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Libraries
by Ann Wolpert

Public Services
by Steve Gass

Collection Services
by Carol Fleishauer

Administrative Services
by Keith Glavash

Technology Planning and Administration
by MacKenzie Smith

About Us > Annual Reports

MIT Libraries
Annual Report FY 2004-2005

Collection Services

Collection Services activities encompass those functions related to acquiring, providing bibliographic access to, and preserving information resources for the use of the MIT community.

ACQUIRING INFORMATION RESOURCES

The Libraries continued a long process of responding to the challenge of limits on funding to purchase information resources in a market environment dominated by large commercial publishers, beholden to their stockholders. This year, we were compelled to make cancellation decisions in response to a budget allocation that was insufficient for price increases; at the same time, we engaged in activities directed toward facilitating the understanding of the broader issues by faculty and others at MIT.

For the first time in six years, the Libraries' materials budget increment for FY05 ($300,000) was not sufficient to cover the price increases in journals and database subscriptions (est. $500,000). In addition, while the book budget remained stable, no new monies were available to support new areas of education or research, new electronic products, or new journal titles. Fortunately, this budget condition had been anticipated. We had prepared by opting out of multi-year agreements with two large publishers (sacrificing the price benefits, but allowing flexibility in content selection) in the fall of 2003, and by planning substantive cancellations of subscriptions in the spring of 2004.

Elsevier Science titles were the primary focus of our subscription reductions because they represented 27% of our serials expenditures, and because their per-title costs are so high (in excess of $2,300 on average). Eighty-nine Elsevier titles were cancelled for 2005 and ninety-eight titles were converted to electronic-only subscriptions. In addition, twenty-two journal titles from other publishers were cancelled, and several changes in database subscriptions (reductions in number of simultaneous users, different user interfaces, etc.) resulted in lower prices.  

While these reductions were modest, there is continuing concern about price increases that are among the highest of all higher education expenditure categories, and growing realization that the system for distributing research output should change. In order to provide a handy source of information about the issues, the Libraries created a web-site: Scholarly Communication in Crisis: Why You Should Care ( http://libraries.mit.edu/about/scholarly/). It provides information about the impact on the MIT community, national and international developments, and tools and suggestions for faculty and students who choose to use their influence.

Acquisition Highlights

While responding to the major issue described above, our efforts to meet the information resource needs of the MIT community continued apace. Approximately forty percent of our serial subscriptions are now for electronic products. In addition, a growing number of one-time purchases are also electronic, notably this year, many Geographic Information System products.  

Reallocations of existing funds allowed a small number of new purchases. Several of these supported efforts to reform the scholarly communications marketplace:

• membership in the Public Library of Science, a non-profit organization of scientists and physicians dedicated to unlimited access to the latest scientific research
• contribution to an endowment for the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, a creative funding strategy for open access to an important scholarly resource
• purchase of BioOne, an aggregation of high-impact, low-cost bioscience research journals, created through a collaboration of scientific societies, libraries, and the commercial sector
• purchase of Faculty of 1000, a service for biologists that highlights significant research selected by a panel of researchers, in essence a peer review system separate from the publication system

We continued to purchase books-on-paper at our usual rate of approximately 20,000 per year. We realized that with the emphasis on building up our digital collections during the last decade, we had a pent-up demand for new print reference sources, and we allocated one-time funds to respond to that demand.

Approximately 3,000 monographs were added to our collections through the Gifts Program, the most significant being a gift of linguistics and philosophy monographs from Sylvain Bromberger and a gift of art and architecture monographs from Santiago Calatrava.

Acquisition of the administrative records of MIT President Charles M. Vest constituted the largest set of paper records received to date by the Institute Archives. In addition, electronic records from the Office of the President were transferred to the Archives for the first time. A large collection of records from the Laboratory for Computer Science was received, as the Lab completed its move into the Stata Center.

New manuscript collections were acquired from Jeanne Bamberger (Music), Gordon Pettengill (Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences), and the CREN (Corporation for Research Educational Networking) Foundation. Additions to many existing collections were received, and formal gift agreements were completed for several collections previously received.

