Here you will find information to get you started and give you an idea of the ways the library can work with you during your time as a graduate student. If you have questions about any of the links on this page, Ask a Librarian or check in with your department's Liaison librarian.
Meanwhile, make yourself comfortable when you visit us; try Find a Space, sign up for a Study Carrel, and get your Library Passport.
LIBRARY LIAISONS
Find your Liaison. Your liaison librarian is a subject specialist who provides the primary research & instruction support for your department or program. He or she can help you navigate the complex systems and vast resources of Harvard Library.
Your liaison is familiar with the practices in your academic program and research fields and is here to help you make the most of your research.
Liaisons offer Library Support for Your Teaching and connect you with experts throughout the Harvard Library System. We can help with assignment design, access to course materials (including copyright and reserves), instruction sessions and consults for your students.
LEARN WITH THE LIBRARY
Consult our calendar of upcoming workshops, tours, and other events hosted by Harvard Library for the Harvard community:
Don't miss our Unabridged program:
Unabridged In Person is a multi-day library research intensive for graduate students, designed to help you lay the groundwork for a career in academic research and writing. Our term-time “Bookends” workshops complete the in-person program. Through discussions and hands-on activities, participants will build conceptual frameworks and practical skills that you can adapt to any academic research setting. An online version also exists, called Unabridged On Demand. By the end of the program you will be able to:
- Navigate complex research environments
- Organize your research in intellectually productive ways
- Optimize your search strategies
- Manage your scholarly persona and negotiate with publishers
Unabridged Events - Sign up to receive Unabridged program news and workshop announcements, including a notification when our application cycle begins for the January intensive.
Also check out the O'Reilly Learning Platform and LinkedIn Learning @Harvard.
Getting Off the Ground
Bookmark the Harvard Library home page.
Look up library materials in the HOLLIS catalog. Get to the best databases for your work through HOLLIS Databases, in a subject research guide-- or via your Liaison.
Explore Library collections--physical, digital, and beyond!
Get set up with EndNote, Zotero etc.: Citation and Research Management Tools at Harvard
Extend your access to free full text with the Check Harvard Library Bookmark, Lean Library, and LibKey Nomad; Change your Google Scholar settings.
Try the Browzine reader app for easy browsing and reading of journal articles in your field.
Maps, hours, etc.: Find out which library is open 24-7 and get the hours for each day. You can find libraries on the Harvard University Campus Map as well.
Ask a Librarian when you have a question or want some help.
ACCESSING LIBRARY MATERIALS
Never pay for articles, books, software, DVDs, data, sheet music, archival digitizations without asking us first. If we don't have something we can usually get it for you.
Use Scan & Deliver to order a PDF of any journal article that's not available online or up to two chapters from any book in print.
With HOLLIS Special Request, you may click "Request to Copy or Visit" Archival and Special Collections (under Access Options in HOLLIS).
Click on BorrowDirect If our copy of an item is unavailable, we'll get one for you from one of our partner libraries, within 4 business days.
If Borrow Direct doesn't turn it up, use Interlibrary Loan (ILL) to cast a wider net.
Request a purchase if there is no holding library and the item is a candidate for Harvard Library's collection.
Working With Data
For help with data visualization methods and software, see our Visualization Support page.
Harvard Library Digital Scholarship Program and Digital Scholarship Support Group: Staff from the library, IT, and other units provide support and training for immersive, computational, and data-centric approaches in the humanities and social sciences.
Harvard Dataverse is an online data repository where you can share, preserve, cite, explore, and analyze research data. It is open to all researchers, both inside and out of the Harvard community.
The Qualitative Research Support Group offers resources, software training, and general support to help you plan a qualitative research project and collect, analyze, and share qualitative data.
PRESENTING AND PUBLISHING YOUR WORK
The Office of Scholarly Communication can help you negotiate contracts with publishers and provide funds for publishing in fee-based open-access journals. They run DASH, Harvard's open-access repository; HOPE, a fund to reimburse processing fees for articles published in fee-based open-access journals; and COPE, a multi-university compact to underwrite publication charges for fee-based open-access journals.
Whether you are about to sign a publication contract or are incorporating work by others that goes beyond quoting, you may benefit by understanding fair use, your copyrights as an author, and when and how to seek copyright permissions. Harvard's Library's Copyright First Responders can help.
Do you have creative flair? Share your work in a multimedia format (music, video, podcasts, posters, and more) with help from the Lamont Multimedia Lab!
