Libraries with highly restrictive access policies

In My Humble Opinion
1

On reviewing this page in the website of the Huntington Library, I was mildly astonished at how restrictive they are with regard to whom they let in to actually use any of their world famous collection. While it’s understandable that they don’t want the average Joe coming to the circulation desk and asking to check out the Ellesmere Manuscript for four weeks, it’s important to keep in mind that they own over five million items, some of which must surely be… you know…ordinary books that more people could be allowed to use, at least inside the library.

While this is entirely within their right as a private institution, it still seems odd, given the usual welcoming attitude of librarians toward the public, which is inculcated in library schools. And even most privately endowed libraries seem to be much more liberal. For example, without encountering any opposition, I was able to enter the USC music library to photocopy some lute music that I wanted. I’m not a student or alumnus of USC. I’ve been in several special collection rooms where I was allowed to handle medieval manuscripts, early printed books, and, in one case, pen and ink drawings by Hieronymus Bosch.

2

It’s not a great system, all right. I got a pass for the UofC system, as a townie, but it wouldn’t even let me into the room I wanted (biology). I can see them not wanting to check out hard-to-get specialty volumes, but why can’t it be like any Reference section, where you can read there and just not check things out, perhaps even leaving your driver’s license at the desk while you read.

3

Then what is your attitude about closed stacks libraries? (Where they don’t allow anyone but staff access to the shelves of books. You have to look things up in the catalog and ask for a book. No browsing.)

4

Closed stacks are fine, as long as there’s still a way to access their contents. I can understand their purposes as far as reducing the chance of a valuable book being stolen or damaged, or simply for reducing the rummaging and general mess-making that goes on in open stacks. If you have to request a book from closed stacks, the librarian will probably size you up and decide if you’re trustworthy enough to handle the book without chewing on it or flipping through it with jelly on your hands. And then, they’ll take your ID / license so you come back with it.

As far as being kept out of the biology room, perhaps there’s such a demand for the biology materials that a decision was made to limit access to biology students? Your chances of getting in may increase if you go at an off-time such as winter or summer break. It’s certainly a topic worthy of follow-up with a friendly librarian.

5

The Huntington Library is about as restrictive as they get. Once you get access there, you are called a “reader”.

That said, I’ve met some less than top of the line scholars who have been given that status. These same people come to my public library and can’t figure out how to request a back issue of Time magazine.

The librarians from there whom I’ve met are all very nice and not full of themselves at all.

Other notable special collections I’ve used were at the Claremont Colleges Honnold Library, not heavily used and UC Berkeley’s The Bancroft Library (‘The’ being part of the title.)

When I went to TBL (as I said ‘the’ is part of the title and they make sure you don’t forget it), I went with a friend of mine who is a librarian at UCLA. I knew I would have to fill out a whole bunch of paperwork to get in. I thought she would just get in with her official University of California ID.

Nope. She had to fill out the same forms.

Once past that point, everything went pretty well up in Berkeley. I even got to hold a copy of an original letter written to my research subject from no less than Gandhi!

Another trick to get in to a tightly restricted library is to see if it is a US Government Depository. There should be a sticker on the front door indicating this. If it is, the library has to let you in, although they may just restrict you to looking at US Government Documents.

This usually happens at law school libraries, which don’t like to let in the hoi polloi.

6

I got access to the Huntington Library, but only after a heck of a lot of bullcrap (yes, I’m self-censoring) from their staff. It stated pretty clearly on their policy that, if you were studying British history at the Ph.D. level at an American or Canadian institution, you could get a card as long as you had a note from one person who knew you personally and knew about your studies.

Now, when I was living in the LA area, I was still working on my doctoral dissertation, but working (as I still am) as a fundraiser at a college. No problem, I got a letter from the academic dean of the college, who’d also worked as a historian. I’d called ahead to the Huntington Library, and they’d cleared that as OK. Now, I had to take a day off of work to go to the Huntington, as their admissions staff were only there Monday-Friday (and that’s another :rolleyes: ), but at least I’d have a card so I could go there on Saturdays. I showed up at the agreed time, and I was told to wait in the lobby while the admissions head came down. After about ten minutes a very proper lady appeared, with a look on her face like I’d distracted her from something very important. I handed her my letter and my student details.

She looked at them for a few seconds and handed them back to me. “I’m sorry, but we cannot accept your application.” Why not? “You’re not attending an American or Canadian institution.” But…I’m a student at Oxford in England. “Well…the reason we have this policy is that we must only accept serious students with appropriate study skills.” WTF? Someone who’s doing a doctoral dissertation in British history at a school in England is not a “serious student?” She seemed to see absolutely no irony in the situation.

So, the upshot of it was…I had to get a letter from my supervisor. Not normally a problem, but of course, since my supervisor was in England (hint, hint), I needed to write to her, and I wouldn’t get it for at least a week. “Well, you’ll have to come back then.” So, the vacation day I took off of work was all for naught. Have a nice day.

I am so glad I don’t live in LA anymore.

7

When I was at Indiana U./Bloomington, home of the Kinsey Institute, all my buddies who were Russian History Ph.D. students were trying to think up topics that would gain them entry to the Kinsey Institute’s library. I never tried myself, but rumor on campus was that if you could somehow think up a sexuality-related research topic, you could gain access to the library.

8

What about the Library in thr British Museam. When we took the tour, it looked pretty imposing.

9

Yes, but the Huntington Library is in San Marino.

That makes all the difference. :o

10

The access policy for Harvard’s libraries is generally pretty insane.Here’s the access options available to use the main library, Widener, if you’re a non-Harvard scholar.