All of these efforts support our on-going goals for acquisition of information resources:

• to support MIT's teaching and research programs with all of the critical and necessary resources
• to provide information for current users in formats that best serve their needs
• to ensure access to the retrospective research record for future students, faculty, and researchers
• to provide the historical record of MIT to administrators and researchers at MIT and beyond, today and into the future

PROVIDING METADATA AND TOOLS FOR DISCOVERY OF INFORMATION RESOURCES

Historically, Collection Services staff were engaged in creating and maintaining bibliographic records for the Libraries' catalog, as well as processing and creating finding aids for permanent Institute records and faculty papers. Over the last several years, there has been a substantial expansion in the number of information discovery tools that Collection Services contribute to and support, now including: Barton, the on-line catalog; Vera, the e-resource discovery tool; SFX, a link resolver tool; DSpace, the institutional repository; OCW, the open-courseware system, and the Institute Archives and Special Collections web-site. Staff have contributed to this complex information environment with both conceptual planning and analysis and hands-on activities.

Planning

Significant rethinking of our tools for resource discovery was carried out by two groups. The Task Force on Cataloging Records for Electronic Information Resources submitted a report with two major recommendations:

• employ the MARCit service to provide records for packages in Barton (including large journal aggregator packages not yet represented)
• maintain the piggybacking approach (i.e. describing a print resource and its electronic counterpart on a single record) via loader matching scripting

A decision on the Task Force recommendations will be made in fall of 2005, after consideration of the inter-relationships with the recommendations of another group: the SFX/Verde Group.

The SFX/Verde Group worked simultaneously to plan the implementation of SFX version 3 and to consider the implementation of Verde at MIT. This group will make an interim report in September, 2005, and a final report in December, 2005. Verde is an Electronic Resource Management System, which was co-developed by Ex Libris (our library system vendor) and the MIT and Harvard libraries. The co-development work continued throughout the year, and the general release of the product is imminent.  

In addition, staff from Cataloging and Metadata Services (CAMS) and Acquisitions and Licensing Services (ALS) were heavily engaged in planning, testing, and preparation for the upgrade to Aleph, the library management system. Implementation of version 16.02 of the software is scheduled for July, 2005. CAMS staff also planned for the software migration from Passport to Connexion by OCLC, the Libraries' bibliographic data supplier.

With planning by a small group of staff from ALS, Systems and Technology Services (STS), and Public Services, and with programming carried out by an STS staff member, we launched an "E-metrics" tool in December, 2004. This tool counts access to all of our electronic information resources through Vera (the Libraries e-resource access tool). Over time, it will provide critical information for product assessment and for demonstrating the value of our investment in these resources.  

Barton, the on-line catalog

Cataloging of newly acquired monographs and serials in many formats, both tangible and digital, continued as usual. Planning for and implementation of record-loading for electronic government documents resulted in over 20,000 new records for these important resources. A seven-year project to create on-line records for monographs in the Libraries' Dewey Decimal Collection was completed with approximately 82,500 titles from this important collection now represented in our catalog. 11,750 of these records were created this year, and in addition, serials cataloging staff accelerated the pace of creating records for DDC serials, with over 800 new records this year. Work remains to be done on the "grey literature" in the collection.

Efforts to create records for our rare book collections also continued this year, representing many unique and valuable items in Barton for the first time. Examples include:

• a pocket-sized "ready reckoner" printed in Italy in 1589
• an anti-slavery tract by noted abolitionist M.D. Conway, inscribed to William Barton Rogers
• an illustrated 1919 architect's proposal for a lavish redesign of the Harvard Bridge

Vera, the electronic resources discovery tool

Support of Vera continued with additions of records for new resources, maintenance of existing records, and resolution of over 500 access problems reported by users or public services librarians. Support of digital resources is a "matrix" endeavor, involving the Digital Resources Acquisitions Librarian, the E-Journals Team chaired by the Head of Serials Acquisitions, and the Dig-Prob team, drawn from several acquisitions units and the Director's Office. This year, the Dig-Prob team utilized Request Tracker (RT) case management software.

SFX, the link resolver

The SFX Database Manager (a serials cataloger) worked with STS personnel to plan for the transition to Version 3 of the SFX software. SFX continued to be supported by staff in serials cataloging, who process monthly Knowledge Base updates. The software upgrade required special efforts to verify data and clean up the database.

