College libraries?

[prunesnprisms.livejournal.com]

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.

Comments

[jadelennox]

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.

[prunesnprisms.livejournal.com]

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.

[siderea]

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.