Informed Leaders Start Here!

A typical annual report identifies trends, outlines opportunities and challenges, and highlights accomplishments. However, FY20 was no "typical" year. With the COVID-19 pandemic, social justice inequities, and fractious political environment, our world was turned upside down. Within days we moved to remote work and shifted the School's educational programs to an online environment. Within weeks we repositioned research efforts to support the faculty pledge to write more cases that featured Black protagonists who owned or led businesses or reflected racial and economic inequities. Over months we established new work routines and implemented new delivery methods. In short, we pivoted across every dimension of our work.

The last quarter of FY20 shone a spotlight on Digital Baker's three pillars – an adaptable organization, collaborative culture, and the generative nature of knowledge work. In spite of the many challenges of adjusting to a new normal, we not only met, we exceeded our community's expectations.

The past months have tested every part of our organization. In typical KLS fashion, we've embraced the incredible range of opportunities presented at the same time we addressed what often felt like daunting challenges.

It's with tremendous pride that I welcome you to Knowledge & Library Services's second digital annual report.

Deb Wallace
Executive Director
Knowledge & Library Services

OUR MISSION

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We deliver distinctive information expertise, services, and products so that our community excels.

Baker Library advances the intellectual ambition of Harvard Business School by providing innovative services and systems, unique content and resources, and deep subject expertise. Our users include the entire HBS Community, Harvard University, and a global community of scholars working in diverse fields of study.

WHAT WE DO

WHO WE ARE

We are 100+ librarians, researchers, business analysts, statisticians, archivists, data scientists, journalists, curators, ontologists, technology developers, and many more subject area or technical specialists.

Baker Library acquires, provides access to, and preserves a world-renowned business management collection, enabling global scholarship — research, teaching and learning. We further Baker Library's thought leadership within Harvard, among our peer business schools, and across the academic library field with innovative platforms, products, and services.

Our Culture & Values

We aspire to respect all; trust and support our colleagues' contributions; be open, transparent, and kind by actively listening, learning, and participating; and take responsibility as individual and team contributors.

Our commitment to an adaptive organization and collaborative culture doesn't stop with the HBS Community. Every year, Knowledge & Library Services staff give back to the local community through our Community Service Day, monthly charity drives, and other activities. 

FY20 BY THE NUMBERS

81,000+ visits to licensed databases

90+ analytics requests completed

$150K saved through faculty data licensing service

6,000 hours of faculty research and teaching support

98,000+ visits to Special Collections websites and exhibits

$400K research and consulting services revenue

10,000+ reference desk interactions

8,000 HBS case requests filled

3.8 million Working Knowledge website visits

 

2020 Knowledge & Library Services Staff

Our Finances

Original budget of $14M in expenses and $711k in revenue was reduced by $753k to address the financial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Our Services

The HBS Community has access to unparalleled support from our team of information professionals and business researchers.

With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, we moved seamlessly to remote work and repositioned our services to meet users' needs through a variety of virtual channels.

Our services to Faculty and Doctoral Students, MBA Students, Executive Education Participants, Alumni, and HBS staff and administrators all increased in the last quarter – with one obvious exception... in person research consultations. 

The Baker Library | Bloomberg Center website remained a key research portal, bringing the world of business information to our users' fingertips through content searches, product distribution, and access to Baker librarians ready to provide relevant, timely, and curated information.

COVID-19 KLS Response

Baker responded immediately to the pandemic crisis, creating the HBS COVID-19 Business Impact Center and newsletter that provide business leaders, policymakers, healthcare administrators, HR directors, small business owners, and others with the latest research and insights from HBS faculty.

In addition to creating new products, we:

• Expanded our virtual reference digital content delivery services and published 10,000+ digital surrogates of unique materials.
• Repositioned tours and workshops to online and provided access to databases and digital alternatives to print resources.
• Created the HBS COVID-19 Community Archive to chronicle the experience and transferred key HBS administrative documents to the HBS Archives that record key decisions in HBS's response to the pandemic.
• Launched a collecting strategy to document this time in American business through company records and websites.

 

 

Baker for Faculty

77% of HBS faculty turned to Baker to support their work through every stage of their research and teaching lifecycle. 

 

Key services included data sourcing, literature searches, text mining, statistical analysis, and publishing research findings through HBS Working Knowledge.

6,000

hours of faculty research

190

faculty used Baker Research Services for all aspects of their research

31

HBS courses were enriched with curated content

$240,000+

savings to faculty budgets realized by our Research Data Program

202

faculty articles added to COVID-19 Business Impact Center

70

new data sets acquired to support research

400%+

increased Books@Baker attendance

48

linear feet added to the Faculty Papers Program in the HBS Archives

Working Knowledge

3.8M

website visits

261

articles published

200,000+

newsletter subscribers

128

faculty represented

Since 1999, Harvard Business School Working Knowledge has connected the School’s leading-edge research and ideas on business management with practitioners, thought-leaders, and academics.

This year, we saw robust engagement gains across all channels, riding success from our new three-story-per-week production schedule and focus on COVID-19 related research and insights.

