John Palfrey

Over the past nine months or so, a group of us have worked on a Harvard-wide Task Force to consider our library systems.  The report is being issued today by Harvard’s Provost, Steven E. Hyman, who chaired our Task Force.  Over the next year-plus, we will be working to implement changes in five key areas of the Harvard University library system.

Harvard is fortunate to have one of the great library systems in the world as a crown jewel.  The library system plays a central role in the intellectual life of our community, both as physical spaces and as resources of teaching and scholarship.  The 1200 or so library staff at Harvard, as I’ve come to learn, are simply extraordinary in terms of breadth and depth of talent.   But we can do more with what we have, and we can better position ourselves for the future — a future that will be “digital-plus” — than we are today.

As Provost Hyman wrote about the report:

“The report of the Task Force on University Libraries is a very thoughtful document about an extraordinary system. But it is also a stark rendering of a structure in need of reform. Our collections are superlative, and our knowledgeable library staff are central to the success of the University’s mission. The way the system operates, however, is placing terrible strain on the libraries and the people who work within them.

“Over time, a lack of coordination has led to a fragmented collection of collections that is not optimally positioned to respond to the 21st century information needs of faculty and students. The libraries’ organizational chart is truly labyrinthine in its complexity, and in practice this complexity impedes effective collective decision-making.

“Widely varying information technology systems present barriers to communication among libraries and stymie collaboration with institutions beyond our campus gates. Our funding mechanisms have created incentives to collect or subscribe in ways that diminish the vitality of the overall collection.

“Libraries the world over are undergoing a challenging transition into the digital age, and Harvard’s libraries are no exception. The Task Force report points us toward a future in which our libraries must be able to work together far more effectively than is the case today as well as to collaborate with other great libraries to maximize access to the materials needed by our scholars.”

I am excited to work with members of the Harvard library community and many others — inside and outside the community — to build on the promise of this report and the Harvard library system.

The Harvard Law School Library invites students to come visit today during this year’s “Love Your Library Fest.”  In addition to everything you’ll learn about the HLS Library, come over for free movie tickets and a raffle to win an iPod Touch.

Visit the HLS Library on September 23, 2009 from 2 – 5 p.m.

Over the past year, I’ve worked with my colleagues at the Harvard Law School Library, our Library Committee of faculty members, and many others to develop a new organizational design for the HLSL.  It goes into effect today.  The description of our new organizational form is posted to the Library’s blog, Et Seq. The future of libraries may seem on its face to be unclear in a digital world.  But I am confident that it is bright; that librarians have never been needed more than they are today; and that the best thing that we can do to move into this future is to work collaboratively to chart it ourselves.

One of the new efforts underway at the Harvard Law School Library is providing support for the growing number of faculty who perform empirical research.  It’s something that a few other libraries have begun to do, and we think it’s a great idea.  After a successful pilot this past year (where we were swamped with business), we are hiring for two positions for this coming year: one, an empiricist to support faculty and student research and two, an empirical teaching fellow to support the teaching of statistics and related methods.  This field is growing and changing in exciting ways, and we’re looking for a few great people to join us in this endeavor.

I am delighted to point to a statement by a growing number of law school librarians calling for open access to legal scholarship.