuitable, and the library was moved into multiple buildings with some of the buildings representing specialized topics. Some books were digitized in
Google Books Google Books (previously known as Google Book Search, Google Print, and by its code-name Project Ocean) is a service from Google Inc. that searches the full text of books and magazines that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical ...
under the management of former Harvard Library director Sidney Verba. In August 2012, based in part on recommendations from the Task Force on University Libraries and the Library Implementation Working Group, Harvard Library began working to coordinate and encourage collaboration among Harvard's 73 libraries.


Holdings

Harvard Library houses a range of historical artifacts and primary documents from around the world, including one of only 23 complete Gutenberg Bibles. The largest collection of
East Asia East Asia is the eastern region of Asia, which is defined in both geographical and ethno-cultural terms. The modern states of East Asia include China, Japan, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea, and Taiwan. China, North Korea, South Korea ...
n-language material outside of East Asia is held in the
Harvard–Yenching Library The Harvard–Yenching Library is the primary location for East Asia-related collections at Harvard Library. In addition to East Asian languages (Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Tibetan, Manchu, and Mongolian), it houses collections in European lang ...
.   The largest collection of archives focused on business and economic history is housed in
Baker Library/Bloomberg Center The Baker Library/Bloomberg Center is a building complex at Harvard Business School on the campus of Harvard University in Boston, Massachusetts. It includes the Baker Library, built in 1927, and the Bloomberg Center, completed in 2005. Overview ...
at Harvard Business School. Botany Libraries’ archives include Henry David Thoreau’s personal herbaria, letters from
Charles Darwin Charles Robert Darwin ( ; 12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English naturalist, geologist, and biologist, widely known for his contributions to evolutionary biology. His proposition that all species of life have descended ...
to Asa Gray, and thousands of botanical illustrations. The Wolbach Library holds the oldest surviving images of the moon, and the Tozzer Library is one of the oldest anthropological libraries in the world.    Harvard Library also has a robust collection of digital content. More than 6 million digital objects are accessible online by anyone, regardless of whether or not they're affiliated with Harvard, via the Harvard Digital Collections page. The CURIOSity tool offers another way to explore Harvard's digital collections, providing curated views, specialized search options and discovery of unique content. Curated collections include the Colonial North America archive, the Islamic Heritage Project, and over 3,5000 digitized daguerreotypes.


Publications

By 1973, Harvard Library had authored or published over 430 volumes in print in addition to nine periodicals and seven annual publications. Among these is a monthly newsletter, ''The Harvard Librarian'' and a quarterly journal, ''Harvard Library Bulletin'', which was established in 1947, dormant from 1960 until 1967, and published regularly since. The ''Bulletin'' is published three times a year in spring, summer, and fall. ''Harvard Library Bulletin'' is available to the public under subscription and an archive of past issues is available on Harvard Library website.


Organizational structure

Harvard Library is the formal name for an administrative entity within the central administration that oversees the development and implementation of strategies that facilitate access to research, collections, services, and space in ways that raise the value of the university's investment in its libraries., Martha Whitehead is the current vice president for Harvard Library and the Roy E. Larsen Librarian of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. The Harvard Library holds or offers: *Access Services connects the academic community to the vast array of library resources. *Information and Technical Services is responsible for acquiring, licensing and providing access to tangible and online collections in all formats. *Preservation, Conservation and Digital Imaging Services is committed to ensuring that library materials remain secure and usable for contemporary and future scholars by conserving materials, digitizing collections, preserving library content in digital formats and providing robust education and outreach programs. *Harvard University Archives is the university's institutional archives. It oversees the university's permanent records, collects Harvard-related manuscripts, papers, and historical materials, and supervises records management across the university. *Finance supports the library by providing accurate information that assists decision-making, maintaining the integrity of finance systems and completing financial transactions. *Program Management ensures that potential projects and approved projects are managed in a considered, predictable and transparent way. *The Office for Scholarly Communication provides for open access to works of scholarship produced by the Harvard community.


Governance


Library Visiting Committee

Visiting Committee members are experts and Harvard alumni who are appointed by the corporation. The committee oversees the strategy and administration of Harvard Library on behalf of the Overseers. Bi-annual visits and regular updates by the Office of the Provost provide an opportunity for Visiting Committee members to understand and advise on the Harvard Library's progress.


