Harvard Libraries and Museums

Harvard Libraries

To help you with your summer studies, you may make use of the University’s multimillion-volume system of Harvard libraries, including the electronic resources. Also, check out the Harvard libraries’ guide for Summer School students.

You may access the following libraries using your Harvard ID card once your session begins. View the Campus Map to find locations.

Libraries in Harvard Yard

Widener Library, the largest library on campus, contains materials in history, the humanities, and the social sciences.

Lamont Library provides most of the materials required for Summer School courses—including readings placed on reserve by faculty—as well as study areas, computers and printers, books for general reading, and the Language Resource Center.

Houghton Library houses Harvard’s collection of rare books and manuscripts.

Pusey Library (accessed through the main doors of Lamont Library) holds the University Archives, Theatre Collection, and Map Collection, and it contains an extension of the Widener stacks.

Science library

Cabot Science Library serves as a general science library and houses research collections in mathematics and statistics.

Libraries at the Medical, Law, and Business Schools

You may use the Countway Library at the Medical School, the Law School Library, and the Baker Library at the Business School, but without borrowing privileges.

Have a question? Ask a Librarian

Students are invited to use the online research tool Ask a Librarian. Questions on a range of topics are answered by members of the Harvard library staff, usually within one business day.

Harvard Museums

Enrich your summer experience by exploring the collections, exhibits, and history found inside Harvard's many art, science, and cultural museums.

Most major Harvard museums are free for you and one guest with a valid Harvard ID card.

• The Harvard Art Museums incorporate, under one roof, the collections of Harvard’s Fogg, Busch-Reisinger, and Arthur M. Sackler Museums. The galleries include art of many media, from around the world.
• Harvard Museum of Natural History, with its collection of glass flowers, dinosaurs fossils, and rare minerals and gemstones.
• The Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, where you can explore the history and culture of six continents.
• The Harvard Semitic Museum, with its Near Eastern exhibitions.
• A collection of historic scientific instruments at the Science Center.