DSpace, the institutional repository

Staff from the Institute Archives and Special Collections and CAMS contributed to planning for the transfer of MIT theses to DSpace. In preparation for the transfer, CAMS staff defined a MARC-to-Dublin Core metadata crosswalk and created an authorized list of MIT departments.  

OpenCourseWare

The Metadata Unit has contributed metadata for over 1100 OpenCourseWare titles and associated objects since April of 2003. The Metadata Specialist participated in CWSpace, an iCampus-funded project to promote interoperability among collaborative learning environments.

Institute Records

Progress on several projects resulted in improved and expanded access to Institute records, both temporary and permanent:

• Approval of record schedules for Financial Data Retention by the Secretary of the Corporation, the Executive Vice-President, and the Head of the Institute Archives and Special Collections
• Creation of a Records Management web-site, which will be launched early in FY06
• Processing of three sets of administrative records spanning the 1960's - 1990's: records of Provost Walter Rosenblith, Executive Vice-President Constantine Simonides, and Vice-President James Culliton
• Mounting of several finding-aids, in PDF format, on the Archives' web-site

PRESERVING INFORMATION RESOURCES

Archival Storage Center (ASC)

The completion of the ASC was the most significant preservation event of the year. Planning for this facility and preparation of the materials in the Rare Book Room (RBR) of Hayden basement took place over the previous two years. The Archives staff, the Preservation Services staff, and the Rare Book Cataloger were heavily involved in these efforts. An inventory of the rare books and a complete shelflist of all the collections were completed, previously uncataloged materials were cataloged, over forty-five archival and manuscript collections were reviewed, and all fragile materials were stabilized. Bibliographic control of these collections, as well as the staff's knowledge of them, were greatly enhanced by this project. A HOBO system for environmental monitoring was installed and procedures were developed for its use, and water alert units were put in place. Working with the Libraries Facilities and Operations Manager, protocols for incident reporting and response were developed with MIT Facilities. In addition, planning for and documentation of the use of security features of the space was completed. Over 6,000 rare book volumes, 1,300 linear feet of MIT publications, and 2,000 linear feet of administrative records and manuscript papers were moved during February and March, and are now housed in environmental and security conditions that will contribute substantially to their long-term preservation.

Wunsch Conservation Laboratory

In addition to the work on stabilizing the RBR collections, the Laboratory staff carried out preservation treatments on 467 items in the Libraries' and Archives' collections. They also took the first steps along a path of expanding preservation program activities to include non-text information resources:

• Barker Library film loops of fluid mechanics demonstrations, still highly useful to students and faculty, were in an obsolete format and could only be played on one machine in Barker. Appropriate vendors were sought and asked to provide estimates for reformatting these film loops. The work was sent out in March and new DVDs and BetaSPs will be ready for use in July.
• Reformatting standards and contract specifications were created for the Music Library's Epstein collection of audiotape recordings of the MIT Symphony Orchestra.

The experience gained from these two projects will be useful as we expand preservation activities for audio and visual formats in the future.

• A proposal was submitted to the National Endowment for the Humanities in July, 2004, to conserve and improve access to the papers and books of William Barton Rogers. In March, we were informed that the proposal would not be funded. The proposal was revised to address the comments of the reviewers and prepared for re-submission in July, 2005.

Storage Facilities

Space constraints in the libraries continue to mandate the move of substantial portions of the collections to storage. 55,411 volumes were moved from the various libraries to storage this year. A total of 65,378 (from both the libraries and the RetroSpective Collection) were moved to the Harvard Depository (HD), our largest volume yet in a single year. 1,212 boxes of permanent records were also transferred to HD.

Planning continued to better utilize Building N57. A CRSP proposal for building improvements was funded for FY06 at the level of $100,000.  

Staff planned for changes of the names of the RetroSpective Collection (RSC), in Building 57, and the Harvard Depository (HD), where we lease additional storage capacity.   The new names, Library Storage Annex and Off Campus Collection respectively, will be implemented in July, 2005. This re-naming responds to confusion on the part of users about the existing names.  

ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE AND STAFFING

This was the first year of two newly restructured departments that resulted from organizational planning in FY04: Cataloging and Metadata Services (CAMS) and Acquisitions and Licensing Services (ALS). Rebecca Lubas assumed the position of Head of CAMS in July. Kim Maxwell was promoted to the position of Associate Head of ALS, and a search was carried out for Associate Head of CAMS. The search resulted in the hire of Selina Wang, who will begin work on September 1, 2005. This will complete the Technical Services Management Group, as defined in the planning process last year. The integration of serials and monograph cataloging in one department (CAMS) has already proven especially useful in the analysis process carried out by the Task Force on Cataloging Electronic Resources. The Head of ALS led her staff in an effort to write a mission statement to define their role.

Other personnel changes included the following:  

David Van Hoy, Principal Serials Cataloger, retired.

• Lisa Harrington was hired in the new position of Serials Acquisitions Supervisor.
• Liz Phillips was hired as an Archivist I on a special project to process administrative records.
• The position of Head, Serials Cataloging Section was posted.

The staff of the RSC (Moses Carr, Arly Cassidy, Melissa Feiden, Cassandra Fox, and Liz Philips) were awarded the Libraries' 2005 Infinite Mile Team Award for Communication and Collaboration.

Space vacated in Hayden basement by the move of STS to E25 was reallocated as processing space for the Archives staff.

OUTREACH

The Metadata Unit of CAMS launched a marketing campaign, which included distributing a postcard advertising its services and a follow-up presentation in the Libraries' Information Intersection in the Stata Center.

Staff of the Wunsch Conservation Lab conducted 12 tours/presentations for outside visitors, MIT alumni, and Resource Development staff, and presented 2 classes during IAP. They also prepared a case book for use in development efforts.  

The Digital Resources Acquisitions Librarian presented an IAP session on licensing and rules of use for digital resources with MIT's Intellectual Property Counsel, who covered fair use and copyright issues.

Institute Archives and Special Collections

The Archives hosted a celebration of the 200th birthday of MIT's founder, William Barton Rogers, in the lobby of Building 7. It included remarks by Director of Libraries, Ann J. Wolpert, and MIT's new President, Susan Hockfield, as well as a birthday cake and a kazoo chorus. More than 700 members of the MIT community attended.

The Archives staff also contributed to the Department of Physics' celebration of the "World Year of Physics" with an exhibit honoring the 100 th anniversary of the birth of MIT space physicist Bruno Rossi.

The Object of the Month displays continued to highlight MIT's history in the hallway outside the Archives and on the Archives' web-site, and, this year, in the Information Intersection as well. Several exhibits were created for display within the Archives reading room in conjunction with the inauguration of the new President. The following new web-site exhibits were spotlighted on MIT's home-page: "Learning about MIT: A Bibliography," "Physics Sources in the Institute Archives," "Inaugural Addresses of MIT Presidents," and "William Barton Rogers: MIT's Visionary Founder."

Presentations were given during IAP, Alumni weekend, and the Visiting Committee meeting, in addition to instructional sessions in two classes. A slide show was mounted in the Building 4 corridor in honor of MIT's "charter day" (April 10). The Head of the Archives and Special Collections was the co-host of two live web-casts, one for the President's inauguration and one for commencement.

The Archives collections continue to be used regularly by the administrative and academic offices of MIT, as well as by outside users from colleges and universities throughout this country and abroad. Monographs published this year based on intensive use of the collections included the following: Mark Jarzombek's Designing MIT: Bosworth's New Tech ; Julius A. Stratton and Loretta H. Mannix's Mind and Hand: The Birth of MIT ; and Perry Merling's Fischer Black and the Revolutionary Idea of Finance.

SUMMARY

This report documents the special achievements of the Collections Services staff this year. It barely mentions the regular daily activities that guarantee faculty and students have access to the information resources they need to teach, learn, and carry out research:

• the purchase of 18,000 monograph titles, 300 music scores, 250 videos and 600 computer files
• the management of 22,000 subscriptions for print and digital content
• the cataloging of 21,000 monograph titles, 1,500 music scores, 1,000 print and electronic journals, 6,000 MIT theses and technical reports
• the binding of 19,000 items and repair of 6,000
• the receipt of 233 cubic feet of manuscripts and 555 cubic feet of administrative records
• and more...

All of this activity went on in the background of the more notable activities described above. Cumulatively, they once again demonstrate the remarkable output of a dedicated and expert staff.

Carol Fleishauer
Associate Director for Collection Services