Departments in Widener

HCL Administration

Administrative offices of the Harvard College Library—the major libraries that support the Faculty of Arts and Sciences—are located in Widener Library. The HCL Administration includes the Roy E. Larsen Librarian for Harvard College, the Associate Librarian for Administrative Services, Associate Librarian for Collection Development, Associate Librarian for Collection Management, and Associate Librarian for Research and Instruction. In addition to their organization-wide responsibilities, the HCL Administration also oversees and coordinates the departmental activities of Widener Library, including Access Services, Collection Development, Research Services, and HCL Technical Services.

HCL administrative services are also housed in Widener and include Communications, Development, Operations, Financial Services, Human Resource Services, Information Technology Services, and Preservation & Imaging (Conservation, Imaging Services). See HCL Administration for more information.

Return to Top

Access Services

Access Services actively supports the teaching and research mission of the Harvard College Library by managing programs, projects, and services dedicated to providing access to the Widener Collections, housed in the Widener and Pusey libraries and the Harvard Depository, to members of the Harvard University community and beyond.

The divisions of Access Services are organized by functional expertise and are as follows:

Circulation Division

Circulation and Phillips Reading Room
Widener Library, Room 160
Harvard University
Cambridge, MA 02138
Tel: 617-495-2414
Fax: 617-496-6385
E-mail (Circulation)
E-mail (Phillips Reading Room)

The Circulation Division is responsible for providing library patrons with access to materials housed in the Widener and Pusey stacks and for Widener materials housed at the Harvard Depository. The Circulation Division also staffs and maintains the Phillips Reading Room.

  • For information on borrowing, renewing, or returning material, consult the Borrowing page.
  • For information on obtaining privileges to enter the stacks, consult the Admittance page.
  • Contact information is available in the Widener Staff Directory.

Harvard Depository Transfer Division

Harvard Depository Transfer Division
Widener Library, Room G-30
Harvard University
Cambridge, MA 02138
Tel: 617-495-2448

The HD Transfer Division (HDT) is responsible for transferring materials from the Widener/Pusey stacks to HD in order to prevent overcrowding of the stacks. HDT works closely with Collection Development in all selection matters.

Interlibrary Loan Division

Interlibrary Loan Division
Widener Library, Room G-30
Harvard University
Cambridge, MA 02138
Tel: 617-495-2972

The Interlibrary Loan (ILL) Division borrows research material not available in the Widener Library for current Faculty of Arts and Sciences affiliates. The ILL Division also provides photocopies and loans circulating material to researchers at other institutions around the world.

Library Privileges and Billing Division

Library Privileges and Billing Division
Widener Library, Room 130
Harvard University
Cambridge, MA 02138
Tel: 617-495-4166 (Privileges)
Tel: 617-496-3015 (Billing)
Fax: 617-496-6385
E-mail (Privileges)
E-mail (Billing)

The Library Privileges and Billing Division is responsible for providing patrons with library privileges and access to Widener and Pusey libraries and carrels or hold shelves. The division also staffs the Billing Office in Widener.

  • For information on library privileges, please consult the Admittance page.
  • For information on billing or paying an overdue fine, please consult the Borrowing page.
  • Contact information is available in the Widener Staff Directory.

Serials Services Division

Serials Services Division
Widener Library, Room 190
Harvard University
Cambridge, MA 02138
Tel: 617-495-2422
Fax: 617-384-8400
E-mail

The Serials Services Division is responsible for organizing and providing access to Widener Library's collection of current periodicals and newspapers in the Periodicals Reading Room and newspaper collection on microfilm in the Newspaper Microfilm Reading Room. In addition, the Serial Services Division is responsible for receipt and payment of the Widener Periodicals collection in all formats. The division acts as a liaison to many periodical vendors and agencies to ensure the prompt and ongoing receipt of materials. The division also handles some material from the Government Documents collection.

Stacks Division

Stacks Division
Widener Library, Room 161
Harvard University
Cambridge, MA 02138
Tel: 617-495-2434
Fax: 617-496-6385

The Stacks Division is responsible for sorting, shelving, and caring for materials in the Widener and Pusey library stacks. The Stacks Division also provides assistance to patrons in locating materials within the stacks.

