Director, Libraries

In the natural life cycle of healthy organizations there are, from time to time, years that stand out as truly extraordinary. Just as the month of June in New England produces furious growth and dramatic flowering in our region's gardens, so too are there times in the life of an organization when everything seems to come into bloom at once. The litany of accomplishments in the MIT Libraries during FY2002 suggests that this fiscal year was such a year. The months were remarkable not only for the sheer volume of positive progress, but also for the fact that change took place on so many different dimensions.

The detailed reports that follow provide ample evidence of the exceptional achievements that characterized the work of the Libraries during FY2002. Even more notable, however, was the degree to which that work represented phenomenal progress toward the strategic goals established for the Libraries in 1999. This strategic plan, available on the web at http://macfadden.mit.edu:9500/lc/sp1999.html, in its fourth year of guiding the direction and priorities of the Libraries, has continued to provide a productive, effective framework for improving library services and operations.

Overview

Almost no aspect of the MIT Libraries organization escaped dramatic progress in FY2002. If the staff of the Libraries seem a bit breathless there is good cause, as the following representative activities illustrate.

With targeted support from the provost, academic deans, and friends, the Libraries' traditional and digital collections were strengthened in both emerging and existing areas of educational and research interest to MIT.

A new library management system was successfully launched, accompanied by a sufficiency of effort, angst, and aggravation. While there is much still to do to capitalize on the full potential of the Aleph system, the choice remains sound and the opportunities exciting. Even as substantial effort went into implementing the new library management system, additional information technology tools were developed and enhanced to serve the networked MIT community.

The Libraries also attended to its collection stewardship responsibilities, with particular regard to the Institute Archives, the government documents depository program, the collections in Building 14 (Hayden libraries), and the demands and constraints of off-site storage management. Thanks to the generosity of an anonymous donor, work was begun on a modern preservation center—a first for the MIT Libraries.

Construction projects happily consumed a considerable amount of time and energy throughout the year. Progress toward improved library facilities for MIT students and faculty has been sorely needed and is heartily welcomed. Following last summer's investment in compact shelving in the basement of Building 14, FY2002 saw investments in a 24-hour study space for the Hayden libraries, improved security and working environments for Archives and Special Collections, improved quarters for Technology Systems staff, and the development of facilities to house the new donor-supported contemporary preservation program.

As always, library staff were the power train that moved the Libraries forward in their phenomenal progress. Although the Libraries bid fond farewell to several senior staff who moved onward and upward in their careers, truly exceptional senior staff were recruited to fill their shoes, and equally exceptional staff were retained. Internal promotions continued to recognize the wonderful talent within the Libraries' ranks. Nina Davis-Millis provided highly capable interim leadership of the Public Services directorate. James Mullins was promoted to the position of associate director for administration effective as of September 1. Mary Cabral accepted the position of assistant to the director in January. Following a nationwide search, Steven Gass was selected to become associate director for public services and promoted to that position in May 2002. After a similarly ambitious search, MacKenzie Smith joined the MIT Libraries as associate director for technology, effective January 22. MacKenzie hit the ground running, and under her leadership enthusiasm about the importance and utility of the Libraries' research agenda, and especially the DSpace project, grew by leaps and bounds

Strengthening Infrastructure and Relationships

Because the individual reports of the respective directorates detail and reflect upon progress toward strategic objectives of the Libraries during FY2002, this report will focus largely on the Libraries' efforts to strengthen the infrastructure and working relationships so critical to long-term success.

The first of these efforts was directed toward working within the Institute's larger planning activities to develop a much-needed long-range facilities plan for the MIT Libraries. In June 2001 the Libraries' senior administration began a series of meetings with the senior staff of the Institute's Planning Office to identify and discuss the viability of a variety of potential sites for a new, combined science and engineering library facility. During the fall and winter, under the auspices of the Faculty Committee on the Library System, detailed research was conducted to document the needs of the MIT Libraries and to benchmark those needs against the status of libraries among MIT's peer institutions.

