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Toward a Master Plan for Libraries’ Space
The MIT Libraries are creative partners in the research and learning processes. We select, organize, present, and preserve information resources relevant to education and research at MIT. We sustain these world-class resources and provide quality services on behalf of the present and future research and scholarly community. We build intellectual connections among these resources and educate the MIT community in the effective use of information. We want to be the place people in the MIT community think of first when they need information.
Mission Statement of
the MIT Libraries
March, 1999
A Revised Forecast
A decade ago, predictions that libraries would no longer be necessary by the end of the century, or that they would be totally digital, were not uncommon. Indeed, the use of networks to distribute information in digital forms has mushroomed over the course of that decade. Print has proven to be a useful and enduring medium, however. Instead of disappearing or migrating exclusively to digital, libraries have incorporated digital information sources into their services while at the same time sustaining traditional means of fulfilling their missions.
For example, the MIT Libraries currently subscribe to approximately 100 networked databases <http://libraries.mit.edu/lists/db-web.html> and 500 electronic journals <http://libraries.mit.edu/lists/ejrnls-short.html> with more on the way. We have experimental programs to provide course reserve materials on the network and to accept electronic submission of theses. We provide a substantial and continually growing Website <http://libraries.mit.edu/> which presents information about library services and resources, and points to world-wide information resources related to disciplines of interest at MIT. None of this existed a decade ago, and yet these digital resources have not supplanted, but instead have supplemented, our print resources.
In most cases, the electronic products the Libraries provide to the MIT community via MITnet are licensed by the Libraries for a finite period of time. The Libraries do not own these resources "in perpetuity" as they do books and journals. Therefore, even when these digital resources are identical to print resources, print continues to provide the important historical archive. In fact, even if the Libraries did own the digital versions, the challenges of maintaining the integrity of digital text and migrating it to comply with new technical environments are still not resolved to a degree that is practical and reliable for wide-scale use in archiving library collections. An article by Katie Haffner in the April 8, The New York Times, "Books to Bytes: the Electronic Archive," (available through Lexis/Nexis on the Libraries’ databases page) explicated these challenges.
Growth of Print Collections
The MIT Libraries’ print resources continue to grow. Volumes held by the Libraries have grown 20% over the last decade and surpassed 2.5 million volumes at the end of the 1998 fiscal year. The acquisition of non-print formats (microforms, maps, slides, recordings, and video) has grown at an even greater pace over that decade. The pie charts illustrate the composition of MIT’s library collections. It should be noted that the only areas of print publication where digital publishing and/or distribution are a factor at present are in the categories "bound periodicals" and "standard serials." In all other categories, representing 63% of the Libraries’ print volumes, electronic publishing is nearly non-existent.
Space Planning for the Libraries
Now that the turn of the century is imminent, there is every indication that our physical collections will continue to grow for several decades. Digital resources will not replace physical resources, at least in the foreseeable future, but will rather provide an additional layer of service. Faced with extreme space shortages for housing collections and making them useable, the Libraries will undertake a long-range space planning process. We want to use this process to build consensus regarding library space issues and the place of the Libraries within the Institute’s space-planning agenda. While the space issues related to housing collections have forced the issue, there are other compelling reasons to reconsider space allocation and configuration for library services.
Digital Library Space Requirements
Even digital resources and services place pressure on the Libraries’ space. The Libraries currently provide over 300 computers for the use of library databases. In addition, there are several Athena clusters within the Libraries’ space, comprising approximately 50 workstations. Many students and faculty prefer to come to the Libraries to use the networked resources at the same time they use other library resources. In addition, the Libraries provide a large array of CD-ROM databases that are available only within the individual libraries. As the digital component of the Libraries’ services grows, we are experiencing significant infrastructure issues. Most of our libraries are not well equipped with data and power sources. Some libraries have concrete walls where adding channels for data lines is exorbitantly expensive, and others are in buildings that have inadequate electrical supply. Even when data and power sources are sufficient, the only way to add workstations is to take space away from collections or from study areas, both of which are already very limited.
Task Force on Student Life and Learning
A master plan for the Libraries’ spaces will further the goals of the Task Force on Student Life and Learning. The Libraries contribute in significant ways to all three elements of the education triad: academics, research, and community. Furthermore, the Libraries are places where formal learning and informal learning naturally come together; explicit attention to this in a planning process can result in spaces which facilitate that relationship.
