Libraries
by Ann Wolpert

Public Services
by Steve Gass

Collection Services
by Marilyn G. McSweeney

Administrative Services
by Keith Glavash

Technology Operations
by MacKenzie Smith

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MIT Libraries
Annual Report FY 2006-2007

Director, Libraries

Academic research libraries have long been appreciated as essential university assets.  For well over a century the quality and quantity of academic library collections have defined their excellence and their value to the universities with which they are affiliated. The efficiencies and advantages afforded to faculty and students who are privileged to work in proximity to outstanding institutional libraries contributed to a view (correctly, judging by institutional rankings) that research libraries were, and continue to be, a critical component in the quality calculation of their host institutions. 

Faculty and students choose higher-education affiliations based at least in part on the quality of the university’s library 1*, and university administrators readily acknowledge the importance of libraries as a factor in a research-oriented institution’s ability to distinguish itself in research and education. Proximity to relevant research collections (and the services that enable their effective use) continues to contribute to productivity, educate better scholars 2*, and increase the speed with which new knowledge is generated, shared, and attributed.  This was and is a reinforcing circle of quality in which research and education are tightly coupled, and in which libraries play a critically important role.

In the days before the internet, web browsers, and ubiquitous networks, a straightforward business model for libraries was predicated on the comparative advantage conveyed to institutions that could and did build substantial and credible physical research libraries.  There can be no doubt that an equally sustainable business model for research libraries in the future will emerge, as in the past, as a function of the research and education strategy of their host institutions.  A research library is, first and foremost, an asset of the institution that hosts it and whose mission and values it in turn supports.

The degree to which research libraries reflect the special focus of the institutions for which they have been built is vividly revealed in a published analysis of the collections of the five initial Google library partners 3*.  Of the 18 million book titles for which there are holding records in the OCLC database, the five Google libraries combined held only 33% of those titles.  And of those titles, 61% were held by only one of the five libraries, while an additional 20% were held by only two of the five. Clearly, these research libraries are not interchangeable, even before each individual library’s service strategy, instructional role, and facilities distinctions have been factored into the mix.

In the future as in the past, the value proposition that will enable research libraries to endure as a critical asset in higher education will be arrived at and agreed upon by a shared definition of the ways research libraries contribute to institutional excellence in education and research.  In the 21st century, value will of course include traditional collections, but the benefits conveyed by world-class research libraries will inevitably reach well beyond such traditional distinctions.  The research library of the future will proactively support interdisciplinary and inter-institutional research and education, will develop the ability to deploy information resources and services in furtherance of broad institutional priorities (both domestic and international), and will be a key productivity and quality-of-life component in an institution’s ability to attract and retain the faculty and students it seeks. 

It has become fashionable to ask of all long-standing institutions (universities and their libraries included), when they will be rendered obsolete by the “The Internet”.   The question is typically posed as “when” rather than “if” and comes from both predictable and surprising quarters *4.  For universities and libraries the question too often reflects an outdated or inaccurate understanding of the work and societal value of basic research and higher education. The complex relationships and organizational systems through which new knowledge is created, ideas, conclusions, data, and materials are shared, and discoveries are converted into educational experiences (and subsequent research) are largely invisible outside the academy. 

MIT president Susan Hockfield has confronted this question by articulating a farsighted and optimistic view of MIT’s future. As a research institution, she asserts, MIT has two overarching responsibilities to the nation and to humanity.  The first of these responsibilities is to advance knowledge in ways that will serve humankind. The second responsibility is to educate students to be leaders of the next generation. 

In both these responsibilities the MIT Libraries and their new partners, Academic Media Production Services (AMPS), have critical roles to play in the life and work of the Institute.

Advancing knowledge in ways that will serve humankind

In describing a compelling future for a research university of the caliber of MIT, President Hockfield reminds us that advancing the frontiers of knowledge is always and necessarily cumulative. 

