As a library, we have a mission to make information and scholarship accessible to as many people as possible. At MIT, we see that access as a springboard to inspiration—an invitation to engage with content and use it in new and innovative ways. This issue of Bibliotech sheds light on some of the ways we make our collections more open and accessible to increase engagement with learners and researchers around the world.

Our Center for Research on Equitable and Open Scholarship (CREOS) was established to better understand how we can make research in every field more equitably and openly available. Read as our postdoctoral associates each share the projects they have launched with their MIT faculty and Libraries collaborators. 

We’re excited to introduce Emilie Songolo, the new head of Distinctive Collections. Emilie has extensive experience elevating collections that have been underrepresented or difficult to access and making them searchable, visible, and relevant. I look forward to seeing how she and her staff collaborate with Institute faculty, students, and researchers to highlight materials unique to MIT.

The recent South Asian MIT Oral History and Digital Archive class is a wonderful example of such a collaboration. This class made the Institute Archives its laboratory, with students working hands-on to build a history of South Asians at MIT. As Associate Professor Sana Aiyar put it, class participants “aren’t just students of history—they get to be historians.”

This issue is also our chance to thank loyal supporters for your continued generosity and belief in our mission. By supporting the Libraries, you enable that critical access and inspiration that fuels new knowledge at MIT and beyond. 

 

 

 

 

Chris Bourg, PhD