The Schlesinger Library, though, plays a different role, according to King. She says about 20 percent of the library's users are undergraduates.

Schlesinger has "changed enormously" during Horner's tenure, King says. "The library has achieved a nationally-known prominence it did not have 17 years ago [when Horner first took office]."

"All people in women's studies use this library," King says, adding that the Schlesinger has an "informal but very important connection" to the Harvard program.

"The Radcliffe resources are increasingly used by the Harvard community," King says--a fact she attributes in part to the new HOLLIS computer system, which gives users access to a wider range of University library holdings.

But beyond creating a scholarly community for women at the University, some faculty members and students say they want the Radcliffe president to take a more assertive role in shaping Harvard policy.

Yet Radcliffe, as Hufton says, is "a hard nut to crack [because the school] has opted for graduate rather than undergraduate [involvement]."

And Horner, despite her interest in academic issues related to women, has scrupulously avoided using her post as a bully pulpit for pressing women's concerns on the Harvard faculty.