A Case for Information

In an unprecedented move, Harvard Business School (HBS) last month made arrangements with Brigham Young University in Idaho (BYU-Idaho) to make its entire library of case studies and electronic materials—one of the most extensive in the world—available to professors and students at BYU-Idaho. While other universities have paid for use of HBS’s materials in the past, licenses have always been purchased on an individual and partial basis.

This arrangement, made between HBS and BYU-Idaho President Kim B. Clark ’74, who until 2005 was dean of HBS, will allow BYU-Idaho greater flexibility than any other university in utilizing Harvard’s immense case study resources. Allowing such a deal, rather than insisting on case-by-case purchases, indicates a commendable forward-looking attitude from HBS in the distribution of its publications. Lower barriers on sharing information will only benefit higher education.

But HBS’s deal begs a much larger question: With barriers to sharing information vanishing, how much should Harvard open its vast resources to the world? Sharing information is a key step in making higher education more available to the general population, a mission worthy of being pursued by the entire University, not just the Extension School. Harvard students have privileged access to the resources that are limited and that Harvard cannot practically make public, like its faculty, classrooms, and libraries. But making non-sensitive course materials more publicly available will cost little and would not in any way disadvantage the Harvard community or alter the classroom dynamic.

That means that Harvard professors should make more of their non-publishable course materials available to the public online. Case studies, like books that professors write, would not be included in this category because their authors have a right to profit from their published work. Similarly lecture videos would not be included because making videos public would alter how students behave in the classroom. But syllabi, lecture notes, problem sets and other printed course materials that cannot be published and are already online for students should be made available to the public.

HBS’s arrangement with BYU-Idaho, however, falls in a slightly different category because case studies, along with most of the other electronic resources HBS is sharing, are typically sold by HBS. Harvard professors and publishing companies are entitled to make a profit from their work. It only makes sense for BYU-Idaho to compensate HBS, as planned, for the resources it will use. But the same should not be true for Harvard students.Currently, HBS students receive case studies for free—but only the ones required for the classes in which they are enrolled. Cases are not kept in HBS’s Baker Library, and students from all of Harvard’s schools must pay the school to see any case not explicitly required for one of their classes. Case studies, just like all other published material, should be available in Harvard libraries to all Harvard students. Part of being the Harvard education is having access to Harvard’s educational resources, and that should include Business School case studies.

It is understandable that HBS wants to make money off of the cases its professors carefully prepare and publish, but it should not be looking to extract a profit from its own students. Students who have access to Harvard’s libraries have already paid (quite a lot) for the privilege of tapping into Harvard’s resources. Just as Harvard does not ask students to pay even a minimal fee for each book and course pack they check out of the library or each online journal they access, nor should it ask them to pay for each case study they wish to look at.

Harvard is a leader in higher education, and it should set an example of generously sharing its resources. Harvard’s own students should have complete, free access to all Harvard’s publications. Further, far from preserving its reputation as an ivory tower sealed off from the world, Harvard should seek to share with the public all materials that are not and will not be published.