Harvard University is undertaking a two-year construction project to upgrade Widener Library’s heating, ventilation and air conditioning, electrical, lighting, fire suppression, and security systems. In addition, two new reading rooms and staff work space will be added.
The library will remain open during the project, which began in mid-June, although parts of the building may be closed during some phases of construction and materials held in temporary storage may be unavailable for short periods of time.
Jeffrey Horrell, Harvard College associate librarian for collections, told the Boston Globe that the project was aimed at protecting the collection, which includes a Gutenberg Bible and a Shakespeare first folio, from sunlight, summer humidity, and bus and automobile fumes from nearby Massachusetts Avenue. “If we didn’t do this, the long, slow cooking of books would continue,” said Horrell. “What we’d basically be saying is, ‘We’re going to let all this information, work, and knowledge disappear.’”
Posted June 28, 1999.