Plan May Limit Student Access to Law Books

Four hundred thousand books from the Langdell Law Library will be unavailable to law students and researchers from June 1996 to August 1997 if renovation plans for the library are approved this spring.

Langdell is one of two libraries used by law school students for research and study.

The building houses 800,000 books dealing with American law. If plans are approved and the collection becomes difficult to access, some students are concerned they will be adversely affected.

According to Harry S. Martin, head librarian at Langdell, the 400,000 books will become either completely unavailable to researchers or will be placed in the Harvard Depository so that students will have to fill out request forms to retrieve them.

Martin said, "It's not like closing Widener [library] because there's a great deal of legal information that's available in electronic form, and we're making sure that information is available to students and that they feel comfortable accessing it."

Martin also said the Law School has discussed placing Harvard staff at other libraries to send copies and faxes of legal documents to students needing to do research.

"Since Langdell Library is a member of the New England Law Library Consortium, Harvard students would have access to all of these libraries," Martin added.

But President of the Law School Council Robert T. Simmelkjaer said yesterday that the Law School has yet to organize any committee to facilitate students' research during the renovations.

"It's not clear right now that [the Law School administration] has an air-tight plan to organize [alternative research sources]," he said.

Simmelkjaer expressed concern about the effects of the renovations on current and future students at the Law School.

"I'm very concerned about that issue," Simmelkjaer said. "We're very concerned that students who have come to theLaw School with the expectation of certainresources will be denied those resources withoutprior notice."

Stuart Rees, a student representative to therenovation committee, said the closing ofLangdell will primarily affect first andthird-year law students. "[First-years] who arenot oriented to the university yet use the libraryas a matter of convenience and to orientthemselves," he said. "For others, it's a niceplace to study during the day between classes."

Current first-year students, who will bethird-years during the planned renovations, willbe affected most by the displaced books.Third-year law students are "required to write alarge research work before they graduate," Martinsaid.

Rees said some of those third-year studentswould inevitably have difficulty collectinginformation if half of the library's materialswere unavailable.

"Some obscure books, the comparative and olderlegal history books, will just be unavailable," hesaid. "Some students will simply be inconveniencedand will have trouble acquiring needed materials."

Rees said the effects of the library'stemporary closing would be felt beyond the Harvardcommunity.

"This has ripple effects on people andinstitutions around the world," he said.

"There are people all around the world who cometo Harvard to use these resources, and we'retrying to get the world out that they will beunavailable."

Joseph Hurd, the pre-law advisor in EliotHouse, said yesterday that law students will missthe library not only as a research facility butalso as a social center.

Hurd said the library is "important to the LawSchool community as a social gathering place inaddition to its function as a research center."

Hurd suggested the implementation of a shuttlebus system to take students to law libraries atBoston University and Boston College to retrievematerials.

The proposed renovations of Langdell includestructural changes to upgrade heating and coolingsystems, upgrades in information technology andchanges intended to increase the building'sphysical capabilities to make it more "userfriendly," Rees said.

A final decision on whether the renovationswill be carried out is expected in June

Stuart Rees, a student representative to therenovation committee, said the closing ofLangdell will primarily affect first andthird-year law students. "[First-years] who arenot oriented to the university yet use the libraryas a matter of convenience and to orientthemselves," he said. "For others, it's a niceplace to study during the day between classes."

Current first-year students, who will bethird-years during the planned renovations, willbe affected most by the displaced books.Third-year law students are "required to write alarge research work before they graduate," Martinsaid.

Rees said some of those third-year studentswould inevitably have difficulty collectinginformation if half of the library's materialswere unavailable.

"Some obscure books, the comparative and olderlegal history books, will just be unavailable," hesaid. "Some students will simply be inconveniencedand will have trouble acquiring needed materials."

Rees said the effects of the library'stemporary closing would be felt beyond the Harvardcommunity.

"This has ripple effects on people andinstitutions around the world," he said.

"There are people all around the world who cometo Harvard to use these resources, and we'retrying to get the world out that they will beunavailable."

Joseph Hurd, the pre-law advisor in EliotHouse, said yesterday that law students will missthe library not only as a research facility butalso as a social center.

Hurd said the library is "important to the LawSchool community as a social gathering place inaddition to its function as a research center."

Hurd suggested the implementation of a shuttlebus system to take students to law libraries atBoston University and Boston College to retrievematerials.

The proposed renovations of Langdell includestructural changes to upgrade heating and coolingsystems, upgrades in information technology andchanges intended to increase the building'sphysical capabilities to make it more "userfriendly," Rees said.

A final decision on whether the renovationswill be carried out is expected in June