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Institute Archives to Tackle Major Processing Project

Ruth K. Seidman
Communications Coordinator, MIT Libraries
rks@mit.edu, 617-253-5686
December 5, 2001

Early in February 2002, the Institute Archives will begin a special one-year project to organize important administrative and research material on MIT’s history. To free up staff to carry out this important project in a concentrated time-frame, the reading room will be open to the public two days a week, February through May, and July through the following January. The Reading Room will open its regular five days per week for the month of June in order to provide scholars significant uninterrupted time for projects involving use of the archival collections. The results of a survey of key administrators and faculty members who use the Archives regularly were used to help devise the final schedule.

The hours of operation will be monitored throughout the project and adjusted if needed. Time sensitive requests from MIT offices, now most often received via e-mail, telephone, and FAX, will as always, receive full attention every day.

It is anticipated that in the course of the 12-month period, the Archives staff will be able to process a considerable number of collections. According to Megan Sniffin-Marinoff, Head of the Institute Archives, the MIT archival collections are among the most significant records in the history of science and technology in the United States. The processing project will give staff the time to organize and catalog materials, making them accessible for those seeking factual information or research resources about MIT and its history. It is likely that many important yet never-used documents will be "discovered" in the process.

To supplement the work carried out during this special project, the Archives will continue to seek outside sources of funding for processing and preservation of special parts of the collection.

For further information, contact Megan Sniffin-Marinoff, msniffin@mit.edu, x3-5690. Updates will be provided on the Archives’ web site.