Word: lamont
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According to its website, Lamont Library is the brainchild of Keyes D. Metcalf, Harvard’s top librarian until 1955. But Lamont also owes credit to the educational philosophy of Metcalf’s time, embodied by the famous “Red Book” of 1943. Written by a group of faculty led by Provost Paul H. Buck and President James B. Conant ’13, the “Red Book” declared the high purpose of a 20th Century undergraduate education: Harvard must not just teach skills but also civic character, moral temerity...
...Buck spoke at Lamont’s grand opening. “Harvard, like the world at large,” Buck said, “has been a battle-ground between good and evil. Our better selves have cherished freedom...and have sought its advancement.” Lamont Library was not just one arm of a research institution, it was one arm of a greater mission: the search for truth, and the commitment to building a better world...
Thus curricula and libraries alike are built not to satisfy a broad philosophy or purpose, but to meet specific student demands. Sometimes the strategy has worked; student and faculty activists often do want what is best for them, The renovation of Lamont, unfortunately, might reveal the strategy’s flaws...
...thing, the café will be built in the same place that first brought me into contact with all the best parts of Lamont: the reference room, replacing the people who are the very core of Lamont’s resources. Moreover, reports of the Lamont renovation committee suggest that the reference desk will move to the third-floor stacks. Where, then, will we put the students who study there? And how will the main reading room preserve any quiet...
...just too much. After all, Lamont’s hours are extended, and the officialdom has even managed to keep the gates open until twelve, or at least most of the time. But the present complaint is a minor one, as easily solved as it is obvious. Quite simply, Lamont has two typing rooms but no place to leave typewriters. For the trustful, of course, this is no problem—the typist just leaves his machine when he goes to class or meals. One dislikes casting doubts upon human nature, but a glance at the statistics nevertheless indicates...