MIT Libraries
Annual Report FY 2007-2008

Director, Libraries

Like all vibrant and productive organizations, the MIT Libraries routinely reinvents itself, rethinking past practices and developing new services and capabilities to keep pace with a global, dynamic, technology-enabled information environment. Maintaining relevance and distinction in an academic research institution that assumes excellence as its baseline is an ongoing responsibility and a prerequisite for success – now and in the future.

A former member of the faculty Committee on the Library System once likened the MIT Libraries to a duck swimming in a fast-moving mill race. On the surface the Libraries appear confident and in control. Everything is copacetic and staff are performing at the top of their game. Meanwhile, under the surface of the water, the Libraries are paddling like mad; constantly adjusting to the turbulent conditions in which they operate. With apparent serenity and some furious footwork, FY2008 saw the culmination of several significant, multi-year planning efforts in the MIT Libraries. Credit is due to everyone in the organization for the success of these initiatives, and every directorate, department, and group contributed significantly to the year's meaningful progress.

Organizational highlights of FY2008 included welcoming Diane Geraci to the MIT Libraries as Associate Director for the newly restructured Information Resources directorate. Marilyn McSweeney was warmly thanked for her extended tour of duty as Interim Associate Director and welcomed back to Acquisitions and Licensing Services. With Diane Geraci's arrival, a substantial realignment of the Libraries' technical capabilities was accomplished. Technology Operations successfully migrated to its new home in the Information Resources directorate. Technology Services moved with equal aplomb to the Public Services directorate. These two organizational changes in turn allowed the Technology Planning and Administration directorate to restructure its Technology Research and Development organization. The Technology Planning and Administration directorate is now able to focus more consistently on the Libraries' strategic technology goals, development priorities, analysis, and applied research, including grant-funded research related to the use of technology in knowledge management and digital curation.

Academic Media Production Services (AMPS) celebrated their first full year of partnership with the MIT Libraries, closing the year with positive financial results, completion of the first round of content preservation under the Video Archive Project, installation of an Access Grid system (funded by IS&T) for NSF-sponsored faculty collaboration, and the successful launch of MIT TechTV. Under the auspices of ACCORD, which is a collaboration of the MIT Libraries, Information Services &Technology, and the Office of the Dean for Undergraduate Education, two classroom video experiments were conducted and assessed.

Among the notable projects that cut across the entire MIT Libraries organization were the implementation of a number of recommendations from the R2 consulting project, and an upgrade to the operating system that supports the critically important VERA service – a project that used the concepts of "design thinking". With support from generous donors, the Maihaugen Gallery celebrated its grand opening with a stunning initial exhibition and a gratifying number of daily visitors thereafter.

Progress was made on both the digital library program and on improving MIT's physical libraries. Provost Rafael Reif and Associate Provost Lorna Gibson found funding that will enable sorely needed improvements to Dewey Library. This most welcome (and greatly appreciated) support from CRSP will enable the Libraries to improve stewardship and accessibility of Dewey Library's on-site collections and respond to the pleas of students for more and better study spaces - including a 24-hour study facility.

MIT's digital library, known as DOME, benefited from improvements to the system platform as well as additional technical support. The digital library program experienced rapid growth in the quantity and variety of digital content hosted. Digital images from Rotch Library used by faculty for teaching form the largest collection to date, with additional significant collections in the queue. Cataloging and Metadata Services staff contributed significantly to the Libraries digital library effort, as did Preservation Services. Metadata and preservation requirements of the digital library are presenting opportunities for skilled MIT Libraries catalogers and conservators to contribute their talents and experience beyond traditional roles.

The Public Services directorate experienced gratifying growth in the number of students who participated in course- integrated and independently offered seminars. Online and remotely available services continue to receive rave reviews from the MIT community and many are now available through VERA multi-search – a search feature long desired by both graduate and undergraduate students. Two new services targeted at faculty were introduced in pilot version in FY2008. One service makes print journal articles more readily available, by allowing faculty to request and receive digital desk-top delivery of articles from print journals using the secure and familiar ILLiad software system. A second innovative pilot service for faculty provides top-of-the-desk delivery of books from within the MIT Libraries collections. Books are paged for faculty from anywhere in the Libraries' physically distributed system of remote, divisional, and branch libraries for delivery to faculty offices.

Three additional innovative programs gained traction in 2008. The Office of Scholarly Publishing and Licensing played an important role in developing MIT's institutional response to the National Institutes of Health mandatory article deposit program. An experiment in community policing was launched and has already demonstrated its worth. Officer Andrew Turco has been a constructive and thoughtful partner in the MIT Libraries efforts to maintain a safe and secure work and study environment. Last but not least, the Libraries' participation in ACCORD produced the first use case for faculty, based on the image resources experience of Rotch Library, the Stellar Image Tool, and DOME.

Several of the MIT Libraries' more mature but also non-traditional services continued to see growth and added value in FY2008. They are political and social sciences data services, http://libraries.mit.edu/guides/subjects/data/; Geographic Information Systems services, http://libraries.mit.edu/gis/; and bioinformatics, http://libraries.mit.edu/guides/subjects/bioinformatics/index.html .

These and other equally important activities of the MIT Libraries and AMPS would not be possible without an exceptional staff. The annual report of the Associate Director of Administrative Services outlines the challenges associated with attracting and retaining the excellent staff on whom MIT relies. The Libraries and AMPS are not alone at MIT or among comparable institutions in our efforts to attract and retain an outstanding and diverse staff, so we must be determined and resourceful in our approach. We are grateful to our colleagues in Human Resources for their assistance in the many large and small ways they provide support.

Operating a research library or a media production service in the volatile technical and business climate of this decade is exhilarating and challenging. The landscape in which information is generated is volatile, at best. As the Associate Director for Technology Planning and Administration notes in her annual report, "Staying ahead is not possible, becoming more flexible and responsive is." Meanwhile, enterprises such as these cannot focus exclusively on the future. Students, research scientists, and tenure-tracked faculty have real-time research needs that require attention in the here and now. And we must not neglect the responsibility to steward and make accessible the extraordinary intellectual assets represented by MIT's incomparable historical collections.

As always, the detailed reports of the Associate Directors provide a richer and more complete sense of the accomplishments, entrepreneurship, and talents of the dedicated staff. I remain grateful for the opportunity to work with such an extraordinary group of individuals, and I am routinely in awe of what they are able to accomplish. I likewise value the collegial and productive relationships we are privileged to enjoy with Institute colleagues in academic and administrative units too numerous to mention. This year in particular the Provost stands above all others in the quality of his support and the depth of his patience.

Forty years ago the annual report of Library Director William Locke decried the "terrible space constraints" under which the Libraries were suffering. He enumerated at length the needs of the community for more books, more conveniently located; more ways to use more library resources outside the library itself; and, always, more information resources of every type in every field.

Looking back at FY2008, we can take a break from those themes. We can point to real gains in the quantity and accessibility of information resources, to substantive advances in the information technology environment, to sufficient funding for much-needed improvements to Dewey Library, and to genuine progress in developing services needed and valued by students and faculty.

One sentiment expressed by William Locke in 1968 endures, however. Locke wrote with gratitude about "the intelligence, the ingenuity, and the enthusiasm with which the staff have served the Institute throughout the year." And he closed by saying how happy he was to have had the opportunity to express his appreciation. I couldn't agree more.

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 Thursday, 16-Jul-2009 07:54:40 EDT

MIT Libraries Annual Report FY 2007-2008

Director, Libraries

MIT Libraries
Annual Report FY 2007-2008