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Student Leaders Report
MIT: The New
School of the Book, Or,
The Need for a New Library
Several months ago, while preparing a presentation for a literature seminar, I parked myself in front of a library computer terminal in the Hayden Humanities Library. Typing in the keywords for my search, the computer identified several texts listed as "In Library," and I hurriedly scribbled the call numbers on a scrap paper (actually an old card catalog entry, the vestigial organ of the library system). After meandering a path through the Hayden stacks, I found the catalog shelf for my books, and I scanned it for the call numbers on my card.
Three of the four texts for which I searched did not appear on the shelf.
This frustrating realization is by no means unexpected when researching in a library: texts are often removed from their shelves and placed elsewhere in the library (perhaps even on an adjoining shelf), rendering them invisible to the eyes of subsequent researchers. Operating with open stacks, as most of our libraries do, one must accept this occurrence as unavoidable. But my story does not end here, for unlike the mysterious organization of the great library in Umberto Eco's modern classic The Name of the Rose, our library system groups texts together by subject, and a cursory scan of the shelf before me revealed several related texts that quite (over-)compensated for those I discovered missing. A step back, a glance left, right, then up and down, revealed books from other fields, each related in some way to the material I required for my presentation. Unfortunately, as MIT's collection grows daily (every new book on the shelves pushes another one into storage), space limitations on shelves and in libraries increasingly prohibit this once standard practice of the library experience.
MIT owns a truly remarkable collection, with texts dating back centuries, and a collection totaling over 2.6 million volumes. Five major branches and five smaller ones comprise the on-campus library network, each serving as educational resources to the MIT community. However, nearly one-third of MIT's collection resides in off-campus storage, mostly in a facility known as the RSC, or RetroSpective Collection, the rest in storage space rented from Harvard University. Yet for the typical undergraduate, if a book does not lie on a shelf in one of MIT's on-campus libraries, it might as well not exist in our collection at all. I will avoid here the appeal to the very busy schedules of MIT students and the nearly unavoidable occurrence of waiting until the night before an assignment is due to wander into the libraries looking for material, for time constrains all members of MIT and surely I make no excuses for those who do not plan ahead (for surely I have never waited until the night before. . .).
Thus while books in storage remain nominally accessible, unless present in stacks, the creative and familiar process of browsing the shelves disappears. Much innovative research relies upon the fortuitous discovery of the right text, the right reference, the right springboard to further investigations; books outside the MIT library system cannot participate in that serendipitous research process. Clearly something must be done, and given the current climate for experimentation, change, and innovation at the Institute, nothing could reflect that spirit more than the investment in a new library complex to return books in storage to the hands of the students (and faculty) who need access to them.
The plight of the undergraduate is unique among other groups at MIT, for unlike faculty and graduate students (who receive access to Harvard University's outstanding library system), MIT undergraduates find themselves restricted to MIT's collection. This may be attributed to academe's expectation that undergraduate institutions should adequately provide for the library needs of its own students.
For decades, predictions from America's techno-elite have heralded the end of the era of the book: libraries of the future were promised to contain entirely digital collections. Indeed, the traditional library could be expected to disappear entirely, for access to millions of texts could lie in every networked computer. Ease of access to individual texts does, in fact, increase under this model. But in reality, the library remains more than a warehouse of tomes; they uniquely represent a social space, a place of study, an architectural construct organizing knowledge in visual form. A better understanding of this aspect of libraries is crucial to developing the true library of the twenty-first century.
As MIT leads the world in so many fields of natural and social science, engineering, the humanities, management, and architecture, it is time for MIT to take the helm in leading library science into the new millennium. With our capital campaign enjoying huge success (over two-thirds of the initial goal met in less than one-fifth the allotted time for the campaign), MIT stands poised to design and construct the library of the future, incorporating a deeper understanding of notions of common space and the social psychology of the research environment. This library, perhaps designed to house one of the world's greatest collections of science and engineering texts on Earth, would provide a model for other expanding institutions. This new space would also permit the Hayden Humanities Library to expand in its current home in Building 14S, thereby creating a true Humanities (and perhaps also Social Science) Library and showcasing MIT's commitment to its HASS school, students, and faculty. If planned carefully, this new library would permit the return to campus of all the texts currently housed in the RSC or in Harvard storage, once again allowing the educational experience of "losing oneself in the stacks."
In this scenario, everyone in the MIT community benefits, as both students and faculty members will again have access to the entirety of our collections. No doubt, this proposal demands significant financial resources, real estate commitments, and community-wide support. Yet the benefits remain clear: more efficient research, a better educational environment, and MIT's promise of creating the model library for the future. On behalf of MIT's Undergraduates, I formally request the support of the Institute in this initiative, and I hope someday to witness the groundbreaking.
[For an overview of Institute plans for new library construction, see From The Libraries - ed.]
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