With the May 2002 publication of the report of the Faculty Committee on the Library System entitled "MIT Libraries: Meeting Critical Needs for the 21st Century" (available on the web at http://libraries.mit.edu/about/news/critical-needs.html), and the report's positive reception from faculty and administration, more detailed planning became possible. A provost-initiated program committee is expected to be formed in the near future. That committee will be charged with identifying program priorities and making recommendations for sites for a new library to combine science and engineering resources and services. Planning for the renovation of the Humanities Library is expected to follow thereafter.

A second set of efforts revolved around the importance of assuring continuous staff training and effective organizational structures. Changing technology creates demands for new library services and new ways of delivering services, and library staff members must have both the skills required to work in such new environments, and an organization that effectively supports their work.

As the MIT Libraries have gained practical experience with an information technology–intensive service environment, it has become increasingly clear that staff skills must be continuously enhanced and extended. To this end, in FY2002 the Libraries' travel policies were reviewed and revised to insure that budgeted funds are used wisely and equitably. Likewise, during the year a significant sustained effort was applied to insure that library staff are adequately trained in the use of the new library management system. Attention was also paid—and will continue to be paid—to creating an ergonomically appropriate environment for library staff.

The MIT Libraries have long been noteworthy for their ability to operate an agile organization. Perhaps because service has always been a high priority, reorganization and realignment seem to come more easily to the intelligent and dedicated staff of these libraries. The staff of the MIT Libraries are also admirably motivated to collect and utilize relevant data in their decision processes. Indeed, over the years, many of the Libraries' most constructive organizational changes have originated in the very staff groups and departments that would be most directly affected by the recommended change.

In the spirit of this tradition, a number of reviews of the Libraries' organizational and service delivery structure were undertaken in FY2002. Reviews initiated during the year included the Reference Visioning Project; a review, reconfiguration and realignment of systems and technology support; a project to rethink instruction and orientation activities; and a new approach to providing reserve reading support for the Science and Humanities Libraries. In April 2002, following a careful analysis, the Institute Archives became a department of Collections Services reporting to the associate director for collections services. The DSpace Implementation Team studied and made recommendations regarding the Libraries' necessary organizational response if we are to be successful at operating DSpace as a stable service to the MIT community.

The third group of infrastructure/relationship efforts in this fiscal year addressed the importance of partners and supporters to library initiatives. In FY2002 the Libraries' resource development activities made great strides in building effective relationships within the Institute. The proof of this achievement was manifest in the number and size of proposals being requested, and of gifts being designated to the Libraries as the year progressed. Among the more noteworthy programmatic initiatives of the year were the Honor with Books program, which broke new ground in presenting gift options to families of MIT undergraduates, and the numerous opportunities presented to the Libraries to discuss the excitement of a contemporary library with Institute development staff, alumni/ae groups, and MIT Clubs.

The DSpace project presented a substantive opportunity for the MIT Libraries to collaborate formally with the MIT Press. Over 100 MIT Press out-of-print books in digital form have been added to DSpace. By tracking usage statistics MIT Press will be able to determine the level of interest that exists for these books.

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Acknowledgements

The Libraries were privileged in FY2002 to continue their participation in such important Institute activities as the Council on Educational Technology and the Information Technology Architecture Group. The DSpace team and Libraries Steering Committee deeply appreciated the continued engagement of Hewlett-Packard Company in the Libraries' research program, and greatly valued the opportunity to work closely with the exceptional Hewlett-Packard staff who came to MIT to collaborate on this partnership.

The MIT Libraries were also most grateful for the ongoing support and interest of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation in the DSpace project, and for the enthusiasm for the DSpace project that emerged from within the leadership of Cambridge/MIT Institute. As always, Academic Computing and Information Systems were enthusiastic and capable collaborators in furtherance of the Libraries' mission and goals. For the Libraries' progress in physical planning and renovation activities, thanks go to a host of MIT staff and administrators. The Libraries' ambitious facilities improvement program would surely have sputtered and stalled without the support of the Institute's space planning, campus planning, facilities, and construction management groups.

