Split the Library

ON MAY 20 The Crimson called the announcement that the Kennedy Library Corporation would probably build the JFK arhcives and museum at UMass "a colossal failure" for the Bok administration. The Crimson criticized the administration for failing to work hard enough to develop an acceptable split-site proposition and for not rallying community support for this valuable and prestigious center.

But things have changed. The administration has worked far more closely than in the past with community groups and both Cambridge and Boston city agencies to develop a workable proposal to place the archives in Harvard Square and the museum in the Charlestown Navy Yard.

If adopted, that proposal would create a highly accessable library for scholars in a major learning area not suffering from the remoteness that has hampered past presidential libraries. And the archives would be integrated with the Institute of Politics as originally planned if it is built in Harvard Square.

The museum, if constructed in Charlestown, would help develop a major historical park in an area sorely in need of redevelopment. Placing the museum in Charlestown would insure speedy Federal assistance for the whole navy yard development plan.

THE ARCHIVE ALONE in Harvard Square will serve as a spur for a $50-million Harvard Square development project that is vital to the welfare of all of Cambridge. Without it most of the MBTA subway tract will revert to the state--possibly leading to uncoordinated development of the Square's southwest sector.

As students at Harvard we recognize the archives as an educational resource of the highest value and would welcome its construction in Harvard Square.

Although the UMass proposal would allow the corporation to begin construction on the museum and library sooner than the Harvard-backed plan, the corporation must look at the more overriding long-term benefits of the split-site. If the corporation seriously meant that it would accept a suitable slip-site proposal as it said last May--then it should choose the Harvard-backed plan and build the archives in Harvard Square and the museum in Charlestown.