Sidney Verba
Encyclopedia
Sidney Verba is an American political scientist, librarian
and library administrator. His academic interests are mainly American
and comparative politics
. He was the Carl H. Pforzheimer University Professor at Harvard University
. He also served Harvard as the director of the Harvard University Library
from 1984 to 2007. As he gave notice of his intention to retire in 2006, Verba observed: "Academics are the only people I can think of for whom this sentence makes sense: 'I'm hoping to get some time off so that I can get some work done.'"
in 1984; and when news of Verba's retirement was received in Massachusetts Hall, Bok observed:
When Verba retired from the post, he had served longer than anyone else who had held the title of director of the University Library; and not since Thaddeus Harris, whose tenure (1831-1856) straddled the card catalog revolution of the 19th century, had anyone spent so long at the top of Harvard's libraries.
Four specific areas in which Verba's contributions at Harvard have become the model for other academic and research libraries:
, which involves a series of agreements between Google and major international libraries through which a collection of its public domain books will be scanned in their entirety and made available for free to the public online. Verba's role encompassed developing digitization protocols, addressing logistical and operations issues, and administering the project. The more difficult part of his job required moderating the institutional debate about anticipated consequences inherent in conventional content-vs.-collection strategies; and sometimes he took on the role of public spokesman.
The central focus of Verba's work as a political scientist can be summed up in one word -- "participation." Expanding the subject somewhat, that topic might be elaborated to "the issues of political participation by different groups." The great framing question of his work has been, "Whose voice is heard by the government?" Verba himself argues that issues having to do political participation have become central in America's political discourse today; but he attributes his initial interest in the subject to the prescient encouragement of his mentor, Professor Gabriel Almond
at Princeton University
. Verba earned his Ph.D. at Princeton in 1959; and in 1963, he was named as a co-author with Almond in The Civic Culture: Political Attitudes and Democracy in Five Nations.
In retirement, he continues to explore his longtime interest in "the citizen voice" with a new study of interest groups in the United States, asking whom they represent - ethnic groups, women, trade associations, professions. His research goal is to produce "a kind of statistical model of what the interest groups in the U.S. look like."
Librarian
A librarian is an information professional trained in library and information science, which is the organization and management of information services or materials for those with information needs...
and library administrator. His academic interests are mainly American
Politics of the United States
The United States is a federal constitutional republic, in which the President of the United States , Congress, and judiciary share powers reserved to the national government, and the federal government shares sovereignty with the state governments.The executive branch is headed by the President...
and comparative politics
Comparative politics
Comparative politics is a subfield of political science, characterized by an empirical approach based on the comparative method. Arend Lijphart argues that comparative politics does not have a substantive focus in itself, but rather a methodological one: it focuses on "the how but does not specify...
. He was the Carl H. Pforzheimer University Professor at Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
. He also served Harvard as the director of the Harvard University Library
Harvard University Library
The Harvard University Library system comprises about 90 libraries, with more than 16 million volumes. It is the oldest library system in the United States, the largest academic and the largest private library system in the world...
from 1984 to 2007. As he gave notice of his intention to retire in 2006, Verba observed: "Academics are the only people I can think of for whom this sentence makes sense: 'I'm hoping to get some time off so that I can get some work done.'"
Harvard faculty
As a member of the Harvard faculty, Verba's contributions to the life of the scholarly community extend beyond the realm of his academic discipline or his administrative title. For example, even though he "retired" in 2007, he continued to chair a University Committee on Calendar Reform which had begun its work in 2003. This committee was composed of students (undergraduate and graduate) and faculty members drawn from across the University’s Schools and Faculties. In 2008, the Committee's efforts reached fruition as Harvard President Drew Faust announced the adoption of a coordinated academic calendar that synchronizes the academic schedules of Harvard’s 13 Schools. Verba's committee managed to preserves the traditional eight-day reading periods for undergraduates, one of the best features of the former calendar, while eliminating impediments to student cross-registration. No less important, the Verba committee's work helped to aligns Harvard’s calendar with those of most colleges and universities in the U.S., making it easier for Harvard students to compete for internships, study-abroad experiences, and work opportunities during breaks and summer vacation.Librarian
Harvard President Derek Bok named Verba to be director of Harvard University LibraryHarvard University Library
The Harvard University Library system comprises about 90 libraries, with more than 16 million volumes. It is the oldest library system in the United States, the largest academic and the largest private library system in the world...
in 1984; and when news of Verba's retirement was received in Massachusetts Hall, Bok observed:
- "Professor Verba has led the Harvard libraries during one of their most transformative periods in University's history. ... When I appointed him more than 20 years ago, we were only beginning to realize what the revolution in information technology would mean. Sid's foresight has helped to preserve our valuable collections and opened Harvard's vast resources to scholars, researchers, and students throughout the world. I believe that generations of students will benefit from the doors that Sid has opened." -- Derek Bok.
