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College libraries?

Drawing a bit on the theme of the earlier post on adult education, I was wondering something slightly different.

I'm about to start a master's program online, and the degree requirements will mean that I have to have access to a college library. Tufts is the most convenient, but Harvard is pretty convenient too, as I work and live on the red line.

Anyone know anything about getting access to these university's libraries as a non-student? This isn't my only source of information, but we've got a pretty diverse crowd here and I thought someone might know a bit about it.

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No one will ever check an ID when you go into the Tufts libraries. I don't know about borrowing privileges -- I know I can get them as an alum but I don't know about random members of the community -- but you could always walk in and ask. Or, heck, you could just walk in and use the books as long as you don't need to take them anywhere. They even have a cafe in the library.

Harvard libraries are incredibly fascist. They're one of the only local college libraries which aren't in this network which shares its privileges & collections, because they're Better Than You And They Hate You. I've heard a rumor that they'll let you touch Widener if you pay them vast gobs of money.

The Tufts library is just at the top of my street, I think (I live off Packard) so it's really close. I wasn't too worried about needing an ID to get in, but I don't know what all I'm going to need for research, so it'd make me feel better if I weren't sneaking around waiting to get busted (I'd be a terrible criminal, as I'm always certain I'm about to get busted). But it ought to be a trivial matter to just ask.

Is Tufts quarters or semesters?

Semesters. And no, there's no ID required to get into Tufts libraries, at least not Tisch. I used to spend all kinds of time at Tufts visiting my best friend (I'm from NC) and would always go and do my homework in Tisch. In fact I wrote one of my best undergraduate papers there :) Oh, how I miss Tisch...how I miss Tufts in general....

Here's the Tisch website: http://www.library.tufts.edu/tisch/

Here's the page on Who Can Borrow: http://www.library.tufts.edu/tisch/who_can_borrow.htm

And the relevant paragraph for you:

"Tisch Affiliates

"Tisch Library provides the opportunity for individuals outside the Tufts community to purchase borrowing privileges at Tisch Library through the Tisch Affiliates program. The Tisch Affiliate program provides a six-month membership for $150.00 or a one-year membership for $200.00. Tisch Affiliate membership provides borrowing privileges for the circulating book, software, government document and score collections of both the Tisch and Music libraries; use of the microform and periodical collections; in-library access to electronic databases and e-journals not restricted by vendor licensing; and in library use of the Tisch and Music Library video and audio collections.

"Please contact the Tisch Library circulation staff at 617-627-3347 for additional information."

My goodness! Thank you so much!

:) No problem. (I don't know exactly why, but I absolutely love Tisch...)

Another "No Way" on Harvard, their libraries are not community-friendly at all.

That is a real shame. Come to think of it I remember having a friend up to visit who just wanted to see the inside of the Widener library and us being denied to even walk inside of it. Blah on snobbery.

Hmmm... I know the MIT libraries are fairly easy to get into. Harvard was a bit tougher.

Use Harvard? As a non-student?

*falls about chortling madly*

Er, no. Most other uni libraries will let you in and not check IDs, though there may be id requirements for net access. MIT offers guest wireless access.

Well, you know, it's not outside the realm of possibility. The reason I asked is because I didn't know.

Oh, sorry, did that come out like I was snarking at you? No, I'm snarking at Harvard. Their superior attitude -- "Why do you have the right to sell us a cup of coffee? Because you know, we're Harvard." -- is a source of much amusement to me.

The rest of us just sneer and use interlibrary loan. So sorry if that came out like my sneering was at anyone other than them. They don't even let all their own employees get into Widener. God.

It did, a little. But after seeing how accessible nearly all the area libraries are, it feels a little dumb for Harvard to be so exclusive about theirs.

Well, in their defense (good grief, I'm defending Widener?!), Harvard was founded in 1640 or so and doesn't seem to have caught on to the idea of taking books out of circulation. There are things on the circulating shelves of Widener that other institution put in their rare book rooms.

I use everybody's libraries. :) What field are you researching?

1) Tufts is wonderful about guests.

2) MIT lets absolutely anyone in to all of it's libraries, except possibly the Retrospective Collection. It has a really eclectic collection. In addition to the obvious technical stuff you'd expect, their humanities collections go in the wierdest directions. For instance, I'm a music history buff, and MIT is great -- for no reason I can see -- in it's medieval music resources. MIT doesn't even have a decent (i.e. pre-1650) music history course. Go fig.

MIT has the singular trait that it's Humanities and Sciences libraries are open 24hrs a day during the term.

3) Every Harvard library is allowed to set its own policies. Hell will freeze over (which it probably has, tonight ;) before you get into Wiedener. But the other libraries may be open to you as a guest. I've used the Isham Music Library there without problems, for instance.

4) BU allows people in, but I've never really tried to use them, as they're not convenient to me.

5) Leslie University seems to admit the general public to it's library. They have extensive education and social work collections. I've only had to go there once, but it's about 5 blocks from Harvard Sq.

Actually, it's a library science program! I need a place to study, and a facility to use for whatever class research that may come my way. And then I'm also really lazy sometimes about getting up and going where I need to go, so I was thinking that the two unis closest to me would be the best bet, because otherwise I might be less willing to go.

Good tip on MIT and Lesley! I don't know what all they may have that I can use but I will definitely check them out.

>> Actually, it's a library science program!

