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Libraries
by Ann Wolpert

Public Services
by Steve Gass

Collection Services
by Carol Fleishauer

Administrative Services
by James Mullins

Technology Planning and Administration
by MacKenzie Smith

About Us > Annual Reports

MIT Libraries
Annual Report FY 2001-2002

Public Services

The MIT Libraries’ Public Services staff can take great pride in its accomplishments this past year as we near the completion of the third year of the Libraries’ five year Strategic Plan. Under the able interim leadership of Nina Davis-Millis during the nine month search for a new Associate Director, Public Services maintained strong momentum in advancing the Libraries’ objectives of developing a suite of resources and services focused on providing users with the most effective and intuitive library environment possible.

The challenges of transforming the 20th century research library, primarily based on physical objects (books and journals) and physical locations, into the research library of the 21st century are enormous. On a day-to-day basis Public Services staff collaborate with the other Departments of the MIT Libraries as well as Departments, Labs, and Centers across the Institute to move us toward a seamless library environment where resources and services are available around the clock, and library spaces support the needs of our users to browse relevant collections, receive state of the art reference and instructional services, and find quiet study space that promotes scholarly reflection. The three strategic directions identified in the Libraries’ Strategic Plan provide a useful framework for reporting on how this past year’s accomplishments contributed to .

Strategic Direction I – Excel at Providing Rapid, Easy, and Precise Access to High Quality Information for Education and Research at MIT

• 3rd Barton implementation involved a wide variety of staff in enhancing functionality in support of user access to correct bibliographic information and improved services. The Circulation and Processing Committees and the OPAC Task Group played leadership roles in developing workflows and enhancements for our new Aleph library management system. The efforts provided by all in support of this major initiative cannot be understated.
• A Reference Vision for the MIT Libraries was developed incorporating the input of both users and staff. Led by the Reference Committee and resulting from issues emanating from the “Ask Us Live” digital reference service pilot of the last year, a Reference Vision Task Force was formed and created an exciting vision for all of public services focused on three goals:
  • Simplifying access to libraries’ materials, services, and staff expertise.
  • Encouraging flexibility and experimentation for library staff and services.
  • Successfully marketing services, externally and internally.
• GIS (Geography Information Systems) services were established. Our new GIS Specialist, based in Rotch Library, has done a remarkable job initiating a GIS program within the Libraries. This initiative was made possible due to close collaboration with the Academic Computing Practice within Information Systems. Since arriving last July, the GIS Specialist has quickly developed a physical and virtual program that provides growing support for a diverse community. Activity for this past year peaked in April when she answered over one hundred reference questions and the GIS web site received over 800 hits.
• eDelivery of documents to the user desktop continued to improve and grow dramatically.
  • Beginning in April all interlibrary borrowing photocopy requests by MIT faculty, students, and staff were delivered by the Interlibrary Borrowing Office’s new ED (Electronic Documents) service, providing PDF images delivered directly to the user’s desktop via the web. This has dramatically increased the timeliness of delivery, and has been received enthusiastically by the community.
  • Fee based document delivery services provided by Document Services are now dominated by eDelivery with 72% of all journal articles and 48% of all theses delivered in electronic format, a growth of 31% and 20% respectively.
• Data Services Librarian was hired. Starting in late August at Dewey Library, she has quickly begun assessing the social science data needs of the community. Over the next year she will be developing a coordinated plan across the MIT Libraries to improve support for this critical area.
• Instructional Activity nearly doubled this past year. Of particular note was an initiative of the Instruction Committee to promote EndNote, a powerful bibliographic citation manager, to the community.
• Outreach activity, supported by the many Public Service User Groups and coordinated with all subject selectors, continued to grow. Many of the groups worked closely with the Web Advisory Group and our Web Master and Usability Specialist to continuously improve upon our public web site.
• Orientation Coordinator was hired in January. Based in the Humanities Library, she has actively begun coordinating and planning orientation activities with our User Groups.

