Can You Really Store a Library in Cyberspace?

Langdell Renovation

2/1/2008

Now You See It, Now You Don’t:

Renovating Langdell Hall & Other Tales[1]

Harry S. (Terry) Martin III

Librarian & Professor of Law

Harvard Law School

———————

Presented to the Harvard Law School Alumni

25 April 1996

———————

In 1991, I was invited to Canberra to deliver a paper at a library convention.[2] While there, I was also asked to deliver an after-dinner speech in the Great Hall of the High Court of Australia. As I concluded my after-dinner remarks, an Australian librarian advanced on the podium holding a long piece of hollow, decorated wood.

“I understand you play the didjeridu,” she said.

“Why, yes,” I replied. “I do. It’s the oldest form of trumpet in the world and I am a trumpeter. I learned to play the didjeridu two years ago on my first visit to Australia.”[3]

“Will you play for us now?” she asked.

“Of course,” I replied and I did.

The spectacle of an American librarian and a Harvard professor playing this native Aboriginal wind instrument in the Great Hall of the High Court of Australia was so striking, that to this day no one remembers my brilliant paper on digital libraries or my inspiring talk on international library cooperation. Still and all, I had a wonderful time “Down Under” and was very grateful to Jacqui Elliott, the Librarian of the High Court of Australia, for arranging the invitation.

Therefore, when 3,000 law librarians descended on Boston in July of 1993 for their annual convention, I was delighted when Jacqui called me to ask if she could visit Harvard Law School, the “temple of the law.” Naturally, I said yes and arranged to conduct the tour myself, though I was somewhat nervous. Not only had Jacqui been very gracious to me on my previous concert tour of her country, but she works in a stunning modern building with the most beautiful view from her office of any law librarian in the world.

I met Jacqui outside Langdell one hot July morning. We entered Langdell past the statue of Joseph Story carved by his son, William Wetmore Story. I took my usual opportunity to roll up a copy of the Harvard Gazette and stick it in Joseph’s hand. The main elevator was cranky that morning so we walked up two flights to the Reading Room.

On the way up, I asked her if she would autograph our copy of her Pacific Law Bibliography.[4] She seemed pleased we even had it, but I explained that our Australian collection was quite extensive.

When we entered the Reading Room, Jacqui immediately noticed that most of the lights were turned off. I explained that it had been exceptionally hot during the past two weeks and that the lights in our false ceiling, installed in 1960 by a famous Broadway lighting designer, not only consumed 70% of the electrical energy in the building but produced a lot of heat to boot. To keep the temperature down, we turned the main lights off when the temperature hit 80º F. Actually, the temperature had already hit 88º and it was not yet noon. I could see only two readers, both in shorts, strategically placed in front of the large fans vainly attempting to circulate the humid air.

Jacqui asked what library staff were doing at one end of the room where several books stood splayed open on the tables. I explained that a heavy rain the day before had caused the Cambridge storm sewers to back up and one of our basement stacks areas had flooded. Books on the lowest shelves got wet. Fortunately, only a few were in the Harkness freezer waiting to be shipped to our freeze-dry contractor in Philadelphia. Most of the books just needed a good airing.

Before Jacqui could ask any more questions, I ushered her into the antique elevator that graces the Reading Room. Fortunately, we were friends, because the elevator is rather cozy for two people and positively intimate for three. When Langdell was designed, only library staff or faculty with offices in the stacks were expected to need access to the building’s interior. That also explains why the stairs that lead from the Reading Room to the stacks are so narrow: only the stack boys used them.

When we reached the basement, I carefully closed the interior gate to the elevator and made sure the door was shut all the way. Otherwise, no one could call the elevator back up to the Reading Room. We proceeded north through the basement stacks, through the periodical collection, through the British collection, flicking on lights as we went. I began to wonder if I shouldn’t have stayed in the Reading Room long enough to look up the call number of Jacqui’s bibliography. At the end of the floor, we descended a small, iron staircase to the Australian, Canadian, and New Zealand stacks.

“Australia really is down under, isn’t it!” I heard Jacqui mutter.

The carrels in the north sub-basement were, as I expected, utterly deserted. The lack of natural light and low traffic keep the area somewhat gloomy even in a hot, mid-summer day. In the bleak midwinter, some students refuse even to visit the area alone. I don’t blame them. The only students I’d ever met enthusiastic about being assigned a carrel here were a former monk, used to isolation, and a former member of the New Zealand All-Blacks, the national rugby team, who was afraid of nothing.

We toured the Australian collection, with many gratifying exclamations from Ms. Elliott:

· “Now that’s very rare.”

· “Did you know that’s out-of-print?”

· “Even I don’t subscribe to that!” [I made a note of that item.]

Unfortunately, we did not spot her own work. So we retraced our steps up the small, iron staircase, back through the British collection and periodical stacks, flicking lights on as we went. Our Financial Dean some years ago insisted we put ten-minute timers on our stack lights. We spend thousands on the Reading Room lights but save pennies in the stacks.

When we reached the elevator, it refused to come when called. So we walked up the three stack levels back to the Reading Room. Fortunately, we encountered no one on the way and avoided the staircase sarabande. At the top, I discovered that, indeed, someone had not closed the door to the elevator tightly.

Looking in HOLLIS, we discovered her work was shelved in the ILS reference collection in Lewis Hall. Thus, we avoided a repeat trip to the Langdell basement.

