The renovation that began in 1999 restored the library to its original aesthetic. The building, as any Harvard tour guide will tell, went up in 1915 in memory of Henry E. Widener, Class of 1907, after he passed away on the Titanic.

While originally constructed with detailed molding and exquisite pallet choices, Cline says, the library in the 1950s became more industrial. Harvard installed low-hanging ceilings and halogen floodlights that hid the intricate designs that lined some of the library’s ceilings, such as those in her office, she says.

"In this office, there used to be an ugly stained, eggcrate-tiled ceiling, and one time we had to fix something electrical. So this facilities maintenance guy has this tall ladder and climbs on up and then shouts down to me, ‘Ma’am—do you have any idea what is up here?’" Cline says. "And I, of course, didn’t."

The renovations incorporated motion-sensitive lights, better ventilation, and two additional reading rooms and an elevator, while workers were also analyzing pictures of the original library to uphold the image of Henry Widener’s mother—the principal benefactor.

"We wanted it to be honest to the original memorial for her son," Cline says.

Library administrators recall how the pillars, once turned an ashen gray from students smoking in the building, gleamed white at the end of the cleaning.

"You could even argue that the work that she’s done in renovating the Harvard library, that those were the impetus of creating the wider Harvard Library," Stoneman says.

"It was one of the proudest things I could’ve done as head," Cline says.

PRESERVING FOR THE FUTURE

Below the old pillars of Widener, the basement of the library hums with ultra-modern facilities to preserve and conserve the University’s entire collection.

Staff members work to photograph pages of books—one by one—in controlled environments with some of the most advanced apparatuses, says Cline.

Members of the Harvard Library system say that Cline’s persistence to preserve Harvard’s collections came early in the global discussion on digitization that many consider instrumental to the library’s future.

"She was digitizing volumes way before some other people had even thought of it," Stoneman says.

Currently, the preservation labs have been working under the auspices of the Chinese government to digitize Yenching Library’s collection of scholarly antique works.

The labs are part of what Cline says is a "reprioritization in libraries everywhere."