Strategic Direction II – Ensure that Library Spaces and Operations Facilitate Life On Campus

• The Hayden Basement compact shelving project was completed resulting in:
  • More efficient use of basement stacks for both the Humanities and Science Libraries.
  • Access to more back years of highly used journals.
  • Better organization of the Humanities and Science bound journal collections.
  • Faster turn-around time for the re-shelving of all journals.
  • Preservation and storage of fragile materials.
  • Reorganization of current periodicals and books in the Science Library including the removal of tall index stacks in the middle of the reading room, resulting in a more open and visually attractive space.
  • Improved signage throughout Hayden Library.
• Planning for a renovated Hayden entry, service desk, and 24 hour study room continued with construction beginning in May and continuing over the summer.
• Planning for a new, combined Engineering and Science Library along with a fully renovated Hayden Library in support of the Humanities and certain social science areas continued. The Faculty Committee on the Library System issued a detailed report, “MIT Libraries: Meeting Critical Needs for the 21st Century,” which received strong support from the Faculty Policy Committee and Academic Council.
• Detailed planning for a new Dewey Library within the overall East Campus Building Project effort began.
• Planning continued for the Libraries’ Information Kiosk that will be located on the Student Street of the Stata Center. Projected to open in early 2004, the kiosk will accommodate quick information access, individual and group instruction, and promote library resources and services for the community.
• Many units made significant improvements to their existing facilities to better support student learning and research:
  • Barker purchased new study chairs for all of its study carrels on the 6th, 7th, and 8th floors.
  • Dewey purchased 35 new chairs for study and increased its electrical capacity to better support user needs.
  • Humanities created an improved newspaper and periodical reading area.
  • Rotch incorporated a new GIS Laboratory into its space to support our burgeoning GIS Program. This was facilitated by generous funding for equipment by the Academic Computing Practice within Information Systems.
  • As stated above, Science took advantage of the Hayden Basement compact shelving project to improve both the aesthetics and functionality of its reading room.
• The establishment and hiring of a Circulation Supervisor within Hayden Library Access Services has resulted in improved management of circulation and stacking services for the Humanities and Science Libraries. Users of Hayden have a much easier time finding materials on the shelf or tracking items when off the shelf. This position was created through the internal reallocation of funds.

Strategic Direction III – Be a Leader Among Academic Research Institutions in the Use of Applied Library

• The Libraries continued its pilot “Ask Us Live” digital reference service, expanding the hours during spring semester until 7pm, Monday through Thursday. This exciting and challenging project attempts to provide virtual real time reference help via the web, allowing both user and staff to share each other’s virtual information environment. To better manage this initiative a Digital Reference Coordinator was established in the Humanities Library by internal staff reallocation.
• Staff were involved in the “Early Adopter” phase of the DSpace project, helping the DSpace developers design highly usable interfaces and working with the community to publicize and educate.
• Staff contributed to the Libraries’ Enhanced Navigation Project in an effort to improve users ability to quickly navigate through our many electronic resources and connect to the information most relevant to their needs.
• As mentioned earlier, many have been involved in the ongoing implementation of the Aleph library management system to enhance its ability to help our users access a wide variety of information ranging from bibliographic citations to lists of items they have checked out from the MIT Libraries.

Our Most Precious Resource

The long list of accomplishments this past year is due to the extraordinary talents and motivation of our staff. The willingness of Public Services to continuously examine its operations, take advantage of technology, and redefine positions and programs as necessary is a critical component of our ongoing success. Above all, however, is the steadfast commitment of staff to provide the best possible services for our faculty, students, and staff. Of particular note are those Public Services staff selected to be recipients of the Libraries’ Infinite Mile Award this past year:

• Margaret Bloom – in the category “Results, Outcome, and Productivity” – Maggie was recognized for the excellent improvements she has brought to stacking in Hayden Library, resulting in better access to materials for users.
• Mike Cook and Neal Johnson – in the category “Results, Outcome, and Productivity” – Mike and Neal oversaw the conversion of more than 75,000 pages of publications from the Laboratory for Information Decisions and Systems in PDF format along with OCR for inclusion into DSpace while continuing to manage their regular assignments.
• Eileen Dorschner – in the category “Innovation and Creativity” – Eileen was recognized for extraordinary creativity and steadfast leadership during the renovation of the Aero/Astro Library in 2000/2001.
• Carol Frederick – in the category “Community” – Carol was recognized for the extraordinary service she provides for the users of Barker Library and the close personal connections she has made with so many students.
• Tracy Gabridge – in the category “Results, Outcome, and Productivity” – Tracy was recognized for her extraordinary contributions to the 3rd Barton OPAC Task.