11

Imposing? Yes. Restrictive? Not particularly. This is partly to do with the fact that it’s essentially a public institution. The Museum’s website states:

But it is worth noting that the Library at the British Mseum, unlike in the past,

Access to the Reading Rooms at the British Library requires jumping through a few hoops. However, whether you’re a prof, a grad student, a school student, or a regular member of the public, it appears that if you can demonstrate a genuine need to use the collection, you will not be prevented from doing so.

Melandry: I ran up against the Widener’s strict policies a few years ago. I was in the US doing research for my professor back in Australia, and i had been using the Harvard University Archives, located on campus in the Pusey Library (no problems at all getting access). When the archives closed at 4:45pm i decided to do a bit more secondary research in the Widener. Despite the fact that i had been in the university’s archives all day, and i had a letter from my professor stating the nature of our project and the type of research that i was doing, they still refused to allow me into the Widener. I was told by the guy on the desk that i would need to demonstrate to them that the sources i wished to consult could not be found at any public library in the Boston area. As i had only a few days in Boston anyway, i told him very politely what he could do with his policy, and left.

The very idea that one could be refused entry to a university library shocked me completely at the time. Coming from Australia, where basically all universities are public, i was used to an open library policy. Of course, only registered students and faculty can borrow from university libraries in Australia, but any member of the public can just come in to read or do research. They don’t even check ID.

My grad school here in the US, Johns Hopkins University, allows anyone to come in. All you have to do, if you’re not a student or a faculty member, is allow the security person to take a photocopy of a piece of ID, like a driver’s licence. This allows them to keep track of who is in the library.

Duke: I sympathise with your story. I understand that libraries with rare and fragile material, or expensive collections, don’t want every grubby hand in the world poring over their pristine books and manuscripts. But there is a point at which caution becomes officiousness. You should have told her that your university was training “serious students” centuries before the Spanish even set foot in California. It wouldn’t have done you any good, but it might have made you feel better.

12

Thanks all for your responses. What with The Great Banning of March '03 I forgot to come back and check this thread. vb-man, is that the University Of Chicago you’re talking about?

As a Life Alumnus of UCLA I have permanent access and borrowing privileges, though somewhat restricted. I’m not allowed to check out more than five items, and I only get to keep them for four weeks.

I know from my own time in library school that libaries often carefully define the groups they intend to serve and at what level. Obviously in the case of a university library, the highest priority goes to serving students, faculty, and staff. Alumni and reciprocal scholars usually come in a close second, with everyone else in distant third. Still, I think anyone can use the reference section. They might have to pay $5 for a reference pass. In addition they have a program where you can join the Friends Of The Library for a modest fee, and then have checkout privileges similar to those of alumni.

13

btw, S of P, of the Huntington’s 5 million items, I think the majority of them are letters and individual documents. That seemed to be the case when I did one of my research projects there.

14

You want a restrictive Library? Harvard’s library system, is incredibly restrictive. Unless you’re a student or faculty member, you can’t get into most branches without permission from God(the Andover Theological Library being an exception). If you have a Ph.D. you can get into the Reading Room at the Widener, but you still can’t get into the stacks.

15

It’s sad. As noted in the OP a private institution can do what it wants. But I’d feel pretty left out of things if I were a townie in Cambridge and wanted access to a good research library. It’s hard to imagine that any of the public facilities at my disposal would even approach what Harvard’s libraries can offer. And yet I’d be living with this massive institution, in my back yard but completely off limits.

If I wanted to read a book about the Norse colonization of Greenland, or Popes of the early medieval period…books on both of which topics I’ve checked out at UCLA…I’d be plumb out of luck. You don’t usually find that sort of thing at your local Carnegie library.

16

The monetary part of the Harvard system is really the pits, too. As a PhD candidate elsewhere in Boston I could qualify for access, and I will probably need to do so when I get to the dissertation stage, but where am I supposed to come up with the money? The Hall Pass is free but insanely restrictive, if you want to check anything out, even for 3 months it’s $275! As a grad student, I don’t have that sort of money lying around, and I don’t understand why Harvard needs it, considering how huge their endowment is, etc. Some money, yes, $275, way too much. And I guess it could be a hedge against my stealing books, but I bet if you do that they charge you even more, so that’s not justification.

Spectre of Pithecanthropus, luckily there are other college libraries in Boston, none the quality of Harvard, but you wouldn’t be totally out of luck for academic books…

17

Harvard charges $275 for three months’ research in their libraries? Good Lord.

And Melandry, you will probably not be surprised to know that Harvard raised over $400 million from individual and corporate donors last year (according to the CASE report which came out last week). They were #2 in the country in fundraising; last year they were #1. Talk about a place that doesn’t need the money. $275 for three months…and I thought the Institute of Historical Research in London was unreasonable for charging 25 pounds for a month.

18

I took the Human Sexuality course at IU, and that got me access to the Kinsey Institute library. No problems, no questions asked.

I did, however, have great difficulties with the Lilly Library at IU, and the precious Gutenberg Bible there. They’re a little picky about that thing.

19

re: the $275 to use the Harvard libraries. Wow, I didn’t know about that. Still, although the university can get along just fine without charging the occasional $275 fee, I can think of a couple of reasons they would do so.

a. Even though the University isn’t hurting for cash, they can be rather tight-fisted about disbursing funds to the various departments, including libraries. The one I worked at (Tozzer archaeology & ethnology) was able to do a lot of what they did because of direct donations from alumni.

b. They don’t really want people from outside Harvard going through their stacks, and the fee is meant to be more of a nuisance than a fund-raiser.

Neither of these reasons speak very well of the school, and I’d like to see them changed. 'course, I doubt that my continued lack of donations is going to make a very powerful statement to the alumni committee.