Harvard’s science libraries are being mushed under one super-efficient “administrative umbrella,” Harvard College Library (HCL). By July the first four will have been assimilated: the Physics, Statistics, Chemistry and Chemical Biology, and Mathematics departmental libraries, with the remaining science libraries to follow suit later.

The administrative-types have assured everyone that the plans are strictly for the sake of efficiency and have nothing whatsoever to do with the $220-million deficit.

HCL spokeswoman Beth Brainard said the plans for consolidation were “not associated with the budget.”

Even before the financial crisis hit Harvard, library officials had been entertaining the idea of revamping the structure of the science libraries to create greater efficiency, she said.

The consolidation of services and collections across the science library services would facilitate interdisciplinary research and economize the purchasing, licensing, and processing of materials, according to Bloxham’s statement.

But Brainard did not deny the possibility of cost-reduction measures. Given the current fiscal picture, the merging of the science libraries under one administrative umbrella is likely part of a concerted effort to shave costs, according to two library staffers interviewed yesterday.

Library staff, who tend toward decent levels of intelligence, aren’t buying it and are mentally preparing themselves for possible layoffs. Sometimes ignorance, if not altogether blissful, would at least be several degrees less stressful.

Posted by Alexa Harrington

image: widener library