We all get by with a little help from our friends, but sometimes it can be hard to ask for the help we need. The Libraries are proud to participate in the “Helping You, Helping Others” project, supported by the MindHandHeart Initiative. Visitors to Barker, Dewey, Hayden and Rotch Libraries will notice a small glass bowl full of wooden marbles located at each service desk. The marbles are part of an interactive art installation: when students ask for help for any reason, anywhere on campus, they pick up a marble and later deposit it in the glass sculpture located on the first floor of the Student Center.

The sculpture is gradually filling with marbles, giving visual evidence that asking for and receiving support is a normal and natural part of life at MIT. Other participating units include the Office of the Chancellor, the Office for the Dean of Graduate Education, the MIT Chapel, the Division of Student Life, the Undergraduate Advising and Academic Programming Office, and numerous departments and individual faculty members.