Engineering librarians convene and celebrate

Serving the needs of engineers in a digital age

ASEE_Logo_Stacked_RGBMuch of the world knows the strength of the MIT Libraries engineering resources, but did you know the librarians who work with our engineers meet annually to sharpen their tools and tactics?

This summer Angie Locknar and Phoebe Ayers, librarians for Course 2 and 3 and Course 6, respectively, gathered under New Orleans’ blazing sun to hammer out, as they do each year, the best ways to serve the information needs of engineers in this digital age. This year they’ve returned with a heads-up that 2017 will mark the 50th anniversary of their Engineering Libraries Division and the 75th anniversary of the first organized engineering librarians group in the American Society for Engineering Education.

This year’s gathering also highlighted the long roots engineers have in their history of sharing information. And while their earliest publications snaked their way through paper and pen and the postal service of the day, now gems like Engineering News Record (ENR) (1874), Mechanics’ Magazine (London, 1823), and the 1836+ transactions of the world’s first professional engineering organization, the Institution of Civil Engineers (1818) are at our fingertips. These links lead to the digital library of HathiTrust,   but these publications are also found right here in the MIT Libraries. They are part of our heritage, too.

Michael White, associate librarian at Queens University, whose open access article “The History of the Engineering Libraries Division,” supplied information used in this post, we thank you!

Engineers and librarians, for your publications and cooperation, we salute you!