Priorities for the Future

The MIT Libraries remain steadfast in its mission:

The MIT Libraries are creative partners in the research and learning process. We select, organize, present, and preserve information resources relevant to education and research at MIT. We sustain these world-class resources and provide quality services on behalf of the present and future research and scholarly community. We build intellectual connections among these resources and educate the MIT community in the effective use of information. We want to be the place people in the MIT community think of first when they need information.

If we are to be “… the place people in the MIT community think of first when they need information,” we will need to evolve our organization, resources, and services to meet the needs of our dynamic users. The Reference Vision developed by Public Services this past year provides an ambitious framework for doing just that. The vision imagines:

• A reference environment that enables user self-sufficiency and easy access to information staff.
• Library space, both physical and virtual, that is intuitive.
• An environment that facilitates independent discovery and provides quick connectivity to appropriate experts when needed.
• The availability of real-time assistance extended to better meet community needs.
• All staff well trained in customer service, library policies and procedures, and a core set of information tools and resources.
• A robust referral system that provides the timely linkage of users to subject and technical experts, and ensures necessary follow-up and assessment.

Working toward this vision in a manner that is flexible and sustainable is an important priority and challenge for Public Services. To do so will require an increased focus on training, developing useful metrics for assessment, and a sophisticated understanding of how technology can best support our efforts.

Statistics demonstrate the importance of evolving our service model to best serve the user community. The continued expansion of resource and service delivery to the user’s desktop has contributed to what appears to be a slow but steady drop in user visits to our physical locations. This year’s door count was down 11.5% across the five Divisional Libraries. While activity at reference desks also continued its downward trend, libraries that experimented with capturing statistics on reference activity away from the reference desk showed increases in total reference activity, anywhere from a modest 4.4% to a dramatic 43%. Beginning this year all of the Divisional Libraries will capture reference statistics both at and away from the reference desk in a consistent manner so we can better assess how to improve our service model. Instructional activity increased significantly with 244 sessions offered (71% increase) and 5,714 attendees (95% increase). Because our new Aleph library management system counts some circulation transactions differently than the previous system and other 3rd Barton implementation issues were a higher priority during the past year, it is impossible to do a meaningful comparison of circulation activity between this year and last. Interlibrary borrowing activity remained steady (a decrease of 1%), with 12, 977 requests made and 96% of them fulfilled successfully.

Other important priorities for the coming year will be the smooth rollout of the new Hayden Entry Project that will create a new service model in Hayden by integrating three units which previously were separate (Circulation, Reserves, and Interlibrary Borrowing) and provide a much desired 7x24 study room for students. Additional planning will continue for the longer term space needs of the Libraries, including a combined Engineering and Science Library, a renovated Humanities Library, and a new Dewey Library within the East Campus Building Project. Long term space planning remains an important priority due to the existing reality of “steady-state” collections. This requires Public Service units across the system to work closely with staff in the Retrospective Collections and other units within Collection Services, spending huge amounts of time identifying and processing materials for off-site storage. Work will also continue in improving 3rd Barton, taking advantage of enhanced navigational tools like SFX, and improving the usability and functionality of our web based resources and services.

No report of this nature can do justice to the extraordinary number and variety of accomplishments seen this past year in Public Services. To do so would require reading the annual reports of all the Divisional and Branch Libraries, Functional Committees, User Groups, and Programs which make up Public Services in the MIT Libraries. As the newly appointed Associate Director for Public Services it is my pleasure and privilege to work with such a great staff for the common goal of providing the best possible library services in support of the MIT community, now and in the future.

-- Steve Gass