Library Board

The Library Board is charged with reviewing strategic plans of the Harvard Library and assessing its progress in meeting those plans, reviewing system-wide policies and standards and overseeing progress of the central services. The provost chairs the Library Board (established in December 2010) and the Office of the Provost is responsible for overseeing the Harvard Library. The Harvard Library Board is composed of six permanent members and five rotating members who serve three years each, with their initial terms staggered. The permanent members include the provost, the Carl H. Pforzheimer University Professor, and the deans or designees from the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Harvard Business School,
Harvard Law School Harvard Law School (Harvard Law or HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest continuously operating law school in the United States. Each c ...
, and
Harvard Medical School Harvard Medical School (HMS) is the graduate medical school of Harvard University and is located in the Longwood Medical Area of Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1782, HMS is one of the oldest medical schools in the United States and is cons ...
. Rotating members include three at-large, tenured faculty members, as well as deans or designees from
Harvard Kennedy School The Harvard Kennedy School (HKS), officially the John F. Kennedy School of Government, is the school of public policy and government of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The school offers master's degrees in public policy, publi ...
, Harvard Graduate School of Design, Harvard Divinity School, Harvard Graduate School of Education, Harvard School of Public Health,
Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences The Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) is the engineering school within Harvard University's Faculty of Arts and Sciences, offering degrees in engineering and applied sciences to graduate students admitte ...
, and Radcliffe Institute.


Faculty Advisory Committee

In 2011, the Harvard Library Faculty Advisory Council was established to advise the university. Robert Darnton, Pforzheimer Professor, is chair, and James Engell, Gurney Professor of English Literature, is vice-chair the advisory committee.


Library Council on Student Experience

Established in 2012, the Library Council on Student Experience is a joint council consisting of librarians and students from across the university who identify and work together on University-wide priorities identified by the council for improving the student library experience. The council is co-chaired by a librarian appointed by the vice president for Harvard Library and by a student elected from student council members. Students and librarians are nominated by the university's library directors and selected by the Office of the Provost. Other members include representatives from the Tell Us project, the Berkman Institute, and Harvard Library Shared Services. Terms are for two academic years. The Council makes recommendations to and is supported by the vice president for Harvard Library.


Library Leadership Team

Harvard Library Leadership Team is responsible for planning, prioritizing and implementing joint library initiatives. The team works with the vice president for the Harvard Library to develop and implement library-wide strategy and policy approved by the Board in collaboration with other standing committees and working groups. Chaired by the vice president for Harvard Library, the team includes members of the library's senior management team, library directors from the ten professional schools and the Radcliffe Institute, the managing director of Library Technology Services (HUIT), Harvard Library shared services heads, and Harvard Library's director of communications and its director of diversity, equity, and inclusion.


Harvard libraries

Along with shared services such as circulation, cataloging, and preservation, the following libraries make up Harvard Library:  * Arnold Arboretum's Horticultural Library *
Baker Library/Bloomberg Center The Baker Library/Bloomberg Center is a building complex at Harvard Business School on the campus of Harvard University in Boston, Massachusetts. It includes the Baker Library, built in 1927, and the Bloomberg Center, completed in 2005. Overview ...
at Harvard Business School * Biblioteca Berenson in
Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico ...
, Italy * Botany Libraries *
Cabot Science Library The Godfrey Lowell Cabot Science Library is a library at Harvard University. It predominantly serves undergraduate students. The library opened in 1973 as part of the Harvard Science Center The Harvard University Science Center is Harvard's mai ...
* Countway Library at
Harvard Medical School Harvard Medical School (HMS) is the graduate medical school of Harvard University and is located in the Longwood Medical Area of Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1782, HMS is one of the oldest medical schools in the United States and is cons ...
and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health * Dumbarton Oaks Research Library in Washington, D.C. * Ernst Mayr Library at the Museum of Comparative Zoology * Fine Arts Library * Fung Library * Gutman Library at Harvard Graduate School of Education * Harvard Divinity School Library * Harvard Film Archive *
Harvard Kennedy School The Harvard Kennedy School (HKS), officially the John F. Kennedy School of Government, is the school of public policy and government of Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The school offers master's degrees in public policy, publi ...
Library & Knowledge Services *
Harvard Law School Harvard Law School (Harvard Law or HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest continuously operating law school in the United States. Each c ...
Library *Harvard Map Collection * Harvard University Archives * Harvard-Yenching Library * Houghton Library *
Lamont Library Lamont Library, in the southeast corner of Harvard Yard in Cambridge, Massachusetts, houses the Harvard Library's primary undergraduate collection in humanities and social sciences. It was the first library in the United States specifically planne ...
* Loeb Music Library * Loeb Design Library ( Harvard Graduate School of Design) * Robbins Library of Philosophy * Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America ( Radcliffe Institute) * Tozzer Library *
Widener Library The Harry Elkins Widener Memorial Library, housing some 3.5million books in its "vast and cavernous" stacks, is the centerpiece of the Harvard College Libraries (the libraries of Harvard's Faculty of Arts and Sciences) and, more broadly, of the ...
* Wolbach Library


