Harvard University To Consolidate Library Administration 

Harvard Libraries will undergo a "structural design" and be overseen by a single library board, Harvard University announced December 1. The board, made up of faculty and deans and chaired by a provost, in one of its first actions, will appoint a new executive director who will represent all libraries.

Follow up to 2009 task force recommendations
The redesign will focus on improving access to materials, and offering a "more integrated digital portal" into Harvard's vast and decentralized collections, according to Professor David Lamberth. Lamberth led the Implementation Work Group that followed up on findings from the report of the Task Force on University Libraries released November 2009.

"We want our patrons to be able to find anything at Harvard, whether it's a book, whether it's a digital copy of a journal, whether it's a database, or whether it's an object in one of our museums," Provost Steven Hyman told the Harvard Gazette.

As LJ earlier reported, the Task Force's charge was "to recommend reforms that would allow the libraries to invest their resources more heavily in academic priorities," and determined that the libraries would have to "move away from their fragmented and outmoded administrative and financial model." It recommended a shared administrative infrastructure, enhanced IT systems, coordinated collections development, and more collaboration with other universities.

Better efficiencies through centralization
"We currently function in our decentralized systems as dozens of purchasing units. We function as dozens of processing units," said Lamberth. With a coordinated management structure, "[y]our ability to negotiate with a vendor for materials becomes stronger," he told the Harvard Gazette.

Impact on librarians?
While many details remain to be worked out in 2011, and the impact on staffing levels unknown, a message from Provost Hyman noted that librarians will work "even closer to curricula," together with faculty members, in developing course plans that better integrate library resources.

Said Hyman, "[w]e want to respect in the new organization what's best in our decentralized history, which is local intellectual expertise and knowledge of the needs of students and faculty."