(PDF version)

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

Appendix A

About Us > Annual Reports

MIT Libraries
Annual Report FY 2002-2003

Director, Libraries

“To push the frontiers of knowledge in our research would not be possible without libraries. The library connects us with the current knowledge and state of the art, and this is the starting point for our own work. The library also instills in me a sense for tradition – to look at fifty or hundred year old writings reminds me that I am part of a long-lasting human effort to understand the world around us.”

Wolfgang Ketterle
John D. MacArthur Professor of Physics and Nobel Laureate

The MIT Libraries are privileged and pleased to support the work of the extraordinary faculty and students of MIT. Our community expects a high level of excellence from their library system, and the staff of the Libraries are more than equal to the challenge. For their part, students and faculty expressed their appreciation for the Libraries’ excellence in many ways in FY2003 – not the least of which was Professor Ketterle’s thoughtful remark.

While the Libraries have always been a critical part of the Institute’s intellectual and community infrastructure, in FY2003 they – like many other units of the Institute – actively pursued the task of reinventing excellence. In the Libraries’ domain, change manifested itself in the form of modernized physical spaces, new services concepts devised by both information services staff and information management staff, expanded programming of seminars and events, and a vibrant applied research program. Library staff eagerly pursued these activities despite financial constraints, a rapidly expanding, appropriately demanding client base, and continued volatility in the publishing environment.

Perhaps because the Libraries’ powerfully productive information resources and services now reach both those who visit the Libraries’ physical facilities as well as those who access networked services and resources, every academic department, every lab and center, every desktop and dorm room at MIT can readily take advantage of the Libraries’ physical and digital assets. Indeed, our excellence is increasingly assumed to be a fundamental aspect of the Institute’s infrastructure, its “intellectual plumbing”. Of this we should be proud, just as we are proud of the service philosophy and culture of innovation that frame our operational choices. In his classic book, Excellence (Norton, 1984, p.102), John W. Gardner points out that the society that scorns excellence in plumbing and tolerates shoddiness in philosophy will find that “neither its pipes nor its theories will hold water.” The MIT Libraries aim to excel at both.

The Libraries FY2003 departmental annual reports illuminate the amazing level of effort and unstinting professionalism that are required to have facilities, resources, technology, and services that “hold water”. By supporting current and future Nobel laureates in their work, and by connecting faculty and students alike to the traditions, current knowledge, and state of the art of their disciplines, the Libraries underpin the aspirations and expectations of the research and teaching enterprises of MIT.

FY2003 was a year that clearly validated the Libraries’ strategic plan. Student and faculty use of the Libraries rose significantly in a number of areas, as did donations from alumni, research support from foundations and industry partners, and enrollments in the Libraries’ instructional programs. More specifically:

• Donors demonstrated a gratifying willingness to support the libraries vision and mission through gifts for information resources, for student study spaces, for the conservation and preservation of the Libraries’ rare and unusual collections.
• Parents and alumni signed up in notable numbers to learn about the history of MIT and about the current and future role of the Institute Archives in capturing and preserving that history.
• Students expressed their gratitude in words and actions for the new spaces built within the Libraries on their behalf. The value of appropriately designed, thoughtfully outfitted study space was instantly recognized and greatly appreciated.
• The importance of the network as a true service outlet was affirmed. Not only were extensive current information resources served to and used by the MIT community over the network, but a variety of web-based service modules were developed for specific constituencies within the MIT community.
• Research that advanced MIT’s (and the world’s) ability to use and manage digitally formatted information was conducted in close cooperation with MIT faculty and researchers and MIT’s industry partners.
• The authors@mit program continued to attract exceptional readers and impressive audiences. A growing number of lectures are now available to MIT alumni/ae and others via MITWorld.
• The prescience of the Institute’s 1998 Task Force on Student Life and Learning was demonstrated in the exceptional number of students who attended Libraries instructional programs designed to facilitate their effective use of information resources.

MIT’s Libraries have long been distinguished by the closeness of their working relationships with MIT administrators, faculty and students. This admirable characteristic was furthered in FY2003 through the innovative and enthusiastic efforts of the Libraries User Group committees, by the creativity and diligence of the intra-library functional service teams, and by the conscientious outreach activities of subject specialists and managers in each Divisional and Branch library within the library system.

Under the leadership of Tom Rosko, newly recruited Institute Archivist, records management activities advanced to a new, highly productive relationship with the Office of the Executive Vice President. We were honored by President Vest’s delivery of the keynote address at the 141st Membership Meeting of the Association of Research Libraries in Washington, DC in October 2002. In April 2003 the Libraries were delighted to work with MIT’s Office of Government and Community Relations in welcoming Maurice Sendak to MIT to deliver the 2003 Arbuthnot Lecture. And we were gratified by the remarkably enthusiastic response to DSpace when it was released in November 2002 as an open source software system.

Strong working relationships were likewise developed or maintained with the leaderships of Information Systems, Academic Computing, the Open CourseWare project, SloanSpace, AMPS, and the technical staff of numerous departments, labs, and centers here at the Institute. The Libraries Systems and Technology Services group became an active and constructive partner in planning for and supporting educational technology at the Institute. Collections Services developed an innovative service concept called the Metadata Unit to support the work of OpenCourseWare and other web-based Institute initiatives.

Ellen Faran was warmly welcomed to MIT as the new director of the MIT Press following Frank Urbanowski’s retirement in January 2003. Public Services staff worked closely with the Stellar development team to devise improved ways to deliver required and recommended course readings to class participants. The Digital Library Research Group achieved remarkable success with its Federation goals for the DSpace program.

In FY2003, the Libraries benefited greatly from the contributions of the faculty and Corporation committees with which it is privileged to work. The Faculty Committee on the Library System had an exceptionally productive and energetic year, focusing its efforts predominantly on two issues: first, the continuing priority of a new Science and Engineering Library for MIT, and second, copyright and publishing issues as they relate to scholarly communications. The MIT Libraries Visiting Committee held a lively two-day meeting in April 2003. The Committee’s discussions were energetic and constructive, and the Libraries – as always - appreciated the insights, optimism, challenge, and encouragement provided by this highly engaged group of extraordinarily accomplished individuals.

In FY2004 the Libraries will continue to work toward the goal of a new Engineering and Science Library that will define the state of the art of technically oriented libraries in the 21st Century. The Libraries are deeply appreciative of the support they have received for this initiative from a broad cross-section of the academic and administrative leadership of the Institute. The success of this effort will be an important element in the Institute’s ongoing plans to improve the quality of life for students on the MIT campus. Its achievement will secondarily enable the development of a schedule for continued improvements to other shabby and outdated Libraries facilities, and allow for the rationalization of improbably dispersed collections.

The challenges that will face the Libraries in FY2004 are not unique to the Libraries, although the relative youth of our research initiatives and resource development programs will limit the available responses. The current economic climate will most certainly oblige the Libraries to rethink their services and structure. Particular to the Libraries in this challenge is our unique mission-based responsibility to provide the entire MIT community with both information resources and information services. Our strong relationships with the faculty of the Institute in both teaching and research will introduce complexity to the choices that must be made, as will our responsibilities to the Institute for archives and records management. At the end of the day, the potential impact of any change in resources and services offered by the Libraries must be seen as a positive reflection on the ubiquity with which the MIT Libraries serve the information and study/work requirements of all MIT faculty and students.

Ann J. Wolpert
Director of Libraries

More information about the MIT Libraries can be found on the World Wide Web at http://libraries.mit.edu/