What Are House Libraries For?

It is a time not long ago, in a place quite like our own. Our hero, despite all her efforts to the contrary, has begun the research paper for her Core course the night before it is due. Racing through HOLLIS, she learns that all the books are checked out until 2001. Phone calls to friends in the class go unanswered; e-mails to her TF for an extension unheeded. In despair, she goes to her House library to contemplate life after failing a Core.

As she sits down, mocha in hand, in a ridiculously comfortable chair, she looks up at the wall and--Lo! and Behold! Three books on the topic she had thoughtlessly e-mailed in weeks before! Saved by the House library, she finishes her paper before Stein Club.

Needless to say, this story is false--not because it couldn't happen, but because it doesn't. No one goes to the House library for books. Maybe for the copier, maybe for videos in a few lucky Houses, maybe for a quiet place for type away at a term paper in the absence of a roommate's stereo. But House libraries aren't about books.

But if so, then what are House libraries for?

This is actually quite a contentious question and one that students, by influencing their House committees, House Masters and Undergraduate Council representatives to the University Library Committee, could affect. What should your library be--a personal treasure trove of books and reserve resources, or merely a comfy place to retire with your blockmates?

As it stands, 10 Houses have libraries--all (including Dudley) but those in the Quad, because "Hilles is the library for the three Houses," according to Patricia Gnazzo Pepper, masters' assistant at Currier House and manager of its reading room. House libraries have all kinds of books, from rare to super-commonplace, though they mostly address subjects in the humanities. (Nicola Trowbridge Cooney, the Eliot House librarian, said, "We have an oddly limited collection--the joke is we have everything from British history to British literature.")

Kirkland House has the only library even partially in HOLLIS, due to the efforts of Judith A. Warnement, who works as a professional librarian for Harvard and, in her spare time, for Kirkland. "7,000 of Kirkland's books are in HOLLIS and more are added every week," Warnement wrote in an e-mail message, noting the House proceeded with the idea with the Master's approval, the permission of the Harvard University Libraries--and a commitment to pay all expenses.

We may think of the House libraries as useless places to find books, but that may just be reflection of more diverse Harvard College course offerings than in the past, according to Dean of the College Harry R. Lewis '68. "There are fewer common reading lists for sophomore tutorials or the sort of survey courses that Harvard used to teach in greater numbers," Lewis wrote in an e-mail message.

"Dunster Library has little besides the standard works in the various disciplines," said Alyssa R. Bernstein, the House librarian. "Its collection is not up to date. The House has not been running this as a research library, nor have they been acquiring new books for quite a few years."

"As far I as I can tell, Eliot Library is more a study space than a real resource for books," Cooney said, and I think most of us would agree with her characterization of House libraries as a place for "cozy study and daydreaming."

But does this make any sense? Shouldn't the books be the point of the library?

Many--but not all--House librarians agree that students should be able to use the books they manage for us. "It would be good for people to have a better sense of what is there," said Shannon O'Neil Trowbridge, Winthrop House librarian, echoing a common sentiment. When I have brought the issue up with students, there seems almost universal appeal-who wouldn't want a better sense of the books in the House library next door, if it could save a trip from Mather to Tozzer, Andover or Hilles?

Students will be even more convinced when they hear the story of Jacalyn R. Blume, the Lowell House librarian. "I do feel very strongly that the House collections need to go on HOLLIS to keep them vital and useful, and to keep interest in developing the collections," she wrote in an e-mail message. "I particularly realized this when in a single term, a few springs ago, there were over 700 students enrolled in classes about the Renaissance"--'The Renaissance in Florence' and 'Michelangelo'--"and I heard students complaining that all the books in Lamont and Fine Arts were out, and I had at least a dozen books on the shelves of the Lowell House library that would have been appropriate."

Those who oppose adding House library books to HOLLIS generally cite the current popularity of libraries qua living rooms; students use the Dunster library, Bernstein said, "not just to study but to be among their fellow House members and enjoy its peaceful atmosphere." But questions of atmosphere, circulation and House privacy can be addressed House by House; the benefits of bringing reserve reading to the Houses and enlivening the dusty House stacks seems the first task. If our hero--or someone like her--is reading, she should tell her House Masters or HoCo to voice these concerns and work on finding funding. After all, aren't books what a library is for?

Adam I. Arenson '00-'01 is a history and literature concentrator in Lowell House. His column appears on alternate Fridays.