The Cott Legacy 2001 Drew Faust, then the dean of the Radcliffe Institute, announces that historian Nancy F. Cott will become the Carl and Lily Pforzheimer Foundation Director of the Schlesinger Library and a professor of history in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. This dual appointment is a first, promising closer ties among the library, the Radcliffe Institute, the Harvard faculty, and the wider scholarly world, along with the potential for stimulating new collaborations. Describing the possibilities ahead, Faust says, “I cannot imagine a better person to lead the Schlesinger Library.” 2003 Cott organizes the Schlesinger Library Council, making its members partners in guaranteeing the library’s future. She also expands the library’s research grant program, increasing the number of awards and adding grants for oral history projects. Every year these coveted awards bring several dozen researchers—ranging from Harvard undergraduates to nationally recognized senior scholars—to the library’s reading room to mine collections in new and innovative ways. 2004 The library’s renovations are completed, replacing a compartmentalized interior with an elegant, airy, inviting space. Cott attends to the myriad details of color, texture, light fixtures, floor coverings, and chairs. Six chairs from six vendors are set up for test sitting. 2006 Cott supports an internal strategic planning initiative that takes the entire staff to Harvard’s William Dean Howells house, in Kittery, Maine, for a day of brainstorming about the library’s direction over the next five years. She follows up on one of the resulting goals—to diversify the collections—with a careful staff evaluation of existing collections and by convening an ad hoc Academic Advisory Group of scholars whose advice continues to guide the library. 2007 Cott and the library staff work together to meet a goal of the strategic planning initiative: to make more of the library’s holdings available to researchers. The Maximum Access Project is designed to eliminate significant backlogs in both print and manuscript collections. Cott outlines a bold five-year plan that Faust funds, making the Schlesinger Library the envy of the archival world, where funding for processing backlog materials is scarce. 2010 Cott is named to the newly created University Library Board, guaranteeing that the concerns of the Schlesinger Library and other Harvard special collections libraries will be heard as the University contemplates a sweeping evaluation and reorganization of its many libraries. Early on, Cott was a member and a strong proponent of the University’s new Open Collections Programs. The first of these efforts, Women Working: 1800– 1930, brought the Schlesinger’s collections to the attention of broad new audiences.
A Privilege to Lead This spring will be my last as director of the Schlesinger Library. My dozen years here have been wonderfully stimulating and rewarding. From colleagues on the staff, I have learned far more about the demands and possibilities of archival management than I ever knew as a historian using these materials.
The Digital Arena During this time, the landscape of library technologies has vastly changed. The Schlesinger Library has become a leader in the digital arena, both in collecting born-digital materials and in employing newly available digital tools. I’ve especially admired and appreciated the determination of Marilyn Dunn, our executive director, to maintain the library’s reputation for state-of-the-art archival technology and for documenting women’s lives.
A Talented Staff It has been a tremendous advantage for me to work with talented and dedicated staff members who have moved briskly with the times, adopting new methods when appropriate, while superbly performing the jobs for which they were trained. Their professional skills and phenomenal devotion to doing their work well have made the library an institutional leader in its field and an exceptional place for researchers to pursue their interests. Time after time, students and established scholars— both inside and outside Harvard—have let me know of their immense appreciation for the collections they could access and for the guidance they received while conducting research at the Schlesinger. These gratifying reports have come to my ears only because staff members have worked so well individually and collaboratively—never resting on their laurels, but relentlessly improving collections, processing, and access.
The Library Council It has also been a pleasure to work with the members of the Schlesinger Library Council. These important supporters of the library—many of them with us since I organized the council in 2003—have served as a sounding board for policy shifts and have offered their feedback on pressing matters concerning technology, fundraising, and acquisitions. I have benefited from their wit and wisdom and welcomed their moral support.
A New Reading Room As I look back, I think of what a special privilege it was to be here in the very early years of the Radcliffe Institute, when I worked with sister historian Drew Gilpin Faust, then the
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