Navigating the Harvard Libraries

 The contents of the Harvard Library cover all languages and all eras of history; they represent all branches of learning and all parts of the globe. They are massive: upwards of 22,000,000 items, according to some estimates, a number that inches ever higher all the time. And they exist in an extraordinary array of information types, including manuscripts, maps, data sets, sound recordings, photographs and films, legal documents, and cultural artifacts.

You’ll find everything in Harvard libraries from papyrus fragments to a #metoo archive to the most recent issues of the journal Nature. And it’s all available for you to encounter, interrogate, learn from, and use to create something new and meaningful of your own.

Harvard’s many libraries are places that inspire wonder, and allow for infinite imagining, but given their number and complexity, they can bewilder as well as bedazzle. It’s helpful to remember that libraries are human spaces powered by people with deep expertise, who want to share what they know – and most of all, want to create conditions in which you can learn and thrive.

Over the course of a semester, your Expos 20 or Studio 20 section will typically meet one or more times with a librarian from Lamont or Widener, who will demystify the research process and introduce you to library databases (including HOLLIS) that might be a good fit for your research projects. They’ll model ways to craft good searches, to test out the appropriateness of sources for your project, and to cite what you find. Ideally, your library engagements in Expos will equip you with strategies that you’ll be able to use for other course-related research projects.

Harvard librarians also create research guides on many subjects and for many of the academic departments at Harvard. Library research guides also exist for many individual Expos classes.

You get better at research with practice, and you’ll feel more comfortable with research projects over time. As you get acquainted with the libraries, there are many ways to seek help. In addition to reaching out to the librarian you meet in your Expos section, you can use our Ask-a-Librarian online form for questions, chat with a librarian online, or talk in person, one-on-one, at a time that’s good for you. Sue Gilroy is the Library’s point person for the Harvard College Writing Program, and you can also email her directly with questions.