Science Libraries To Move To Cut Costs

Kummel Library, home to Harvard’s extensive geology collection, will move into the Science Center next summer, Harvard College Library (HCL) administrators announced on Friday.

The move, an attempt to consolidate science research holdings, will result in the elimination of four positions in the library.

The highly specialized collection will instigate a University-wide game of musical chairs, pushing Cabot Library’s Environmental Information Center (EIC) and Environmental Science and Public Policy Archive (ESPPA) into Littauer Hall, while Kummel’s 60,000 books, 42,000 maps and 800 geological journals will take their place in Cabot.

Meanwhile, the Earth and Planetary Sciences (EPS) Department, which is based in the University Museum on Oxford Street along with the Kummel collection, will consolidate its fragmented faculty and expand with new laboratories into the vacated area, according to Sturgis Hooper Professor of Geology Paul Hoffman.

“The issue is that the EPS department is thriving, and it is running out of space,” said Beth Brainard, communications director for HCL. “Kummel Library, while it is a unique research collection, is relatively small and decentralized. It’s a service point of convenience to a certain extent, and it has many duplicate services.”

Brainard said that relocating the EIC and ESPPA is a “logical move,” as they will serve users more effectively in Littauer, where they will be surrounded by other social science and public policy collections.

An initiative to consolidate science libraries has long been in the works, according to Kummel Librarian Michael Leach, who also manages the FAS Physics library.

“It’s been talked about on and off at least for five years, mostly theoretically,” he said.

According to Brainard, the decision could not be finalized until EPS head Jeremy Bloxham discussed the move with department faculty—the plans were made public on the afternoon following a Feb. 19 meeting.

Administrators delayed the announcement until after they had met with representatives from the Joint Council Committee, a group of unionized and professional library workers.

Brainard said she regretted that the issue could not be raised at HCL’s recent open forums for employees.

“It’s bad timing,” she said. “[But] the department head wanted to make sure that the faculty knew what was going on, and that there was consensus among the group that this is the way they should proceed.”

According to Hoffman, the professors had been consulted throughout the decision-making process, and were in complete agreement on the issue.

The move’s immediate impetus, however, has more to do with HCL’s ongoing budget crunch, according to Brainard. The elimination of four full-time positions at Kummel—to go into effect June 30, 2005—will help balance the Library’s budget for Fiscal Year 2006.

Leach is the only current employee who will continue working for the collection after the move.

The other employees will work directly with Human Resources to find other positions within Harvard.

The four employees, all of whom declined to comment on the layoffs, were informed of the decision on Friday morning by Associate Librarian for Planning and Administration Susan Lee and Librarian for the Sciences Lynne Schmelz.

“In some ways it was not a total surprise to the staff because there’s been talk on and off for years about space issues within the building and possibly shrinkage or changes within Kummel,” said Lee. “They knew the faculty would be meeting about space, and they knew I was coming, so they knew something was afoot. Of course, they were disappointed.”

Leach praised his staff’s optimism and concern for the collection.

“You might expect people to react emotionally, but they were very professional,” he said. “I was proud of them for that. They’re hopeful that they will get placed in the Harvard community within the next year and a half.”

Leach and Brainard both emphasized that there is a possibility that some of the eliminated positions would later be reinstated. An “impact study” will be launched in coming months to assess whether Cabot’s current employees will need help in managing the increased workload, according to Lee.

“The folks at Kummel and the folks at Cabot are going to have to work together to analyze the impact,” she said.

—Staff writer Leon Neyfakh can be reached at neyfakh@fas.harvard.edu.