Harvard Library System Faces Increasing Economic Pressures

"Libraries of private universities are in a particularly acute financial position," Douglas W. Bryant, Harvard University Librarian, said yesterday.

"Government support for higher education is diminishing to the vanishing point," Bryant said, referring to the Harvard Library's difficulty in maintaining its resources.

This year's library budget, including all of Harvard's libraries, is $10 million, "distinctly less than is necessary to do what we would like to," Bryant said. He added that the cost per student for maintaining the libraries is "probably above $600 per year."

Harvard University Library has received "special funding" from the government this year for the first time, in addition to the $5000 base amount normally awarded to university libraries.

"Harvard Library is clearly one of the great national resources," Bryant said. If the library system eventually receives federal support on the basis of being a national resource, "there will be no change in kind, only in degree," according to Bryant.

In terms of a long-range solution to the financial problems which plague university libraries, Bryant foresees "a grouping together of libraries of major importance to form a kind of decentralized system-a network, where libraries could benefit from one another's resources."

Plans for building an underground library in the area bounded by Lamont, Houghton, and the President's residence have been in existence for several years.

"Widener's space is inadequate; we're going to have to have the new library in the very near future," Bryant said.

Funds for construction have not been gathered yet, and hoped-for government funding is not forthcoming. The underground library is expected to cost $8 million, of which $3.5 million has been collected.