I am not sure who originally prepared these remarks, but the message as it  
is presented below was passed on to me by Paul Wendt, who runs the Kress  
Seminar (see the accompanying message about that seminar).  I thought  
members of the list might be interested, and will also save this info for  
inclusion in the archival files. 
 
Ross 
 
 
                              Kress Library 
 
     Until December 1989, the Kress Library (economic books and 
pamphlets, especially 16-18th centuries) was open to the public, 
housed in a suite of the Baker Library building on the Harvard 
Business School campus, with its own librarian, Ruth Rogers. You 
may recall that Ruth Rogers and the Kress library were the 
on-site hosts of the 1987 HES conference when Donald Walker was 
the program chairman. In those days, we met after-hours in the 
Kress library reading room, with Ruth Rogers acting as hostess, 
and this letter would have come to you on Kress Library/ HBS 
stationery. 
 
     In December 1989, HBS announced new plans for the Kress 
suite of rooms, a reorganization of special collections, Ruth 
Rogers resigned, and the library was closed to the public. To my 
knowledge, the books have not been moved, and plans for the rooms 
are in legal or bureaucratic limbo. 
 
     Today --as of spring 1993-- one uses books from the Kress 
collection in the Archives/Special Collections room of the main 
Baker Library stacks. That room houses the Kress catalog; a 
special collections librarian fetches specific Kress books at the 
user's request. The room is devoted mainly to librarians' work; 
for most of the day on my one visit, I was the only user of all 
special collections, with two librarians. The room is neither so 
pleasing to the eye nor so quiet as the old carpeted Kress 
library (some advice: take ear plugs). I knew what few books I 
wanted to read, so I did not put the librarian to a vigorous 
workout or the system to a severe test. The two locations are 
quite close as the neutrino flies, but a 15 minute round trip as 
the librarian strolls --separated by an elevator plus numerous 
stairs, the main circulation room, and the spacious main lobby of 
the building. 
 
The Kress Seminar retains the name. 
 
 
Prepared by Paul Wendt