Librarians

;17th century *
Solomon Stoddard Solomon Stoddard (September 27, 1643, baptized October 1, 1643 – February 11, 1729) was the pastor of the Congregationalist Church in Northampton, Massachusetts Bay Colony. He succeeded Rev. Eleazer Mather, and later married his widow aro ...
, 1667–1672 * Samuel Sewall, 1674 * Daniel Gookin, 1674–1676, 1679–1681 * Daniel Allin, 1676–1679 * John Cotton, 1681–1690 * Henry Newman, 1690–1693 * Ebenezer Pemberton, 1693–1697 * Nathaniel Saltonstall, 1697–1701 ;18th century * Anthony Stoddard, 1701–1702 * Josiah Willard, 1702–1703 * John Whiting, 1703–1706 * John Gore, 1706–1707 * Nathaniel Gookin, 1707–1709 * Edward Holyoke, 1709–1712 * Thomas Robie, 1712–1713 * John Denison, 1713–1714 * John Rogers, 1714–1718 * William Welsteed, 1718–1720 * William Cooke, 1720–1721 * Joshua Gee, 1721–1722 * Mitchell Sewall, 1722–1723 *
John Hancock John Hancock ( – October 8, 1793) was an American Founding Father, merchant, statesman, and prominent Patriot of the American Revolution. He served as president of the Second Continental Congress and was the first and third Governor o ...
, 1723–1726 * Stephen Sewall, 1726–1728 * Joseph Champney, 1728–1729 * Joseph Pynchon, 1729–1730 * Henry Gibbs, 1730–1734 * Samuel Coolidge, 1734–1735 * James Diman, 1735–1737 * Samuel Cooke, 1737Librarian ''pro tem'' in 1737, per * Thomas Marsh, 1737–1741 * Belcher Hancock, 1741–1742 * Benjamin Prat, 1742–1743 * Matthew Cushing, 1743–1748 * Oliver Peabody, 1748–1750 * Stephen Badger, 1751–1753 * John Rand, 1753–1755 *
Mather Byles Mather Byles (born 26 March 1706, Boston, Massachusetts – 5 July 1788), was an American clergyman active in British North America. Byles was descended, on his mother's side, from John Cotton and Richard Mather and was a grandson of ...
, 1755–1757 * Elizur Holyoke, 1757–1758 * Edward Brooks, 1758–1760 * Samuel Deane, 1760–1762 * Stephen Sewall, 1762–1763 * Andrew Eliot, 1763–1767 * Jonathan Moore, 1767–1768 * Nathaniel Ward, 1768 * Caleb Prentice, 1768–1769 * William Mayhew, 1769–1772 * James Winthrop, 1772–1787 * Isaac Smith, 1787–1791 *
Thaddeus Mason Harris Thaddeus Mason Harris (July 7, 1768– April 3, 1842) was a Harvard librarian, Unitarian minister and author in the early 19th Century. His most noted book was ''The Natural History of the Bible'' first published in Boston in 1793. Harris was na ...
, 1787, 1791–1793 * Samuel Shapleigh, 1793–1800 ;19th century * Sidney Willard, 1800–1805 *
Peter Nourse Peter Nourse (October 10, 1774 – March 25, 1840) was an American clergyman and librarian. Nourse, born October 10, 1774, at Bolton, Massachusetts, was the son of Jonathan and Ruth (Barret) Nourse. He graduated from Harvard College in 1802, r ...
, 1805–1808 *
Samuel Cooper Thacher Samuel Cooper Thacher (December 14, 1785 – January 2, 1818) was an American clergyman and librarian. Thacher, who was born in Boston, on December 14, 1785, was sprung from a long line of preachers. His father Peter was the pastor of the Br ...
, 1808–1811 * John Lovejoy Abbot, 1811–1813 * Andrews Norton, 1813–1821 * Joseph Green Cogswell, 1821–1823 *
Charles Folsom Charles Folsom (December 24, 1794 – November 8, 1872) was a classical scholar, librarian, and editor. He was librarian at Harvard College from 1823 to 1826. Folsom, born in Exeter, N. H., 24 December 1794, was the son of James and Sarah ...
, 1823–1826 * Benjamin Peirce, 1826–1831 * Thaddeus William Harris, 1831–1856 * John Langdon Sibley, 1856–1877 * Justin Winsor, 1877–1897 *
William Coolidge Lane William Coolidge Lane (July 29, 1859 – March 18, 1931) was an American librarian and historian. He served for over 45 years in the Harvard College Library at Harvard University. Background and education Lane was born in Newtonville, Massachus ...
, 1898–1910 ;20th century *
Archibald Cary Coolidge Archibald Cary Coolidge (March 6, 1866 – January 14, 1928) was an American educator and diplomat. He was a professor of history at Harvard College from 1908 and the first director of the Harvard University Library from 1910 until his death. Co ...
, 1910–1928 * Robert Pierpont Blake, 1928–1937 * Keyes Metcalf, 1937–1955 *
Paul Herman Buck Paul Herman Buck (August 25, 1899 – December 23, 1978) was an American historian. He won the Pulitzer Prize for History in 1938 and became the first Provost of Harvard University in 1945. Biography Buck was born in Ohio. He received a Bachelo ...
, 1955–1964 *
Merle Fainsod Merle Fainsod (May 2, 1907 – February 11, 1972) was an American political scientist best known for his work on public administration and as a scholar of the Soviet Union. His books ''Smolensk under Soviet Rule'', based on documents captured by t ...
, 1964–1972 * Douglas W. Bryant, 1964–1979 (University Librarian, 1964–1979; Director of the University Library, 1972–1979) * Louis E. Martin, 1972–1979 (Librarian of Harvard College) *
Oscar Handlin Oscar Handlin (1915–2011) was an American historian. As a professor of history at Harvard University for over 50 years, he directed 80 PhD dissertations and helped promote social and ethnic history, virtually inventing the field of immigrat ...
, 1972–1984, (Carl Pforzheimer University Professor, 1972-; Director of the University Library, 1979–1984) * Sidney Verba, 1984–2006 ;21st century *
Robert Darnton Robert Choate Darnton (born May 10, 1939) is an American cultural historian and academic librarian who specializes in 18th-century France. He was director of the Harvard University Library from 2007 to 2016. Life Darnton was born in New Yor ...
, 2007–2015 (Carl H. Pforzheimer University Professor and University Librarian) * Sarah Thomas, 2013–2018 (Vice President for the Harvard Library and University Librarian, Roy E. Larsen Librarian for the Faculty of Arts and Sciences) * Martha Whitehead, 2019–Present (Harvard Library vice president and university Librarian, Roy E. Larsen Librarian for the Faculty of Arts and Sciences)


