Despite rampant speculation, the administration declined to provide specifics regarding the potential scope of the layoffs. Given little official information, library workers were left to worry that they would not have a place in the restructured Harvard Library System.

“The cuts, the outsourcing, the use of Terms, the coerced early retirement and the threat of layoffs are all very real. If you think you are safe, this time around, you may be,” wrote one employee to a staff email list. “But try and think of all of your colleagues who are not ‘safe.’ Try and face reality. And try and help those of us actively trying to save the library system and our jobs.”

Library workers say that their alarm over staff cuts is born out of a concern for the welfare of the library system.

Employees say that the quality of library services suffered following the last round of layoffs in 2009, when heavy blows to the University’s endowment led the Harvard College Library—the largest unit within the University system—to reduce its staff by roughly 100 people.

“A lot of procedures were simplified to make them go faster. That has consequences,” says library assistant Jeffrey Booth.

According to Booth, the number of mistakes made by his department while creating records for the Harvard Online Library Information System increased following the staff cuts in 2009.

But many faculty members who frequent the libraries say any drop in service quality since 2009 is not as noticeable to patrons as the staff may suggest.

“The library’s worked extremely hard to [maintain] service,” says English professor Nicholas J. Watson. “By most definitions service has actually improved quite [a lot].”

Watson, like many faculty, says that his biggest concern for the reorganization is that the University maintain its strong print collections and its current rate of acquisitions.

“I hope it will continue to collect the world’s knowledge as broadly as it can,” says Near Eastern Languages professor Peter B. Machinist ’66 of the restructured library system.

But some faculty concerns may be exaggerated. As the University drafts its plans for what it calls a “21st century library model,” administrators say they will continue to make acquisitions a priority.

Administrators say they are taking long overdue steps to bring the libraries up to speed, including mass digitization efforts, the introduction of mobile technology, and a new grouping system based on academic areas.

“We seek to alter long-lived structures and arrangements, thus disturbing what may seem like short-term stability in service of much longer term purposes,” wrote University President Drew G. Faust in an email to the Harvard community in early February.

While faculty say they understand the library’s needs to modernize, they say that many of their questions have remained unanswered.

“We could have done and plan to do a better job communicating in the future,” says University Provost Alan M. Garber ’76. “We’re talking about turning 73 libraries, many of them independent of the others, into a unified system. This is one of the most complex projects I think that any of us have ever been involved with.”