The MIT Libraries are indebted to many groups and individuals, both inside and outside the Libraries, for a year of tremendous progress. Much has been accomplished, and there is much still to do. It is a rare privilege to work with such capable colleagues to provide library support to students and faculty of the caliber found in every discipline and department at MIT.

Finally, this report would not be complete without acknowledging the steadfastness of the MIT Libraries staff in the wake of the devastating events of September 11, 2001. Despite their personal fears and concerns, the staff of the MIT Libraries found strength in one another and in their commitment to providing a safe and sympathetic environment for the MIT community in a time of great anxiety. Thanks to the staff of the Libraries, our facilities remained open and our work went on, providing MIT students with a stable and secure space to think, study, and re-imagine normalcy. I am personally proud to work with such a caring, committed staff.

Ann J. Wolpert
Director of Libraries

More information about the MIT Libraries can be found online at http://libraries.mit.edu/.

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Public Services

The MIT Libraries' Public Services staff can take great pride in its accomplishments this past year as we near the completion of the third year of the Libraries' five-year strategic plan. Under the able interim leadership of Nina Davis-Millis during the nine-month search for a new associate director, Public Services maintained strong momentum in advancing the Libraries' objectives of developing a suite of resources and services focused on providing users with the most effective and intuitive library environment possible.

The challenges of transforming the 20th century research library, primarily based on physical objects (books and journals) and physical locations, into the research library of the 21st century are enormous. On a day-to-day basis Public Services staff collaborate with the other departments of the MIT Libraries as well as departments, labs, and centers across the Institute to move us toward a seamless library environment where resources and services are available around the clock, and library spaces support the needs of our users to browse relevant collections, receive state of the art reference and instructional services, and find quiet study space that promotes scholarly reflection. The three strategic directions identified in the Libraries' strategic plan provide a useful framework for reporting on how this past year's accomplishments contributed to our progress.

Strategic Direction I—Excel at providing rapid, easy, and precise access to high quality information for education and research at MIT

The 3rd Barton implementation involved a wide variety of staff in enhancing functionality in support of user access to correct bibliographic information and improved services. The Circulation and Processing Committees and the OPAC Task Group played leadership roles in developing workflows and enhancements for our new Aleph library management system. The efforts provided by all in support of this major initiative cannot be understated.

A reference vision for the MIT Libraries was developed incorporating the input of both users and staff. Led by the Reference Committee and resulting from issues emanating from the "Ask Us Live" digital reference service pilot of the last year, a Reference Vision Task Force was formed and created an exciting vision for all of Public Services focused on three goals:

Geography Information Systems (GIS) services were established. Our new GIS specialist, based in Rotch Library, has done a remarkable job initiating a GIS program within the libraries. This initiative was made possible due to close collaboration with the Academic Computing Practice within Information Systems. Since arriving last July, the GIS specialist has quickly developed a physical and virtual program that provides growing support for a diverse community. Activity for this past year peaked in April when she answered over 100 reference questions and the GIS web site received over 800 hits.

eDelivery of documents to the user desktop continued to improve and grow dramatically.

Beginning in April, all interlibrary-borrowing photocopy requests by MIT faculty, students, and staff were delivered by the Interlibrary Borrowing Office's new electronic documents service, providing PDF images delivered directly to the user's desktop via the web. This has dramatically increased the timeliness of delivery, and has been received enthusiastically by the community.

Fee-based document delivery services provided by Document Services are now dominated by eDelivery with 72 percent of all journal articles and 48 percent of all theses delivered in electronic format, a growth of 31 percent and 20 percent, respectively.

A data services librarian was hired. Starting in late August at Dewey Library, she has quickly begun assessing the social science data needs of the community. Over the next year she will be developing a coordinated plan across the MIT Libraries to improve support for this critical area.