If you need LIS specific materials that are worth the hike into Boston: I don't know whether having random people walk in is officially allowed or not, but I've never seen Simmons card at the door. You just won't be able to log onto the computers (except the OPAC-specific ones in front). Things are kind of shuffled around for renovation, but the LIS stuff is on the fourth floor.

And Widener-- yeah. enroll, or get hired by them. But fortunately, there are a lot of other libraries around.

Simmons was almost my choice, but I liked the curriculum at Drexel so much more. Hard to explain--just the difference between Simmons assuming everyone wants to work with a public or school library, and Drexel assuming everyone wants to manage a database of digital data. But yeah, I imagine they'd be pretty friendly to work with. It's just hard to GET there from here--no Fenway parking, and the green line is a world away from where I work in Quincy.

If your near the red line in Somerville/Cambridge (judging by your Tufts/Harvard question) you can get off the Red Line at Central, and then take the 47 bus right to Simmons-- if there's ever somethig field-specific that you can't get closer by.

But yeah- parking=no go.

I actually come from a computer programming background-- I thought I was making a major career change, and chose Simmons because of it's professional focus-- but now I'm realizing that my interest really does like on the Information Science side, so there's a good chance I'll go on to a Ph.D somewhere with a focus that better matches my own.

So, yes, Simmons is a good school, with a strong focus on actually working in an academic/school/public library. But I think that for the techie-curriculum, Drexel is stronger.

I had not realized that you were attending Simmons. Are you thinking of a Ph.D in the library field or branching out?

Mind if I friend you?

Sure =^)

Oh, and every academic library system here abouts has it's own web page, possibly with online searching. Tufts has a service for answering reference questions on line, which is wonderful, and, no, you don't have to be a student to use it.

The Boston Public library downtown has wonderful resources.

Also, I am not sure if this works from the Boston Public, but there is a such thing as the Boston Library Consortium. I have a card as a Tufts student, so I don't know hwo it works for civilians, but if you can get in through Boston Public (which is in this network), it gives you borrowing provledges to many New England libraries, including Tufts.

Good luck!

The BPL is so far away from my house and work I'm afraid that I wouldn't be as likely to use it because of the difficulty of getting there for me. I know it's an excellent facility though. I've been told that a university library will work the best for me.

if you have a boston library card (easy enough to get) you can have them send books to a branch near you. same for somerville libraries and their participating circle.

it also can't hurt to ask some of the local libraries about reciprocal lending priviledges in conjunction w/drexel's program. you may be able to search drexel's catalogue and have them send resources to the library of choice throug inter-library-loan.

also, if it's a graduate program, you may also be eligible for other library access for libraries around the world. a coworker of mine getting his PhD at tufts did lots of travel to england and was able to get lending priviledges at the british library. i don't remember if he only got materials when he was there, or if he had them send stuff to tufts' library and pick it up there.

i took a grad class at harvard extension and hated the lack of access to the library. they had this lame-ass (technical term!) excuse for a library in the extension building. was only filled with whatever the teachers had pulled for classes. what is the worth of the school if you can't have access to their holdings? pissed me off to no end. said if i was "full time" or working towards a specific degree at the extension school i could maybe get an ID and access. they gave me such a runaround as far as trying to accomodate me. i said screw it and took advantage of Mass Art's awesome art library, the MFA's library, the BPL and their branches, and a museum library down in hartford.

that said, bookmark the bpl website: http://www.bpl.org as with many libraries, their online catalog is awesome.

best of luck to you & your studies.

All of that sounds like good information! I will definitely check out what the BPL has to offer.

Prunesnprisms, it sounds like you are all set without Widener access, but here's some info on Widener that might be useful for others:

Widener borrowing policies: http://hcl.harvard.edu/widener/about/borrowing.html

About "enrolling or getting hired" to use Widener: enrolling in Harvard Extension counts. It's open admission and relatively inexpensive.

For the last couple of terms I have been taking Harvard Extension classes for grad credit, which means I can buy a Special Borrower Card, so I can go in to Widener, browse the stacks and take out books.

It seems that if you take any classes at Harvard Extension you can get a Reading Room card for Widener at no extra charge. You can't browse the stacks or borrow books, but you can have materials brought to you in the Reading Room. Harvard Extension School library policies (http://extension.harvard.edu/2004-05/resources/libraries.jsp)

The Widener policies says that non-Harvard "eligible researchers" can buy Special Borrower Cards for $275/3mo, $450/6mo, $$750/yr. But it doesn't say who is an "eligible researcher." It doesn't mention any kind of credentials, so this is probably just a phrase to give them a little wiggle room.

Sorry to go on so long. This is partially self-serving. I'm probably not going to be at Harv. Ext. next term, so I want to find a way to keep my Widener habit!

Wow. That is quite a fee.

Do you mean to say that you go to the Extension school, pay fees and all that, and still can't browse the shelves in the library? That kindof sucks.

If you're in a degree program at Harvard Extension, you can use the libraries for no extra charge. But if you're just taking classes one at a time without enrolling in a program, you have to pay extra for the libraries. (The extra fee is $100/term.) I really ought to get off my butt and enroll.

Harvard can be a real pain in the neck, but I do think the Extension School is a good deal.

I am neither taking classes at Harvard Extension or planning to take them there, though.

(Sorry about the mis-placed comment above, it was supposed to go under your reply about "quite a fee.")

I am neither taking classes at Harvard Extension or planning to take them there, though.

Right, I was just rambling a bit about it because a couple of people mentioned Widener. Hope your classes at Drexel go well! It sounds like a good program.

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