The Privileges Application project investigated the creation of a system to facilitate navigation of the complex world of Library privileges at Harvard, which encompasses not only Harvard faculty, students, and staff, but also visiting professors, local clergy, tourists, affiliates of organizations with reciprocal arrangements, and various restrictions on use and borrowing permissions associated with each category.  Such a system would allow patrons to determine their eligibility for access and/or borrowing privileges and clearly state the documentation requirements for admittance. The limitations on interoperability among the systems that would provide information to such an application limited the development work. It may be possible to revisit this idea as the current generation of systems evolves.

Project Team: 

Ann-Marie Costa
Assistant Head of Billing & Privileges
Widener Library

Cheryl McGrath
Head of Access Services
Widener and Lamont Libraries

Anita Patel
Web Applications Developer
Berkman Center for Internet & Society