New Harvard Library Occupation

At a time when the University is restructuring the library, we are working to change what a library is understood to be. Albeit no longer in residence, we will continue to occupy Harvard Libraries.

From Sunday, February 12 through Friday, February 17, we occupied Lamont Café 24 hours a day. A strong community of faculty, students, staff and library workers convened in this space to work together to model a more just workplace and the transformative potential of creating a truly collaborative and technologically advanced library. Though we are no longer present in the same way, we continue to occupy the Harvard Libraries-through direct action, think tanks, and community organizing-to insist on the possibilities of a community-centered learning space at the heart of the University.

During our physical occupation, the New Harvard Library Working Group of Occupy Harvard opened a persistent community space for critical thought, engaged learning, and insistent action in the Lamont Library Café. We engaged in communal tasks of producing knowledge (skill-shares, tutoring, and, yes, we read paper drafts), met for morning coffee and conversation, and hosted twice-daily “Think Tanks“—topical discussions in which participants enter as equals and where professors, students, and workers converse as peers.

To learn more about our occupation, visit our History of the Occupation.