Library Chief To Close the Books

When Sidney Verba ’53 started out as director of Harvard University Library (HUL) more than 20 years ago, the school’s collections were organized in a card catalog in the basement of Widener. Now, as Verba prepares to retire, a search for books in any of the 90 University libraries is a click away via the online HOLLIS catalog.

First appointed to the post by then-President Derek C. Bok in 1984, Verba will step down at the end of the academic year, now-Interim President Bok announced yesterday. Under Verba, Harvard joined forces with search engine Google to make thousands of books available online for free. He is the longest-serving library chief since Thaddeus Harris, who led Harvard’s libraries from 1831 to 1856.

“I’ve been at these jobs a long long time, and I want to have more time to do more research,” said Verba, the Pforzheimer University professor, who is in his 33rd year at Harvard. “It’s time.”

Retirement from his day-to-day University roles doesn’t mean academic retirement for Verba. Ascholar of political and civic participation, he will be working on a book that explores citizen voice.

Verba’s recent accolades include the Johan Skytte Prize in 2002—the highest international honor in political science—and being named as one of the “tweediest” professors by the now-defunct M Magazine.

These credentials are fitting for Verba, known as a pundit and a prankster by colleagues.

“He’s very genial, everybody likes him,” said Kenan Professor of Government Harvey C. Mansfield ’53, who was Verba’s Leverett House entryway mate during their College years. “He’s a jokester, that’s another reason why everybody likes him.”

Always ready with a quip to break the ice or the tension, Verba has chaired committees on affirmative action, ROTC and the issue of gays in the military, the last curricular review that instituted the Core requirements, and the revision of the Harvard calendar.

KEEPER OF THE BOOKS

Two decades after Verba was appointed as director of HUL, even non-Harvard affiliates can access University collections. Verba spearheaded Harvard’s partnership with Google to digitize thousands of books in its public domain. A side project, the Open Collections Program, will allow the public to access University research materials and primary sources.

Karin Trainer, university librarian at Princeton University Library, called Verba an “extraordinary champion” of HUL.

She said he had established a preservation program that is “the envy of everybody else in America,” enhanced the library’s infrastructure with the Library Digital Initiative, and expanded HUL’s storage options with the Harvard Depository.

In an open letter to the Harvard community, Bok wrote that he intends to “appoint an advisory committee this fall...with the goal of identifying a successor before Sid steps down.”

A PROFESSOR WHO CAN’T SAY NO

So what hasn’t Verba done?

Before taking the helm of HUL, Verba chaired the Government Department and later rose to become associate dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences for undergraduate education. He has also served as associate provost. Today, Verba heads the faculty advisory group of the Presidential Search Committee.

“On Sid Verba, I am one of his great admirers,” Bok wrote in an e-mail. “He is someone who has always done much more than he was asked to do and has never refused a request to go beyond the call of duty to help us out when we needed him.”

Indeed, Verba said that he is sometimes known as the “Ado Annie of academia,” referring to a character in the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical Oklahoma, who sings, “I’m just a girl who can’t say no.”

“I think of Harvard as an institution that transformed my life,” Verba said. “I don’t want to sound schmaltzy or sentimental, but that’s one of the reasons I like doing these things for the University because the University had an impact on my life.”

With his extensive experience in delivering decisions on controversial issues, Verba is the go-to guy for sticky situations.

“He’s the person that we turn to when we have difficult or controversial decisions to make,” said Government Department Chair Nancy L. Rosenblum ’69.

As for his resignation?

“We refuse to accept it,” Rosenblum said.

—Staff writer Lulu Zhou can be reached at luluzhou@fas.harvard.edu.