While its ways are sometimes criticized as opaque, the Faculty of Arts and Sciences took a big step towards openness yesterday, passing a motion that will allow Harvard to freely distribute scholarly articles produced by FAS professors. The motion, which passed easily at yesterday's Faculty meeting, grants Harvard a non-exclusive copyright over all articles produced by any current Faculty member, allowing for the creation of an online repository that would be "available to other services such as web harvesters, Google Scholar, and the like."

Professors can still submit a written request to waive the application of the policy and maintain control of their copyright even if the policy is applied, allowing them to have the articles published in scholarly journals. Robert Darnton '60, director of the University library, emphasized the motion's importance in opening up Harvard’s resources. "This is a way of sharing the intellectual wealth of Harvard, which is for the public good," he said. "We think it can make a very important difference in the way scholarly communication in the new digital age."

"Perhaps no one in our time has done more than J.K. Rowling to inspire young people to experience the excitement and sheer joy of reading," said Drew Faust, the president of the university, in a statement. "Harvard isn't exactly Hogwarts, but I am sure that her visit with us next June will be a moment of magic for J.K. Rowling's many admirers across the university."

Not all academics speak glowingly of the U.K. author. Harold Bloom, the literary critic and professor at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, wrote in the Wall Street Journal in April 2005 that Rowling and horror author Stephen King "are equally bad writers, appropriate titans of our new Dark Age of the Screens: computer, motion pictures, TV."