Faculty Guide to Houghton Library

Houghton Library provides a range of services for faculty and their students.

Houghton staff are happy to host class visits, provide student consultations, or help faculty develop out-of-class learning experiences for students. To learn more and request support, visit our teaching page.

The Houghton Library Reading Room is open to all who wish to look at items in our care. Check our website to learn how to submit requests to view items in our reading room, and what personal items can enter the reading room.

Houghton Library has a robust exhibition program. We welcome suggestions for future exhibition subjects and are happy to discuss partnering with faculty interested in curating exhibitions with their students. Please contact Houghton Scholarly and Public Programs to get started.

Faculty who wish to use Houghton collections and spaces for live action and/or still photography should direct inquiries to Harvard Library Communications via their Media Request Form.

Houghton publishes Harvard Library Bulletin, the online peer-reviewed journal dedicated to scholarship on Harvard Library collections and Library history. In addition to publishing faculty research, the journal encourages graduate students to submit work. Please direct questions through the journal’s contact form.

• Employment opportunities include public services, publishing, cataloging/processing assistantships, and more

• Undergraduate Fellowships provide funding for student research projects

• Houghton’s book and art collecting prize is open to all current Harvard students

Houghton’s collections strategy outlines the library’s acquisition priorities. Interested in what we've acquired recently? For a few examples of recent additions to the collections, consult the following search via HOLLIS, Harvard Library’s online catalog: this search query yields results for items whose records were added within the past three months.

Please contact the library to suggest acquisitions to support your research or teaching.