When Barbara Haber first came to Radcliffe’s Schlesinger Library fresh out of library school in 1968, women’s history was not a recognized scholarly pursuit.

She only planned to stay for a few years.

But as she sits more than thirty years later in a book-crammed office on the third floor of what has become one of the nation’s leading resources for research on the history of women, Haber is clearly not going anywhere.

She talks excitedly about her plans to cultivate the library’s growing collection of cookbooks and women’s history.

Much has changed since those first days.

“The world cracked open, and women’s history suddenly became a focal point,” she says.

Under Haber’s watch, the library’s holdings have grown from 8,000 books to more than 80,000.

As the librarian in charge of collection development, Haber decides which books the library will buy and which magazines will line the shelves of its periodical room.

“My job is to gaze into a crystal ball and try to imagine what historians who will be here in the future will hope to find here,” she says.

A stroll through the library’s stacks just outside her open door reveal books ranging from feminism to motherhood to widowhood. Here, like in most libraries, the Dewey Decimal system reigns supreme. Jewish women and Muslim women share a shelf in the section marked 296 to 297. Aviatrixes reside in 629.1, with an entire section devoted to books about Amelia Earhart. Just across the aisle, lesbians occupy the 306.76 section.

For the roughly 7,000 researchers who come to the library each year, the visit begins with a registration card, a guest book and a locker assignment.

Roughly 40 percent of the researchers are Harvard students, and many have no Harvard affiliation, since the library is open to the public.

Staff members are quick to point out that in many ways, the Schlesinger—which also contains letters, diaries and photographs documenting women’s history in addition to the Radcliffe College Archives—is not like the other Harvard libraries.

No bags. No pens. No weekend hours or evening work (except on Wednesdays, when the library stays open until 8 p.m.).

And although women’s history plays a central role in the library’s mission, its unique collections range from works on social justice to travel diaries. In this four-story red brick building in Radcliffe Yard, there is, they say, something for everyone.