Libraries Further Reduce Services

Harvard College Library—which circulates over 11 million items and includes Widener, Lamont, and Cabot Science Libraries—has compiled a comprehensive online listing of its budget reductions in recent months, which range from large-scale staff reductions to thermostat adjustments and increased digitization of subscriptions.

The Web site includes various changes reported in the past, such as the relocation and streamlining of HCL Technical Services to a facility in Central Square, and the closing of the Quad library.

But it also includes a few new changes, such as the closing of the Information Desk in the Widener Circulation room, the near-elimination of HCL’s travel budget, and an increase of the minimum lost book or item fee to $100.

In addition, several capital projects were suspended, such as the replacement of compact shelving in Harvard-Yenching Library and the heating and ventilation systems in Pusey Library.

HCL spokeswoman Beth S. Brainard declined to discuss the exact cost of those projects, but noted that the University classifies capital projects as all building work that costs more than $100,000.

The Web site also provides more detail and context about recent changes.

A thousand print subscriptions have been canceled in Widener alone to cut processing costs as HCL moves to a greater reliance on e-journals.

HCL also announced yesterday that it has begun circulating 20 mini laptops in Widener to allow users to continue reading those electronic titles while freeing up stationary computers for quick tasks and searches.

The site also said that the 20 HCL layoffs announced this summer were part of a larger workforce reduction of roughly 100 that included 52 voluntary retirements and 20 job positions held open.

Brainard said that depending on the time of year, HCL has approximately 450 full- and part-time employees, and 400 to 600 students and other workers.

The Web site said that due to the cuts, users may experience longer lines and less staff time.

Brainard said HCL will help staff handle tasks and inquiries by cross-training reference and circulation staff, expanding student training, and offering more online services.

The recent budget cuts and costs of library maintenance has forced HCL to substantially reexamine its operations, and at a meeting for all HCL staff held on July 22, HCL’s head librarian Nancy M. Cline said that the unit “will not get by with modest, incremental change,” according to notes provided by Brainard.

Cline reportedly said that ongoing economic turmoil could cause further cutbacks, and that HCL would likely emerge from the cuts as an organization vastly different from the one that exists today.

She reportedly raised a host of questions examining what HCL’s primary mission should be, and asked whether there was work HCL could stop doing entirely or whether the unit would need all the libraries it currently operates, according to Brainard’s notes.

“We have not changed our mission,” Cline reportedly said at the meeting. “However, we will need to work creatively on how to do it with smaller staff and fewer dollars.”

—Staff writer Peter F. Zhu can be reached at pzhu@fas.harvard.edu.