As Libraries Evolve, HCL Head Leaves

Nancy M. Cline oversees Harvard College Library's 12 million volumes, but she maintains a more modest stock of antiquated collection catalogs and thick Chinese books from Yenching Library in her office.

Below the books on the shelf, Cline’s white hardhat, lettered with bold "HCL" on the front, projects out, a memento of the large-scale restoration of the Widener Library building that she led as head of Harvard College Library.

The physical renovation of Widener was part of Cline’s larger vision to modernize HCL—the largest unit in the University library system—that included programs like a high-tech conservation initiative housed in Widener basement.

But after nearly 15 years, Cline will leave this summer as her position is folded into the newly centralized administrative structure of the University-wide system.

Colleagues say that Cline’s tenure has set the stage for the University’s ongoing overhaul of the largest private library system in the world.

"It’s been an important period in the history of the academic library in the world. The way people use libraries has changed radically in those years," says William P. Stoneman, head of Houghton Library, which houses Harvard’s primary collection of rare books. "The Harvard Library has kept up in large part because of Nancy Cline."

But at this time of major university-level library restructuring, Cline is headed out in June.

"It’s a bittersweet moment," Cline says.

FEAT OF LIBRARIANSHIP

The restoration of Widener Library—the iconic center of the University’s entire system—took five years, as millions of books cycled through the floors of the library and workers worked on specific flights.

"It was one of the great feats of librarianship," Director of the Harvard Library Robert C. Darnton ’60 says of Cline’s leadership through the renovation.

Darnton remembers when Samuel C. Butler ’51, a former president of the University Board of Overseers and one of the former chairs of the New York Public Library, took him aside as the professor was about to leave his post at Princeton to join Harvard.

"And he said, ‘Just do whatever Nancy Cline says you should do, and you’ll be all right,’" he says. "And that was great advice."

The renovation that began in 1999 restored the library to its original aesthetic. The building, as any Harvard tour guide will tell, went up in 1915 in memory of Henry E. Widener, Class of 1907, after he passed away on the Titanic.

While originally constructed with detailed molding and exquisite pallet choices, Cline says, the library in the 1950s became more industrial. Harvard installed low-hanging ceilings and halogen floodlights that hid the intricate designs that lined some of the library’s ceilings, such as those in her office, she says.

"In this office, there used to be an ugly stained, eggcrate-tiled ceiling, and one time we had to fix something electrical. So this facilities maintenance guy has this tall ladder and climbs on up and then shouts down to me, ‘Ma’am—do you have any idea what is up here?’" Cline says. "And I, of course, didn’t."

The renovations incorporated motion-sensitive lights, better ventilation, and two additional reading rooms and an elevator, while workers were also analyzing pictures of the original library to uphold the image of Henry Widener’s mother—the principal benefactor.

"We wanted it to be honest to the original memorial for her son," Cline says.

Library administrators recall how the pillars, once turned an ashen gray from students smoking in the building, gleamed white at the end of the cleaning.

"You could even argue that the work that she’s done in renovating the Harvard library, that those were the impetus of creating the wider Harvard Library," Stoneman says.

"It was one of the proudest things I could’ve done as head," Cline says.

PRESERVING FOR THE FUTURE

Below the old pillars of Widener, the basement of the library hums with ultra-modern facilities to preserve and conserve the University’s entire collection.

Staff members work to photograph pages of books—one by one—in controlled environments with some of the most advanced apparatuses, says Cline.

Members of the Harvard Library system say that Cline’s persistence to preserve Harvard’s collections came early in the global discussion on digitization that many consider instrumental to the library’s future.

"She was digitizing volumes way before some other people had even thought of it," Stoneman says.

Currently, the preservation labs have been working under the auspices of the Chinese government to digitize Yenching Library’s collection of scholarly antique works.

The labs are part of what Cline says is a "reprioritization in libraries everywhere."

"This is only one major way that Harvard will be the library of the 21st century," Cline says.

LIBRARY REFORM

Cline’s efforts fit into a larger reform process across the University’s entire library system.

With the creation of an overarching Harvard Library Board and the appointment of Helen Shenton as executive director, Harvard has taken the first steps towards realizing a long-term centralization process.

The decision, announced this past December, followed the Library Work Group’s publication of wide-reaching recommendations to improve efficiencies in a system facing rising costs and significant redundancies.

"What we intend is to create ... a single university library," Cline adds. "We’ll all work under a big umbrella."

In the past, according to Cline, administrators at Harvard’s different schools have separately dealt with collection strategies at their respective library units.

"We think we can do better by bringing in new alignments," Cline says.

Colleagues say that Cline has always focused on the wider library system.

Director of Development for the Harvard College Library Peggy D. Molander says that Cline ensured that people "understand that college libraries are not just Widener."

"[She is] a wonderful ambassador," Molander says.

Darnton says Cline was an active participant in the discussion to recast the unified Harvard Library.

"Nancy was a crucial voice in developing the ideas in the Work Group," Darton says. "She argued for the best interests of everyone."

Cline was also a principal orchestrator for the historic opening up of its collection to peer institutions, in line with the Work Group recommendations.

This January, Harvard announced that it would begin sharing its 17-million-volume collection with other Ivy League schools and MIT as part of the Borrow Direct program, nearly 10 years after the other schools started the program.

But when the program goes live for the Harvard community in summer 2011, Cline will be leaving her post.

"You never feel comfortable leaving something you’ve worked on for such a long time," Cline says. "But I’ll return as a user of the libraries."

—Staff writer Gautam S. Kumar can be reached at gkumar@college.harvard.edu.

—Staff writer Sirui Li can be reached at sli@college.harvard.edu.

This story has been revised to reflect the following correction.

CORRECTION: APRIL 3, 2011

The April 1 article "As Libraries Evolve, HCL Head Leaves" stated incorrectly that Nancy Cline oversees Harvard College's books. In fact, she oversees Harvard College Library's collection.