This fall we mark 10 years in three important ways – it’s the anniversary of the Women@MIT Archival Initiative, MIT Reads, and the Task Force on the Future of Libraries report. A decade of work is an important milestone and a chance to celebrate our progress, but we are not closing these chapters. We are just getting started.

We collect, preserve, and share the collections of women at MIT because we see the possibilities for future use – to complete our understanding, to fuel further research, or to inspire the next generation. We’re taking MIT Reads in a new direction, because we recognize the unique power of storytelling to connect people and celebrate our humanity, at a time when AI and social isolation threaten the fabric of our community. We continue to use the task force report as a North Star, with its emphasis on digital access to content, open dissemination of research, and computational access to knowledge, because the prescience of its vision is remarkable 10 years later.

Our ability to realize that vision has been given a tremendous boost with a historic gift to the Libraries from Barbara Ostrom ‘78. Her generosity endows the MIT Libraries director role and will support our highest priorities, while my new vice provost title acknowledges the Libraries’ critical place within the Institute and its leadership.

By supporting what we do – whether it’s digitizing content, improving our online experience, or conducting research on open scholarship – you are investing in the future of knowledge. Thank you for your generosity over the past 10 years. I hope you are as excited as we are for what’s to come.

All my best,

 

 

 

 

Chris Bourg
Vice Provost and Barbara K. Ostrom (1978) Director of the Libraries