Make Harvard Libraries More User Friendly

To the editors:

About the plans to gut Hilles Library and convert it to a student activity space and study area (News, “Hilles to be Converted,” Sept. 15): it’s possible that student protest at the loss of Hilles as a library would be lessened if the Harvard libraries allowed users to make web requests for any book in the library system at any one of the major libraries to be delivered at the library of their choice. This was tried a few years ago, but I think the process was not then integrated into the web catalog.

Yale established this form of book delivery as part of a larger book request system integrated into its web catalog (ORBIS). Books in Sterling and other Yale libraries can be paged for same day pickup at the library where the book is held (while at Widener, paging is only possible for those without stack access, and for those with disabilities, and even then the paging requests need to be made a day in advance); books paged from one library to another by the Eli Express service are available in about 48 hours. I find it mystifying that the Harvard library system gets such high reviews on student ratings systems (for example in the Princeton Review website), when it is so much less user-friendly than the Yale library system.

PATRICIA HOLLANDER GROSS ’63

Sept. 16, 2003