When Verba retired from the post, he had served longer than anyone else who had held the title of director of the University Library; and not since Thaddeus Harris, whose tenure (1831-1856) straddled the card catalog revolution of the 19th century, had anyone spent so long at the top of Harvard's libraries.
Four specific areas in which Verba's contributions at Harvard have become the model for other academic and research libraries:
- HUL's "Harvard Depository" (HD) -- a "sophisticated way" of addressing the problem of needing to send books off campus.
- With a fully digitized collection, "Harvard users gain online access to the full text of out-of-copyright books stored at HD. For books still in copyright, Harvard users could gain the ability to search for small snippets of text and, possibly, to view tables of contents. In short, the Harvard student or faculty member would gain some of the advantages of browsing that remote storage of books at HD cannot currently provide.
- HUL's Digital Initiative -- influencing the ways libraries see themselves as responsible for creating and managing digital content.
- "Plans call for the development of a unique union catalogUnion catalogA union catalog is a combined library catalog describing the collections of a number of libraries. Union catalogs have been created in a range of media, including book format, microform, cards and more recently, networked electronic databases...
linking the Google search engine with the online HOLLIS (Harvard Online Library Information System) catalog (http://holliscatalog.harvard.edu), thus furthering retrieval of information on the location and availability at Harvard of works identified through a Google search. This would merge the search capacity of the Internet with the deep research collections at Harvard into one seamless resource-a development especially important for undergraduates who often see the library and the Internet as alternative and perhaps rival sources of information.
- "Plans call for the development of a unique union catalog
- HUL's Open Collections Program -- something of a counterpart to the Google project, though less well known, it aims to digitize and make available university resources on a given topic.
- Women Working, 1800-1930.
- Immigration to the United States, 1789-1930.
- Contagion: Historical Views of Diseases and Epidemic.
- HUL's preservation staff, facilities, and program.
- "The possibility of a large-scale digitization of Harvard’s library books does not in any way diminish the University’s commitment to the collection and preservation of books as physical objects. The digital copy will not be a substitute for the books themselves. We will continue actively to acquire materials in all formats and we will continue to conserve them. In fact, as part of the pilot we are developing criteria for identifying books that are too fragile for digitizing and for selecting them out of the project." -- Sidney Verba.
Harvard-Google digitization partnership
Verba was ultimately responsible for Harvard's participation in the Google Books Library ProjectGoogle Books Library Project
The Google Books Library Project is an effort by Google to scan and make searchable the collections of several major research libraries. The project, along with Google's Partner Program, comprise Google Books . Along with bibliographic information, snippets of text from a book are often viewable...
, which involves a series of agreements between Google and major international libraries through which a collection of its public domain books will be scanned in their entirety and made available for free to the public online. Verba's role encompassed developing digitization protocols, addressing logistical and operations issues, and administering the project. The more difficult part of his job required moderating the institutional debate about anticipated consequences inherent in conventional content-vs.-collection strategies; and sometimes he took on the role of public spokesman.
Sidney Verba Endowment Fund
Friends and colleagues of Sidney Verba have established a $2.5 million endowment fund in his honor. The Fund benefits the Harvard University Library, which provides University-wide services, including digital acquisitions and collections, information technology, high-density storage, and preservation. Under the terms creating the fund, Verba himself was given the freedom to designate the purpose of the new endowment.Political Scientist
However significant his work with Harvard's libraries, part of Verba's achievement has been that he somehow managed it all while remaining engaged as a political scientist. Most scholars put their own research on hold when they assume a time-consuming administrative role in the University—not so Sidney Verba, who believed that his faculty position was "supposed to be a real job." During his years as HUL director, he maintained a halftime teaching load while also pursuing independent research projects.The central focus of Verba's work as a political scientist can be summed up in one word -- "participation." Expanding the subject somewhat, that topic might be elaborated to "the issues of political participation by different groups." The great framing question of his work has been, "Whose voice is heard by the government?" Verba himself argues that issues having to do political participation have become central in America's political discourse today; but he attributes his initial interest in the subject to the prescient encouragement of his mentor, Professor Gabriel Almond
Gabriel Almond
Gabriel A. Almond was an American political scientist best known for his pioneering work on comparative politics, political development, and political culture.-Biography:...
at Princeton University
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
. Verba earned his Ph.D. at Princeton in 1959; and in 1963, he was named as a co-author with Almond in The Civic Culture: Political Attitudes and Democracy in Five Nations.