Instructional activity nearly doubled this past year. Of particular note was an initiative of the Instruction Committee to promote EndNote, a powerful bibliographic citation manager, to the community.

Outreach activity, supported by the many Public Service user groups and coordinated with all subject selectors, continued to grow. Many of the groups worked closely with the Web Advisory Group and our webmaster and usability specialist to continuously improve upon our public web site.

An orientation coordinator was hired in January. Based in the Humanities Library, she has actively begun coordinating and planning orientation activities with our user groups.

Strategic Direction II—Ensure that library spaces and operations facilitate life on campus

The Hayden basement compact shelving project was completed resulting in:

Planning continued for a renovated Hayden entry, service desk, and 24-hour study room, with construction beginning in May and continuing over the summer.

Planning continued for a new, combined Engineering and Science Library along with a fully renovated Hayden Library in support of the humanities and certain social science areas. The Faculty Committee on the Library System issued a detailed report, "MIT Libraries: Meeting Critical Needs for the 21st Century," which received strong support from the Faculty Policy Committee and Academic Council.

Detailed planning began for a new Dewey Library within the overall East Campus Building Project.

Planning continued for the Libraries' Information Kiosk that will be located on the Student Street of the Stata Center. Projected to open in early 2004, the kiosk will accommodate quick information access, individual and group instruction, and promote library resources and services for the community.

Many units made significant improvements to their existing facilities to better support student learning and research:

The establishment and hiring of a circulation supervisor within Hayden Library Access Services has resulted in improved management of circulation and stacking services for the Humanities and Science Libraries. Users of Hayden have a much easier time finding materials on the shelf or tracking items when off the shelf. This position was created through the internal reallocation of funds.

Strategic Direction III—Be a leader among academic research institutions in the use of applied library technology

The Libraries continued its pilot "Ask Us Live" digital reference service, expanding the hours during spring semester until 7 pm, Monday through Thursday. This exciting and challenging project attempts to provide virtual real-time reference help via the web, allowing both user and staff to share each other's virtual information environment. To better manage this initiative, a digital reference coordinator position was established in the Humanities Library by internal staff reallocation.

Staff were involved in the "early adopter" phase of the DSpace project, helping the DSpace developers design highly usable interfaces and working with the community to publicize and educate.

Staff contributed to the Libraries' Enhanced Navigation Project in an effort to improve users ability to quickly navigate through our many electronic resources and connect to the information most relevant to their needs.

As mentioned earlier, many have been involved in the ongoing implementation of the Aleph library management system to enhance its ability to help our users access a wide variety of information, ranging from bibliographic citations to lists of items they have checked out from the MIT Libraries.

Our Most Precious Resource

The long list of accomplishments this past year is due to the extraordinary talents and motivation of our staff. The willingness of Public Services to continuously examine its operations, take advantage of technology, and redefine positions and programs as necessary is a critical component of our ongoing success. Above all, however, is the steadfast commitment of staff to provide the best possible services for our faculty, students, and staff. Of particular note are those Public Services staff members selected to be recipients of the Libraries' Infinite Mile Award this past year:

Priorities for the Future

The MIT Libraries remain steadfast in its mission:

The MIT Libraries are creative partners in the research and learning process. 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.

If we are to be "the place people in the MIT community think of first when they need information," we will need to evolve our organization, resources, and services to meet the needs of our dynamic users. The reference vision developed by Public Services this past year provides an ambitious framework for doing just that. The vision imagines:

Working toward this vision in a manner that is flexible and sustainable is an important priority and challenge for Public Services. To do so will require an increased focus on training, developing useful metrics for assessment, and a sophisticated understanding of how technology can best support our efforts.

