Harvard University: Dust Settles As Library Changes

From The Harvard Crimson:

Leaders of Harvard Library touted the successful integration of Harvard’s 73 libraries into a single University library in an interview with The Crimson Wednesday.
“This is unprecedented,” said Executive Director for the Harvard Library Helen Shenton. “We’ve never done this before. Harvard’s never done this before.”
But librarians interviewed by The Crimson said that from their perspective working within the system, the dust has far from settled.
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A new online Harvard Library portal, which consolidates functions that were previously spread across a number of websites, is among the more visible changes. The restructuring also created several new departments whose employees serve the same function across the entire system, allowing library to minimize overlap and increase efficiency.
Despite administrators’ confidence in the effectiveness of the transition, librarians described Harvard Library as being in a state of limbo, with many of the potential benefits of the reorganization yet to be realized.

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See Also: Learn More About the New Portal

Filed under: Academic Libraries, Interviews, Libraries, News, Profiles