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

Re: Thank you!

[julishka.livejournal.com]

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.

Re: Thank you!

[prunesnprisms.livejournal.com]

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