 

Books@Baker

Through a combination of presentations and participant engagement, the Books@Baker series enables faculty to share insights and practical applications of their research with the HBS and Harvard communities. The series went virtual in Q4, which significantly increased participation and reached a global audience.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Baker for MBA Students

3,200+

research questions from MBAs

28

presentations to MBA audiences

40%

increase in career focused queries (Q4)

Field & Immersive Field Course (IFC) Support

Field course support expanded to include:

• Private Equity Projects
• Projects in Investing
• Arts & Cultural Entrepreneurship
• Entrepreneurial Sales & Marketing
• Health Care Delivery

New Diversity & Inclusion (D&I) Newsletter

• 530+ subscribers | sign-up here!
• Collaborated with Jen Eliason, Associate Director of Diversity & Inclusion, on content curation
• Distributed to all students in the EC course Leading Difference taught by Professors Frances Frei and Francesca Gino

Before graduation next week, I wanted to send you a special thank you for all of your help over these past 2 years. Libraries have been a critical part of my success in life as places that spark my imagination and satisfy my curiosity and Baker is no exception.

- MBA class of 2019

Baker for Executive Education

Baker research specialists targeted outreach to each comprehensive leadership program, providing critical access to information during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic when access to traditional resources was particularly challenging.

Earlier in the year, we provided research support for Executive Education participants both in their living groups and in the classroom. Key resources enriched the OPM Renew Idol exercise and AMP's financial module.

The process was managed very professionally, high quality sources were used, and the final report answers all relevant questions.

- PLD Participant

Thanks so much for caring. You are great asset to HBS.

- OPM57 participant

Baker for Alumni

1,500+

research questions answered

195%

increase in alumni engagement since FY15

1,700+

research hours through Baker for Business

Discover Your History:  Genealogy & Research Service

Provided HBS alumni exclusive access to the R.G. Dun & Co. collection of nineteenth-century credit reports for genealogical research.

Through Baker's HBS Alumni Portal, provided access to eBaker and other content to support career development and Lifelong Learning.

I love the can-do attitude, the problem-solving capabilities and the quality of the research!! Great value!

- David Salazar Yanez, OPM 50

Great work! I loved the rigorous citations and the insights that [Baker] brought to the table. I would love to work with B4B again.

- Meredyth Lacy, MBA 2017

Baker for HBS Staff

Our work enables HBS staff to make decisions about web site content, design and marketing initiatives in order to promote HBS content, increase program applications, and improve online user experience and engagement. Key activities included:

• Created and supported ongoing curation of HBS Case Organization Repository - over 10k company names related to faculty output.
• Maintained 20+ School-wide vocabularies (topics, industries, geographic areas, information sources, award names, issuing bodies, and more.) to facilitate HBS business Intelligence and end-user access to HBS priority content.
• Delivered 8+ tagging projects for the HBS community, structuring content to promote and facilitate faculty research dissemination and support remote access to HBS resources.

 

Our Collections

Baker Library is unique among business school libraries worldwide for its comprehensive and diverse collections. Our Contemporary Collections support researchers with over 100 databases and an extensive book, journal, and multimedia collection. Our Special Collections are one of the most extensive repositories of archives and rare books in the fields of business and economic history. The HBS Archive records the School’s history, documenting decisions and strategies from our founding in 1908 through the present. Noteworthy for works by minority and women artists, the HBS Art Collection of over 1000 original pieces enriches teaching and campus life.

Image: Ledgers and manuscripts from the HBS Medici Collection.

Contemporary Collections

8,000+

items loaned to the HBS community

7,500+

reference desk interactions

81,000+

visits to subscribed databases

We continue to grow our world-class collections to support new curriculum development and research trends. One example is the New England Journal of Medicine's Catalyst - Innovations in Care Delivery. This publication focuses on the latest innovations, ground-breaking ideas, and practical solutions for health care delivery transformation. It became an essential resource for studying responses to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Special Collections

5,000

items used by researchers and staff

98,000+

visits to website and exhibits

48

linear feet added to the Faculty Papers Program

You were great today! Really whetted my appetite for archival research—plus introduced me (and the students) to so many riches in the HBS collections. Thank you so much for all the prep you did for the class and your incredible openness to helping me and the students. I'm sure we'll be in touch again soon.

- Lizabeth Cohen
Howard Mumford Jones Professor of American Studies
Harvard University Distinguished Service Professor

 

30,000+

objects digitized

203

global scholars using our special collections

32

countries of origin for the global scholoars

Exhibits

Lehman Brothers: A History, 1850–2008

Examined the story of one of the country's longest-running investment banks, its reach into nearly every sector of the American economy, and the impact of the firm's collapse.

Photography and Corporate Public Relations: The Case of U.S. Steel 1930-1960

The U.S. Steel Corporation commissioned photographers around the country to document the inner workings of the company and its subsidiaries as part of a national public relations campaign. This exhibit showcases their efforts. 

You did a splendid job on presenting Lehman Brothers – better than I have ever seen it.

