Nancy M. Cline
The world has lost a wonderful teacher, a gifted “statesman,” and a champion for fairness. Sid led Harvard’s libraries through many significant changes. The integration of automation across all the libraries, along with investments in digitization and innovative advances in preservation, ultimately made our collections more accessible to the world’s researchers. Sid would often jokingly refer to Harvard as a “fast follower,” especially in areas of computerization, and yet, the positive impact for users was significant. Through years of planning for organizational change, dealing with tightening budgets, and exploring new ways to collaborate nationally and internationally with major research libraries, Sid always kept a keen focus on how effectively Harvard’s many libraries served students, especially undergraduates. He was the ultimate university citizen, and he shared his life experiences in gentle, persistent ways that helped others grow into larger roles in education. A question from Sid often meant that you had overlooked some important factor in your plan or proposal and it was always worth pausing to re-evaluate! Those questions were often about ensuring fairness, treating others equitably, upholding the values of American higher education, and about choosing to do what was right instead of what was expedient. In recent decades there have been new dynamics affecting libraries, making it especially challenging to effect change at Harvard where centuries of many separate and distinguished libraries often proved hard to align into a “university library”… and yet, throughout the twists and turns and sometimes heated discussions, Sid always strived to maintain a “civil culture,” leading an organization where different perspectives could be explored in respectful ways. I am grateful for the many years we shared.