I did manage to get Jacqui’s autograph. I can only hope that her next trip to Harvard will introduce her to a library truly fitting for “the temple of the law.”

What Renovation Brings

For some years, the Law School has been planning a major renovation of Langdell Hall. The newest portions of Langdell are 68 years old; the oldest are ninety. Its mechanical and electrical systems have long exceeded their expected lifetimes.

When I arrived as the Law School Librarian in 1981, my only condition was that Langdell receive a new roof, so library staff would not have to set out buckets in the Reading Room when it rained. Dean Vorenberg agreed and a new copper roof was installed. I then became more familiar with the building, my list of desired improvements grew, and I began a long process of advocating improvements in the library’s physical facilities.

The current project to renovate Langdell Hall is the culmination of several years of work by different Law School committees with three different architectural firms. The major effort was put in by a committee chaired by Professor Andrew Kaufman that presented several alternatives to the Faculty in 1991. The major recommendations of the Kaufman Committee were accepted by the Faculty and the current project will implement the basic program that the Kaufman Committee put aside in the spring of 1992 pending the completion of the Law School’s capital campaign and the construction of Hauser Hall.

In February of 1995, Dean Robert C. Clark appointed a small working group to implement the general plan postponed three years earlier. That group consists of

· Sandra Coleman, Administrative Dean,

· Terry Martin, Librarian & Professor of Law, chair,

· Stuart Rees, HLS ‘97,

· Joseph Singer, Professor of Law, and

· Paul Upson, Assistant Dean for Finance & Administration.

Curt Heuring and Jim Donovan from the University Planning Office serve as project managers. The Turner Construction Company was re-hired to serve as a construction consultant. Shepley, Bulfinch, Richardson & Abbott, the same firm that planned the original building, were re-engaged as project architects.

Last June we presented to the Dean a proposal for a two-year, $33 million project that would close most of Langdell Hall - the north and south wings and the top of the west wing[5] - from June 7, 1996, until August 27, 1997. To maintain library services for the School during this period, the second and third floors of the east wing of Pound Hall will become a temporary library for the 1996-97 academic year.

There are two major purposes in renovating Langdell. One is to replace mechanical and electrical systems that in many cases date to the construction of the original wing in 1908. Another is to replace areas designed for a specific purpose, like stacks or classrooms, with a more flexible construction that will increase the School’s options for using the building in the future. The immediate result is to provide a more modern, comfortable, and flexible Library facility.

In particular, the Library will provide a more comfortable environment for people and for books, quicker orientation and easier movement through the building, integrated stack and study areas, greater seating variety with every seat near a power outlet and a network connection, wheel chair access everywhere, and gender equity in the rest rooms.

Quality Not Quantity. In general, the result of renovation will be to improve greatly the quality of library spaces and the amount of space devoted to information technology. The number of reader seats stays at 700 but the space per reader increases. Staff space is slightly more compact than at present but more efficient and comfortable. Space for computers, microforms, and multi-media increases. The book capacity stays at its present 500,000 volumes in Langdell open stacks but the environment becomes stable and controlled.

In fact, although nearly every other major law library has engaged in a significant construction project at some point in the last twenty years, this is the first project not to be driven by a need to house more books.[6]

Library Organization & Services. One by-product of a more flexible building is an opportunity to reorganize library services. For instance, technical services staff now scattered over three floors will be consolidated in the renovated first level, on the tunnel system that connects most Law School buildings.

One major change will move the main Circulation Desk from its present location in the fourth floor Reading Room to a new home on the second floor at the main entrance to the building. A consolidated reserve collection and the library’s interlibrary loan and document delivery units will also be here. A new lounge appears south of the main entrance where readers will find current newspapers, magazines, and a display of new books, plus soft seating, e-mail terminals, and chess sets. A coffee service is being contemplated. To the north of the main lobby, the current legal periodical collection will be shelved, located by the main entrance, the central stair and elevator bank, and a photocopy room. Further north, in what is now a classroom, will be a new 24-seat computer classroom and the library’s microform and audio-visual collections.

Replacing the two stack-supported floor levels of the central stacks with a single new floor aligned with the rest of the building and inter-flooring the North Middle classroom will create a new third floor holding stacks and carrels.

A state-of-the-art reference and information center will be constructed on the fourth floor of Areeda Hall, adjacent to the Langdell Reading Room and connected to the International Legal Studies Library by a new bridge between Lewis and Areeda Hall. Reference offices will be located on the balcony above the service desks.

As a result, the Langdell Reading Room becomes a quieter place to read and study. The stacks will be removed from the windows, bringing more natural light into the room. Lounge chairs and carrels by the windows prove very popular.

Can You Really Store a Library in Cyberspace?

Now You See It, Now You Don’t:

Renovating Langdell Hall & Other Tales[1]

What Renovation Brings

Benefits of

Renovation

Building

Library

· Central heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning and improved insulation and window treatments

· Year-round comfort for readers and retardation of book disintegration

· New lighting, finishes, and furniture

· Improved study atmosphere and environment

· New electrical systems and telecommunications wiring

· Every seat near a power outlet and a network connection

· Interflooring of core stacks and North Middle classroom

Fewer long tables

Many more carrels

Ten private studies

Two computer labs

Group study and conference rooms

Many more lounge seats

Building entrance is library entrance

Four new elevators

New stair towers

Wheel chair ramps on west link entrances and to classrooms

Wheel chair lift at east entrance

Consistent floor levels