 - Ambassador John L. Loeb, Jr.
MBA 1954

You and your team did a superb job of telling lots of interesting stories… and the role that photography played within public relations.

- Prof Emeritus, Ben Shapiro

New HBS Archives

HBS Online (formerly HBX)

• Reports on the development and use of HBS Online from the inception of the program.
• Information on employee roles, budgets and financials, marketing strategies, and the development of specific courses.

Klarman Hall Construction

• Records of the design, construction, and dedication of Klarman Hall.
• Presentations and drawings showing the evolution of the building, landscape, and furniture design.
• Records that document the building construction.

Lillian Lincoln Lambert (MBA 1969)

• Papers of the first African American woman graduate of HBS.
• Founding member of the African American Student Union.

New Business Archives

Polaroid Bankruptcy Estate Records, 1950s-2000s

Significant administrative records, including Polaroid Corporation's board meeting files, acquired from the trustee of the Polaroid 2008 Bankruptcy Estate.

John Hawkins Research Interviews about Henri Termeer, 2018-2020

Interviews with Termeer's colleagues conducted by author John Hawkins for his biography of the pioneering Genzyme Corporation CEO. 

Muriel Siebert Collection, 1950s-2000s

Personal archives of Muriel Siebert, the first women to hold a seat on the New York Stock Exchange and serve as president of a member company.

View: Contemporary Corporate Archives

HBS Art Collection & Program

• Supported by the C. Ludens Ringnes Sculpture Fund, HBS hosted “Women, Contemporary Art, and Business” on March 3, 2020 in Klarman Hall.
• The first art event of its kind at HBS, this public program featured Bharti Kher, Ina Johannesen Dibley, and Nora Lawrence, and was moderated by Professor Jill Avery. 

• Expanded the Schwartz Art Collection with works by artists from around the world, including: Tom Bronk, Ernie Bushmiller, Esteban Cabeza de Baca, Cédric Eisenring , Kota Ezawa, Agnieszka Kurant, and Michal Ronnen Safdie.
• QR code wall labels bring viewers to extensive information on the new website.

• In collaboration with the Business & the  Environment Initiative, presented Art, Nature, and Business: Perspectives on the Environment.
• Featured works from the Schwartz Collection to bring new perspectives to climate change conversations.
• Visit the website and virtual tour.

Our Spaces

Baker Library | Bloomberg Center is home to incredible virtual and physical spaces, from a discovery website that delivers HBS and Harvard content in seconds with deep search capability, to the most iconic building on the HBS campus that houses the Stamps and Beaubien reading rooms, The Exchange - a first-floor space open to all who visit, and specialized spaces for faculty, staff, and students from across the University.

To learn more about the history of Baker Library, see campus information on the HBS website.

Plan your visit

Baker Library | Bloomberg Center Website

361%

increase in search queries

55%+

increase in HBS use

2,660

emerging markets transcripts accessed by users in 95 countries

Advanced search functionality helps researchers intuitively navigate through Baker's vast collections.

Grounded in user needs, driven by powerful metadata and taxonomies, and leveraging semantic search technology, users have a single interface to Baker and HBS priority content and to Harvard databases as well.
 

Stamps Reading Room

Buzzing with intellectual discourse, case preparation, and research projects, the Stamps Reading Room features shared tables for users, individual study carrels, comfortable seating, public computers, and a service desk for circulation and research services.

42,000+

visitors

450+

Executive Education participants

Beaubien Reading Room

From its inception, Baker Library has collected rare and unique materials that focus on the evolution of business and industry. The collections span eight centuries beginning in the late 1300s to the present day and include corporate archives, manuscripts, account ledgers, rare books, broadsides, photographs, films, electronic records, and company annual reports. The Beaubien Reading Room is used by HBS, HU, and visiting scholars to work with these collections.

335

onsite researchers

730

onsite visits

BRS Computer Lab

The Baker Research Services Lab provides HBS faculty, doctoral students, and RAs with access to essential research applications, statistical analysis software, financial data, and specialized tools for large dataset processing. Features include:

• 6 computer workstations with the option for remote connectivity.
• A flexible collaboration space for HBS research teams.
• Baker Research Services assistance and training on applications and data processing.

Collaboration Rooms

Stamps Reading Room Annex

Contemporary Collections Stacks

Financial Database Room

Baker | Bloomberg Exchange

A collaborative work/project space with movable furniture, a digital display, and copier/scanner.

Most of Baker's circulating collection is accessible from the elevator within Annex. The quietest study space within the library.

Dedicated workstations hosting specialized financial databases for Harvard faculty, students, and staff use for academic research.

Features newspapers, comfortable seating, computer workstations, and two Bloomberg terminals for use by HBS students, faculty, and staff.

Behind the Scenes

AV Workstation

Audiovisual items are preserved for future digitization and access.

Conservation Lab

Collections are examined and treated  to preserve their long-term usability.

Processing Room

Materials are arranged, described, and housed in protective storage containers  to enable use.

Digital Processing Room

Born-digital content is captured and analyzed to prepare it for preservation and research access.