In retirement, he continues to explore his longtime interest in "the citizen voice" with a new study of interest groups in the United States, asking whom they represent - ethnic groups, women, trade associations, professions. His research goal is to produce "a kind of statistical model of what the interest groups in the U.S. look like."
Honors
- Johan Skytte PrizeJohan Skytte Prize in Political ScienceThe Johan Skytte Prize in Political Science was established in 1995 by the Johan Skytte Foundation at Uppsala University. The foundation itself goes back to the donation in 1622 from Johan Skytte , politician and chancellor of the university, which established the Skyttean professorship of...
(2002) for distinguished contribution to political science. - American Political Science AssociationAmerican Political Science AssociationThe American Political Science Association is a professional association of political science students and scholars in the United States. Founded in 1903, it publishes three academic journals...
(APSAAmerican Political Science AssociationThe American Political Science Association is a professional association of political science students and scholars in the United States. Founded in 1903, it publishes three academic journals...
), president (1994).- APSA's Kammerer Prize (1972) for Participation in America.
- APSA's Woodrow Wilson Prize (1976) for The Changing American Voter.
- APSA's James Madison Prize (1993) for career contribution to the discipline.
- National Academy of SciencesUnited States National Academy of SciencesThe National Academy of Sciences is a corporation in the United States whose members serve pro bono as "advisers to the nation on science, engineering, and medicine." As a national academy, new members of the organization are elected annually by current members, based on their distinguished and...
(NASUnited States National Academy of SciencesThe National Academy of Sciences is a corporation in the United States whose members serve pro bono as "advisers to the nation on science, engineering, and medicine." As a national academy, new members of the organization are elected annually by current members, based on their distinguished and...
), member.- NAS Committee on International Conflict and Cooperation, Chair.
- American Academy of Arts and SciencesAmerican Academy of Arts and SciencesThe American Academy of Arts and Sciences is an independent policy research center that conducts multidisciplinary studies of complex and emerging problems. The Academy’s elected members are leaders in the academic disciplines, the arts, business, and public affairs.James Bowdoin, John Adams, and...
(AAASAmerican Academy of Arts and SciencesThe American Academy of Arts and Sciences is an independent policy research center that conducts multidisciplinary studies of complex and emerging problems. The Academy’s elected members are leaders in the academic disciplines, the arts, business, and public affairs.James Bowdoin, John Adams, and...
), fellow. - Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral SciencesCenter for Advanced Study in the Behavioral SciencesThe Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences is an American interdisciplinary research body in Stanford, California focusing on the social sciences and humanities . Fellows are elected in a closed process, to spend a period of residence at the Center, released from other duties...
(CASBSCenter for Advanced Study in the Behavioral SciencesThe Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences is an American interdisciplinary research body in Stanford, California focusing on the social sciences and humanities . Fellows are elected in a closed process, to spend a period of residence at the Center, released from other duties...
), fellow. - Guggenheim FellowshipGuggenheim FellowshipGuggenheim Fellowships are American grants that have been awarded annually since 1925 by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts." Each year, the foundation makes...
(1980). - Social Science Research CouncilSocial Science Research CouncilThe Social Science Research Council is a U.S.-based independent nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing research in the social sciences and related disciplines...
(SSRCSocial Science Research CouncilThe Social Science Research Council is a U.S.-based independent nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing research in the social sciences and related disciplines...
).- SSRC Policy Committee, Chair.
Selected works
Verba's published writings encompass 83 works in 201 publications in 8 languages and 16,633 library holdings.- 2011 -- A Life in Political Science Annual Review of Political Science. DOI 10.1146/annurev-polisci-082409-094200
- 2005 -- Contest of Symbols: The Sociology of Election Campaigns through Israeli Ephemera by Hanna Herzog (Foreword by Sidney Verba). Cambridge: Harvard University Press. 10-ISBN 0-674-01796-X; 13-ISBN 978-0-674-01796-2 (paper)
- 2001 -- The Private Roots of Public Action: Gender, Equality, and Political Participation. Cambridge: Harvard University Press—with Nancy Burns and Kay Lehman Schlozman. 10-ISBN 0-674-00601-1; 13-ISBN 978-0-674-00601-0 cloth) 10-ISBN 0-674-00660-7; 13-ISBN 978-0-674-00660-7
- 1995 -- Voice and Equality: Civic Voluntarism in American Politics. Cambridge: Harvard University PressHarvard University PressHarvard University Press is a publishing house established on January 13, 1913, as a division of Harvard University, and focused on academic publishing. In 2005, it published 220 new titles. It is a member of the Association of American University Presses. Its current director is William P...
