Administrators said streamlining and an emphasis on efficiency allow the new Harvard Library to operate with fewer employees. But librarians, who overwhelmingly characterized the system as “understaffed,” said that the reductions have detracted from quality of service.

“My work has not been negatively impacted yet, but I feel it will be as this understaffing continues,” said one librarian. “As there are fewer [library workers], trying to do the same amount of work as before, there’s bound to be delays, unanswered questions, and unhappiness from library patrons.”

Shenton said she recognizes that some difficulties were to be expected.

“I don’t underestimate the complexity of what we’ve done,” she said. “It’s early days, if you think that this has been probably the biggest change in the library ecosystem. It will take time for it all to work through and for us to look very closely at how we do things and how can we do things better and how can we do things differently.”

Kennedy said that while some confusion was to be expected when dealing with such a massive project, the very nature of the transition has left Harvard Library more unified than ever and capable of dealing with potential issues.

“We are going to make mistakes, everyone is going to make mistakes,” said Kennedy. “But the fact that we’re going to figure this out together in a way that wasn’t possible before is really quite phenomenal.”

—Staff writer Hana N. Rouse can be reached at hrouse@college.harvard.edu.

—Staff writer Justin C. Worland can reached at jworland@college.harvard.edu