Fees for Research Library Use by "Outsiders": A Symposium - Views on the Fee Policy; The Situation at Harvard; The Situation at Columbia; Should Research Libraries Impose Fees Upon Visiting Scholars?

FIRST MAY I stress that I do not speak as a professional librarian but as one who is often responsible for appointing young scholars to teaching positions, as one who has used great research libraries here and abroad, and as a Harvard graduate who is disturbed by the present policy of fees at Widener. May I also say that I am idealist enough to view the research library essentially as an. educational institution rather than as a business that must pay its way; its educational service, in fact, is precisely the claim of the private research library to donations or endowments. Certainly I have no argument against levying fees upon undergraduate,:? or graduate students who wish to use the ftarvard Libraries as an aid to completing their degrees in another institution. Instead, I am concerned with the increasing fees levied by research libraries if they are levied on bona fide scholars not primarily occupied in earning degrees in "outside" institutions, if they are levied