See also

* Google Books Library Project * Dataverse *
Boston Medical Library The Boston Medical Library (est. 1875) of Boston, Massachusetts, was originally organized to alleviate the problem that had emerged due to the scattered distribution of medical texts throughout the city. It has evolved into the "largest academic ...
* JHOVE * List of online image archives


References

https://archive.org/stream/archaeologiaame03amer#page/n263/mode/2up


Further reading

* "History of the Library." In The Library of Harvard University: Descriptive and Historical Notes, 4th ed., 12–35. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1934. * Carpenter, Kenneth E. The First 350 Years of the Harvard University Library: Description of an Exhibition. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1986. * Bond, W. H. and Hugh Amory, eds. The Printed Catalogues of the Harvard College Library, 1723–1790. Boston: The Colonial Society of Massachusetts, 1996. * Kraus, J. W. (1961). The Harvard Undergraduate Library of 1773. College & Research Libraries, 22(4), 247–252. * Olsen, M., & Harvey, L. G. (1993). Reading in revolutionary times: book borrowing from the Harvard College Library, 1773–1782. Harvard Library Bulletin, 4, 57–72.


External links

*
HOLLIS catalog
* ttp://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.ARCH:hua12009 Harvard College Library: Library charging records, 1762-1897br>Early Catalogs and Shelflists of the Harvard College Library, 1723-1822: an inventory
{{Portal bar, Books University and college academic libraries in the United States Harvard University buildings Libraries in Massachusetts 1638 establishments in Massachusetts Libraries in Middlesex County, Massachusetts Libraries established in 1638