Sidney Verba

When Verba retired from the post, he had served longer than anyone else who had held the title of director of the University Library; and not since Thaddeus Harris, whose tenure (1831–1856) straddled the card catalog revolution of the 19th century, had anyone spent so long at the top of Harvard's libraries.

Four specific areas in which Verba's contributions at Harvard have become the model for other academic and research libraries:

Verba was ultimately responsible for Harvard's participation in the Google Books Library Project, which involves a series of agreements between Google and major international libraries through which a collection of its public domain books will be scanned in their entirety and made available for free to the public online.

Verba's role encompassed developing digitization protocols, addressing logistical and operations issues, and administering the project.

The more difficult part of his job required moderating the institutional debate about anticipated consequences inherent in conventional content-vs.-collection strategies; and sometimes he took on the role of public spokesman.

Friends and colleagues of Sidney Verba established a $2.5 million endowment fund in his honor.

The Fund benefits the Harvard University Library, which provides University-wide services, including digital acquisitions and collections, information technology, high-density storage, and preservation.

Under the terms creating the fund, Verba himself was given the freedom to designate the purpose of the new endowment.

The central focus of Verba's work as a political scientist can be summed up in one word -- "participation."

Expanding the subject somewhat, that topic might be elaborated to "the issues of political participation by different groups."

The great framing question of his work has been, "Whose voice is heard by the government?"

Verba himself argued that issues having to do political participation have become central in America's political discourse today; but he attributes his initial interest in the subject to the prescient encouragement of his mentor, Professor Gabriel Almond at Princeton University.

Sidney Verba (May 26, 1932 – March 4, 2019) was an American political scientist, librarian and library administrator.

His academic interests were mainly American and comparative politics.

Verba earned his Ph.D. at Princeton in 1959; and in 1963, he was named as a co-author with Almond in The Civic Culture: Political Attitudes and Democracy in Five Nations. It popularized the idea of a political culture – a concept that includes national character and how people choose to govern themselves – as a fundamental aspect of society.

Sidney Verba built on the theory of civic culture that was developed in this book with many of his students and collaborators, including Kay Lehman Schlozman and Henry E. Brady, over the following half century.

In retirement, he continued to explore his longtime interest in "the citizen voice" with a new study of interest groups in the United States, asking whom they represent—ethnic groups, women, trade associations, professions.

His research goal was to produce "a kind of statistical model of what the interest groups in the U.S. look like."

Verba's published writings encompass 83 works in 201 publications in 8 languages and 16,633 library holdings.

In 1964, Verba moved to Stanford University, where he was a full professor for four years, and the University of Chicago for another four years.

As a member of the Harvard faculty, Verba's contributions to the life of the scholarly community extended beyond the realm of his academic discipline or his administrative title.

He was the Carl H. Pforzheimer University Professor at Harvard University and also served Harvard as the director of the Harvard University Library from 1984 to 2007.

Verba was educated at Harvard College and Princeton University, and served on the faculty of Princeton, Stanford University, and the University of Chicago, before returning to Harvard, where he would spend the rest of his career.

Harvard President Derek Bok named Verba to be director of Harvard University Library in 1984; and when news of Verba's retirement was received in Massachusetts Hall, Bok observed:

As he gave notice of his intention to retire in 2006, Verba observed: "Academics are the only people I can think of for whom this sentence makes sense: 'I'm hoping to get some time off so that I can get some work done.'"

Verba grew up in Brooklyn, New York, where his family ran a "small mom-and-pop dry goods store and always worried about money."

After high school he attended Harvard College, where he earned a degree in History and Literature.

He began graduate school in the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University, intending to join the foreign service, but transferred to Princeton's politics department and earned a PhD.

After graduate school Verba stayed at Princeton as a research assistant and then assistant and associate professor.

For example, even though he "retired" in 2007, he continued to chair a University Committee on Calendar Reform which had begun its work in 2003.

This committee was composed of students (undergraduate and graduate) and faculty members drawn from across the University’s Schools and Faculties.

In 2008, the Committee's efforts reached fruition as Harvard President Drew Faust announced the adoption of a coordinated academic calendar that synchronizes the academic schedules of Harvard’s 13 Schools.

Verba's committee managed to preserve the traditional eight-day reading periods for undergraduates, one of the best features of the former calendar, while eliminating impediments to student cross-registration.

No less important, the Verba committee's work helped to align Harvard’s calendar with those of most colleges and universities in the U.S., making it easier for Harvard students to compete for internships, study-abroad experiences, and work opportunities during breaks and summer vacation.