Return to Top

Collection Development

Collection Development
Widener Library, Room 140, G-60
Harvard University
Cambridge, MA 02138
Tel: 617-495-2425
Fax: 617-496-8704

The Widener Library collections are focused on support for teaching and research in the social sciences and humanities. Collection Development is responsible for the selection of library materials in English, the languages of Western Europe, and the languages of Sub-Saharan Africa for the Widener collections.

The selection program of the Collection Development is organized by languages and publication areas: Americana; English Collections; East, South, and Southeast Asian; Germanic, Dutch, Danish, Norwegian, and Swedish; French, Italian, Finnish, and North Atlantic; Latin American, Spanish, and Portuguese; Modern Greek; and Sub-Saharan African. Each area is overseen by a librarian who selects materials for purchase and guides the acquisition process with the assistance of a staff of bibliographic assistants who are part of Harvard College Library Technical Services.

Return to Top

Judaica Division

Judaica Division
Widener Library, Room M
Harvard University
Cambridge, MA 02138
Tel: 617-495-2985, 617-495-5335
Fax: 617-495-0403

The Judaica Division of the Harvard College Library has as its mission the documentation of the Jewish people throughout history in order to support teaching and research at Harvard and to serve as a resource for the scholarly community. The division is responsible for acquiring, cataloging, and providing reference and other public services for materials in Hebrew, Yiddish, and other languages, dealing with all aspects of Jewish culture. It maintains the largest collection of Israeli and Israel-related materials outside of the State of Israel.

The Judaica Division strives to make meaningful contributions to the research library community, particularly through sharing Harvard's electronic bibliographic data and by fostering cooperative projects with other institutions.

Return to Top

Middle Eastern Division

Middle Eastern Division
Widener Library, Room S
Harvard University
Cambridge, MA 02138
Tel: 617-495-2437

The Middle Eastern Collection of the Harvard College Library has as its mission the documentation of the Middle East, Central Asia, and the Caucasus throughout history in order to support the teaching and research at Harvard and to serve as a resource for the scholarly community. The division is responsible for the acquisition, cataloging, and public services of materials from what is broadly referred to as the Middle East, Central Asia, and the Caucasus and from related émigré communities. This includes resources from over 40 countries and in some 60 languages.

Return to Top

Research Services

Research Services
Widener Library, Rooms 220, 230, 240
Harvard University
Cambridge, MA 02138
Tel: 617-495-2971
Fax: 617-496-9802

Research Services supports the research and teaching needs of Harvard faculty, students, staff, and other individuals affiliated with the University. The division oversees the Reference Desk where librarians are available to answer reference and research questions in person and via e-mail, fax, telephone, and letter, as well as the Information Desk, which serves as an initial contact point for patrons. It also works extensively with both individuals and classes, providing in-depth consultations as well as course-related research instruction tailored to individual classes.

Additional information on the division's services is available in Widener's Reference Desk section. The Reference Desk is located in the Atkins Reference Room on the second floor of Widener and the Information Desk on the first floor in Circulation.

Limited assistance only can be provided to researchers and scholars not currently affiliated with Harvard University.

Return to Top

Slavic Division

Slavic Division
Widener Library, Room R
Harvard University
Cambridge, MA 02138
Tel: 617-495-2458
Fax: 617-496-2902

The Slavic Collection of the Harvard College Library has as its mission the documentation of the Slavic and Baltic countries throughout history in order to support teaching and research at Harvard and to serve as a resource for the scholarly community. The division acquires, catalogs, and provides public services for material from Russia, the former Soviet republics, and Eastern Europe, in all Slavic, Baltic, and Western languages, and publications in Slavic languages outside these geographic areas.

Return to Top

HCL Technical Services

HCL Technical Services is located off-site at:

HCL Technical Services
Harvard College Library
625 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02139
Tel: 617-495-1685
Fax: 617-384-7170

Contact information is available in the HCL Staff Directory.

HCL Technical Services is comprised of acquisitions and cataloging staff in language-based technical services divisions responsible for materials processing from purchase through provision of intellectual access.

HCL Technical Services has a Resource Web Site devoted to the collection and organization of documents, policies, and tools related to the acquisition and cataloging of library materials for Widener Library and other affiliated units of Harvard College Library.

The divisions of HCL Technical Services are based on language expertise and on geographic specialization in the publishing and book trades:

Other teams within HCL Technical Services perform specialized functions in support of the entire department, and in some cases offer services that reach beyond the Harvard College Library:

Individual specialists include the Principal Cataloger and the Projects Cataloger.