-- with Kay Lehman Schlozman and Henry Brady. 10-ISBN 0-674-94292-2; 13-ISBN 978-0-674-94292-9 (cloth) 10-ISBN 0-674-94293-0; 13-ISBN 978-0-674-94293-6 (paper) - 1994 -- Designing Social Inquiry: Scientific Inference in Qualitative Research Princeton: Princeton University PressPrinceton University Press-Further reading:* "". Artforum International, 2005.-External links:* * * * *...
-- with Gary KingGary King (political scientist)Gary King is a political scientist and quantitative methodologist. He is currently the Albert J. Weatherhead III University Professor and Director for the Institute for Quantitative Social Science at Harvard University.-Biography:...
and Robert KeohaneRobert KeohaneRobert O. Keohane is an American academic, who, following the publication of his influential book After Hegemony , became widely associated with the theory of neoliberal institutionalism in international relations...
. 10-ISBN 0-691-03470-2; 13-ISBN 978-0-691-03470-6 (cloth) 10-ISBN 0-691-03471-0; 13-ISBN 978-0-691-03471-3 (paper) - 1987 -- Elites and the Idea of Equality: A Comparison of Japan, Sweden, and the United States. Cambridge: Harvard University PressHarvard University PressHarvard University Press is a publishing house established on January 13, 1913, as a division of Harvard University, and focused on academic publishing. In 2005, it published 220 new titles. It is a member of the Association of American University Presses. Its current director is William P...
—with Steven Kelman, Gary R. Orren, Ichiro Miyake, Joji Watanuki, Ikuo Kabashima, and G. Donald Ferree. 10-ISBN 0-674-24685-3; 13-ISBN 978-0-674-24685-0 (cloth) ISBN 0-674-24686-1; 13-ISBN 978-0-674-24686-7 (paper) - 1985 -- Equality in America: A View from the Top Cambridge: Harvard University Press—with Gary R. Orren. 10-ISBN 0-674-25960-2; 13-ISBN 978-0-674-25960-7 (cloth) 10-ISBN 0-674-25 961-0; 13-ISBN 978-0-674-25961-4 (paper)
- 1972 -- Participation in America: Political Democracy and Social Equality. New York: Harper & Row -- with Norman H. NieNorman H. NieNorman H. Nie is an American social scientist, university professor, inventor, and pioneering technology entrepreneur. Born in St. Louis, Missouri in 1943, Dr. Nie was educated at the University of the Americas in Mexico City, Washington University in St. Louis and Stanford University, where he...
. 10-ISBN 0-0604-6823-8; ISBN-13: 978-0-060-46823-1 (cloth). [reprinted by The University of Chigago Press, Chicago. 10-ISBN 0-2268-5296-2; 13-ISBN 978-0-226-85296-6 (paper)] - 1963 -- The Civic Culture: Political Attitudes and Democracy in Five Nations. Princeton: Princeton University Press—with Gabriel AlmondGabriel AlmondGabriel A. Almond was an American political scientist best known for his pioneering work on comparative politics, political development, and political culture.-Biography:...
. [reprinted by Little, Brown, Boston, 1980. 10-ISBN 0-316-03490-8; 13-ISBN 978-0-316-03490-6 (cloth)], [reprinted by Sage PublicationsSAGE PublicationsSAGE is an independent academic publisher of books, journals, and electronic products in the humanities and social sciences and the scientific, technical, and medical fields. SAGE was founded in 1965 by George McCune and Sara Miller McCune. The company is headquartered in Thousand Oaks, California,...
, London 10-ISBN 0-8039-3558-7; 13-ISBN 978-0-8039-3558-7 (paper)] - 1961 -- Small Groups and Political Behavior: A Study of Leadership. Princeton: Princeton University Press. 10-ISBN 0-691-09333-4; 13-ISBN 978-0-691-09333-8 (cloth)
External links
- Installation of President Faust: "Harvard Faculty Greeting," -- video excerpt, Sidney Verba speaking on behalf of the faculty (5 mins).
- Harvard@Home video: "Teaching American Politics" -- Professors Waters, Verba, Skocpol
- An Annual Reviews Conversations Interview with Sidney Verba (video)