For over a century it has been the mission of the MIT Libraries to insure that students and researchers can find, rely on, and build on previous work - and to assure the unfettered transmission of knowledge within and beyond the Institute.  This obligation is substantially more complicated in the digital library environment than it was in the print environment, but a review of the systems developed and the research conducted by the MIT Libraries in AY2007 demonstrates the ability to continue to create learning and research environments customized for MIT.

From DSpace’s open-source platform to rapid-prototyping of beta services, from instructional innovation to rethinking the power of the network to deliver information services and resources, the creative efforts of Libraries' staff are described in detail in the reports of the Libraries' Associate Directors.

Educating students to be leaders of the next generation

President Hockfield likewise articulates a compelling future for MIT that emphasizes the need to educate next-generation leaders who can integrate a range of disciplinary and critical thinking perspectives. MIT graduates must be accomplished in, and able to lead others in, environments that require competency in the realms of both “mind and hand”.

Here again the MIT Libraries have a mission-based responsibility to support the pursuit of truth across disciplines, across time, across modes of analysis, and across points of view.

In and through the MIT Libraries, students, scholars, researchers will find definitive information resources, organized for personal and collective productivity, and supported by tools essential to investigation, exploration, and communication.  In the Libraries and on the Libraries' web sites students can also find study facilities, the history of MIT, strategies for effective information-seeking and evaluation, and – just as importantly - skilled people who are ready to encourage (and enable) discovery, reflection, and the communication skills so integral to the education of a 21st century leader. 

In AY2007 the MIT Libraries made it possible for the MIT community to explore new tools and databases, learn about GIS and data navigation, get training on an array of bibliographic management tools, experiment with personal productivity tools, search high-quality relevant information resources from on or off campus, learn about the complexities of archiving CAD systems, videotape an event, videoconference, or class; study in spaces that accommodate any mood, mode, or methodology required; request and receive needed information items, look at an early OCW course, browse recently-received titles, mine rich historical and digital library collections, deposit and view research, and receive support and advice to retain author’s rights when publishing <http://info-libraries.mit.edu/scholarly/ >  to help assure the unfettered transmission of knowledge.  In AMPS, which merged with the Libraries in January 2007, the MIT community finds expertise and services to support the video capture, encoding, and delivery of classes, events, symposia, lectures, and assignments.

These library services are uniquely valuable to MIT because they reflect the Institute’s stated goals of educating leaders of the next generation and advancing knowledge in ways that will serve humankind.  Whereas students and faculty once found inspiration primarily in proximity to MIT’s research libraries, they now find equal and additional value in the products of the Digital Library Research Group, in the distributed information resources of many genres and formats that are selected, supported, and supplied by the libraries, and in the 24x7 customized information services the MIT Libraries make available to them whenever and wherever they need them.

Through collaborations with faculty and instructors, research labs and centers, and academic and administrative administrators, the MIT Libraries play a role on campus that far exceeds the traditional definition of guardians of existing knowledge.  Non-traditional in the 19th century, the MIT Libraries of the 21st century continue to reflect the Institute’s passion for discovery, determination to educate leaders for the future, and empowerment of the pursuit of knowledge for its own sake.

The following reports demonstrate a capacity within the MIT Libraries that is truly worthy of MIT’s legendary students and faculty.  I remain grateful to the Libraries' Visiting Committee for their wisdom and insights, to the Faculty Committee on the Library System for their interest, time and support, to the Graduate Student Council for their commitment to our services, to the provost and our generous donors for their willingness to support our vision, to collaborations with individual faculty, and to partnerships with DUE and IS&T that make common cause a reality.

As always, it is the extraordinary staff of these Libraries and their affiliated organizations whose vision and energy make genuine leadership possible. 

Ann J. Wolpert
Director of Libraries

More information about the MIT Libraries can be found online at http://libraries.mit.edu/

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This page was last updated on 05/27/08