English Division

The English Division is responsible for acquiring and cataloging monographs in the languages of the British Isles and Ireland, Canada and the United States, central and southern Africa, India, east and southeast Asia, Australia, and the South Pacific.

In addition to cataloging English language materials, including Old and Middle English, the Division is responsible for cataloging Assamese, Austronesia, Bambara, Bengali, Blackfoot, Braj, Burmese, Chinese, Cornish, Cree, Dakota, Eskimo, Fijian, Gaelic, Galla, Guajarati, Hausa, Hindi, Indic, Indonesian, Irish, Japanese, Kongo, Korean, Malagasy, Malay, Malayalam, Manx, Maori, Marathi, Navajo, Nepali, Newari, Oriya, Palauan, Pali, Panjabi, Papiamento, Papuan-Australian, Prakrit, Samoan, Sanskrit, Scots, Shona, Swahili, Tagalog, Telugu, Thai, Tibetan, Tonga, Vietnamese, Welsh, and Yoruba.

French/Italian Division

In addition to acquiring and cataloging monographs in French and Italian, the Division is also responsible for collections in Romanian, and other related languages and dialects: Albanian, Creole French & Pidgins, Old and Middle French, Langue d'oc, Maltese, Provencal, Rhaeto-Romance, and Romany.

Germanic Division

The Germanic Division is responsible for acquiring and cataloging monographs in German, the Scandinavian languages, and other related languages. In addition to German, the languages for which the Division is responsible include: Afrikaans, Danish, Dutch and Middle Dutch, Esperanto, Faroese, Finnish, Frisian, Middle High and Old High German, Hungarian, Icelandic, Norwegian, Sami, romanized Serbo-Croatian, Swedish, Ugaritic, and Wendic.

Spanish/Portuguese Division

The Spanish/Portuguese Division is responsible for acquiring and cataloging monographs in Spanish, Portuguese, Basque, Catalan, Galician, Austurian, and in the indigenous languages of Mexico, Central and South America.

Serials Cataloging

The Serials Cataloging Team provides bibliographic access, authority control, and holdings information for serial publications, handling material in most languages written in the Roman alphabet. The team works with serial materials in all formats, including printed text, microforms, phonodiscs, CD-ROM and other electronic media.

As part of the University's commitment to the national CONSER Program, bibliographic records for all currently received titles are created and maintained according to the standards and agreed-on practices of the Program. Name authority work for headings on CONSER records is submitted to the national authority file through the NACO (Name Authority Cooperative) Program.

HCL/FAS Cataloging Support Services (CSS)

Cataloging Support Services is responsible for cataloging materials in all formats for a diverse group of over 30 libraries in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences.

Collection Development Support Services (CDSS)

Collection Development Support Services provides acquisitions and financial support to the monographs Divisions. CDSS liaisons to the Financial Services Department of Widener Library and specializes in the resolution of invoice problems.

Materials Management

The Materials Management Team is responsible for organizing and providing access to Widener Library's uncataloged or in-process holdings. The Team ensures that newly received materials are stored safely while awaiting cataloging, and then routed efficiently for cataloging and processing. Materials Management strives to make all materials available promptly upon request.

Principal Cataloger

The Principal Cataloger is responsible for the interpretation of rules, national standards and local policies and procedures. He coordinates descriptive cataloging policy for the divisions and teams in HCL Technical Services, develops training programs and provides training in both descriptive and subject cataloging to catalogers in HCL Technical Services and other HCL units, and to library assistants performing advanced cataloging. He is responsible for maintaining timely access to descriptive cataloging documentation for staff in HCL Technical Services and to subject cataloging documentation for staff in HCL Technical Services and other HCL units.

The Principal Cataloger also serves as the subject specialist for the Harvard University Library. He is responsible for the integrity of subject cataloging data in the HOLLIS system; performs database maintenance, including global change, for new and changed Library of Congress subject headings; and interprets policy for all units, HCL and HUL, contributing subject data into HOLLIS. The subject specialist serves as the main resource to other departments in HUL for questions related to policy for subject analysis in HOLLIS.

Projects Cataloger

The Projects Cataloger designs, implements, and monitors specialized cataloging projects tailored to the elimination of specific cataloging backlogs designated by the department head. The Projects Cataloger is also responsible for cataloging materials in Latin and in Ancient Greek.

Return to Top