Word: houghtons
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...high quality does not, of course, allow the Houghton to be complacent; but it does allow it breathing space in which to ponder a more serious question that confronts it: that of its role within the University and, implicitly, the community. Many people have recently proposed that Harvard make greater efforts to involve the people of Cambridge in its intellectual life and, specifically, that it make the resources of its libraries more accessible to the public...
...Houghton, in other words, serves an international community. As many as half of the people who annually use the library have no connection with Harvard. To them, for a small charge, the Houghton readily makes its resources available...
...functions of a university," Harvard President James B. Conant observed at the opening of the Houghton, "is to act as a guardian of the cultural riches of the past. Our libraries and museums serve only in part our own students and our staff. To a large measure they are of benefit to the much greater world of scholars.... We are the servants of a community that extends far beyond these academic walls -- our responsibilities transcend both the immediate aims of this institution of learning and the days in which we live...
...Houghton Library is a world of its own, and the people within it, like Hofer, have found a life style of their own. It is a life style which rejects the values of middle class conservatism and prudishness as forcefully as do today's revolutionaries. It is a life style which looks with some awe and some reverence at the history of men and in its own way, affirms the existence of beauty and love...
...world of books and scholarship, however, runs the risk of becoming a dead one if it does not in some way relate to the incredible sweep of change that is going on around it. Hofer is deeply sensitive to this problem, probably the overriding problem that the Houghton now faces...