Academics
There is growing recognition of and concern about the limited study spaces available on the MIT campus. While the Libraries provide the bulk of the available spaces, we provide seating for only 13% of the student body. Seating for 25% is the recommended standard. In addition, for the most part the Libraries’ seating areas are far from ideal. Seats are primarily at large open tables, without partitions to block eye contact and reduce noise. Wired study spaces, or spaces where wireless technologies can be effectively implemented, are needed to support various uses of online resources in class projects. In addition, we need electronic teaching spaces where librarians can demonstrate the features of new digital databases, and, as the Task Force recommends, "assist students in acquiring lifelong skills in finding, evaluating, and using information" in an increasingly complicated environment.
Research
While the primary locale for research at MIT is the laboratory, the Libraries provide a secondary research locus for many and the central research focus for some. Graduate students constitute the Libraries’ largest user group; many junior faculty and researchers are also heavily dependent on the Libraries. While the Libraries’ collections provide solid support in most of the areas of research conducted at MIT, the facilities do not encourage their use. There are no cubicles or carrels for graduate students where they can have the quiet concentration required for graduate level research, or the ability to leave checked-out materials in a secure area and return to them later undisturbed. The journal shelving areas that many graduate students and faculty rely on to keep current on topics of research interest have not kept up with the growth in journal titles. Space shortages have mandated narrowed selection which reduces the effectiveness of these areas.
Community
Improvements to space design could enable the Libraries’ space to be an important factor in building community and the informal learning opportunities that the Task Force recognized as lacking. While our major Divisional Libraries were originally developed to serve MIT’s five schools, in fact today most library users use at least three of the five Divisional Libraries. The individual campus libraries are places where students and faculty from various programs and disciplines come together on a daily basis. Planning should be designed to ensure that physical spaces are provided to capitalize on this proximity. Coffee and conversation spaces near the entry of some of the libraries would give students who come to the libraries for study and research the opportunity for important informal contacts. Small meeting spaces could be used for book-talks and other cultural events. Exhibition spaces could highlight library collections related to topical interests. These are only the most obvious ideas; the planning process should provide opportunities to engender more creative ones.
Usability of the Physical Collections
Most universities, faced with growing library collections and with the rising value of central campus real estate, have begun to use off-site storage for lesser-used library collections. The MIT Libraries, however, adopted this solution very early and have significantly more of their collections in storage than other university libraries. At the end of 1998, 24% of MIT’s library collections were in storage: 473,500 volumes in Building 57, the Libraries’ RetroSpective Collection, and 137,500 volumes in Harvard Depository in Southboro, where we rent space because N57 is now full.
In spite of having such a large percentage of our collections already in storage, at the beginning of the 98/99 fiscal year, we came to the reluctant, but obvious, conclusion that we needed to accelerate our storage program. A 1997 shelf study showed that the Libraries’ shelves were between 83% and 84% full, in the middle of an academic term, when circulation levels are high. In spite of the move of an additional 15,000 volumes to storage in 1998, there was a net addition of 22,500 volumes to shelves within our libraries. In Planning Academic and Research Library Buildings, the "bible" of library building planning, Leighton and Weber warn that 86% full should be considered "complete working capacity," adding that "new space should be available, not just planned for, by the time that figure is reached…."
At the beginning of 1998/99, we adopted a schedule for moving volumes from Science, Humanities, and Barker Libraries on a three-year cycle, with large moves equal to three years of acquisitions in every third year. We initiated this process in the Science Library this year, and subject specialists have spent many hours selecting volumes for storage. Those of you who regularly visit Hayden basement will have seen volumes with slips indicating we are planning to store them and inviting your comments. We have selected over 25,000 volumes, most of which will be moved this summer. Next fall, we will begin the same kind of review process in the Humanities Library.
While our staff strive to make decisions that will have the least possible impact on students and faculty, it is clear that this level of storage activity, on top of the 24% of the collection already in storage, will be consequential. Volumes are delivered from the RetroSpective Collection in 24 hours and from Harvard Depository in 48 hours, but many users simply give up instead of requesting retrieval. At best, the effect of having a high percentage of collections in storage is an interrupted research process and reduced effectiveness of physical browsing, which can play an important function in collocating scholarly resources.
The Planning Process
During the next year, the Libraries will be seeking ways to solicit faculty and student input into space planning directed toward improving our technical infrastructure, enabling the Libraries to be part of an enhanced student life and learning environment, and solving our significant collections housing issues. Over the course of the summer, we will gather and review pertinent data, define a series of formative issues and related planning principles, and develop a process for discussion and review. We look forward to engaging your interest in this process at the beginning of the next academic year. We will work closely with the Faculty Committee on the Library System (Andrew Whittle, Civil and Environmental Engineering, chairperson) throughout the process.
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