Renewing Harvard’s library system
Setting a fresh course for the future of the Harvard library system, University leaders have embraced a series of recommendations from the Library Implementation Work Group to establish a coordinated management structure and increasingly focus resources on the opportunities presented by new information technology. Provost Steven E. Hyman and Professor David Lamberth, who led the implementation group, discussed the 21st century vision for the libraries. GAZETTE: Do you see the steps announced today (Dec. 1) as a refashioning of the existing system, or is this an entirely new structure? HYMAN: We are, of course, building on enormous strength. This is the greatest university library in the world. What we’re doing is renewing and revitalizing it so that the greatest library of the 20th century will be the greatest library of the 21st. GAZETTE: So it’s not so much a stark break with the past as a repositioning. What are some of the...