Statistics demonstrate the importance of evolving our service model to best serve the user community. The continued expansion of resource and service delivery to the user's desktop has contributed to what appears to be a slow but steady drop in user visits to our physical locations. This year's door count was down 11.5 percent across the five divisional libraries. While activity at reference desks also continued its downward trend, libraries that experimented with capturing statistics on reference activity away from the reference desk showed increases in total reference activity, anywhere from a modest 4.4 percent to a dramatic 43 percent. Beginning this year all of the divisional libraries will capture reference statistics both at and away from the reference desk in a consistent manner so we can better assess how to improve our service model. Instructional activity increased significantly with 244 sessions offered (71 percent increase) and 5,714 attendees (95 percent increase). Because our new Aleph library management system counts some circulation transactions differently than the previous system and other 3rd Barton implementation issues were a higher priority during the past year, it is impossible to do a meaningful comparison of circulation activity between this year and last. Interlibrary borrowing activity remained steady (a decrease of 1 percent), with 12, 977 requests made and 96 percent of them fulfilled successfully.

Other important priorities for the coming year will be the smooth rollout of the new Hayden Entry Project that will create a new service model in Hayden by integrating three units which previously were separate (Circulation, Reserves, and Interlibrary Borrowing) and provide a much desired 7x24 study room for students. Additional planning will continue for the longer term space needs of the libraries, including a combined Engineering and Science Library, a renovated Humanities Library, and a new Dewey Library within the East Campus Building Project. Long term space planning remains an important priority due to the existing reality of "steady-state" collections. This requires Public Service units across the system to work closely with staff in the RetroSpective Collection and other units within Collection Services, spending huge amounts of time identifying and processing materials for off-site storage. Work will also continue in improving 3rd Barton, taking advantage of enhanced navigational tools like SFX, and improving the usability and functionality of our web based resources and services.

No report of this nature can do justice to the extraordinary number and variety of accomplishments seen this past year in Public Services. To do so would require reading the annual reports of all the divisional and branch libraries, functional committees, user groups, and programs which make up Public Services in the MIT Libraries. As the newly appointed associate director for public services it is my pleasure and privilege to work with such a great staff for the common goal of providing the best possible library services in support of the MIT community, now and in the future.

Steve Gass
Associate Director for Public Services

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Collection Services

This was once again a year of tremendous achievement in Collection Services, in spite of major obstacles.

Building Collections of Distinction and Relevance

Several opportunities enabled very significant progress in building collections that will enable the work of MIT's students and faculty (present and future).

Support for New Programs

Provost Brown granted the Libraries $100,000 in the FY2002 budget to purchase information resources in support of new programs at the Institute. This funding provides essential support for new curricular areas, new faculty with new research interests, and the continually emerging new programs that distinguish MIT. The funds were targeted toward new areas with clear collections gaps:

Gift Funds

Digital Resources Funds

Again in the FY2002 budget, Provost Brown provided $125,000 for the purchase of new digital resources. This funding was provided on a one-time basis. Because all the products purchased require continuing funding, the Libraries will seek to "harden" these funds in FY2003. Major purchases included the following:

General Institute Funds

As usual, the Libraries purchased approximately 20,000 new monographs and maintained approximately 11,000 serial subscriptions (including paper and electronic journals and databases) from annual recurring funding, with an inflation increment. Inflation in journal prices was just under 7 percent.

Government Documents

The Libraries acquired over 6,000 government documents items, representing about 52 percent of all titles distributed through the Federal Depository Library Program.

Gifts in Kind

The Libraries added nearly 2,500 books donated primarily by MIT offices and faculty. Donors of major gifts are Ann Chase Allen (monographs in engineering, sciences, and linguistics), Anthony E. Alonzo (a limited edition of Dante's La Divina Commedia), Lois Craig (scores and CDs of 20th century violin and other music), estate of Peter Elias (monographs in electrical engineering and computer science), Arthur W. Rice III (The Executed Works of Parker, Thomas, and Rice), and Thomas C. Wilder (Skillings Mining Review).

Archives and Manuscripts Additions

The final installment of the Planning Office records was transferred in September 2001. These records constitute the largest collection of administrative records acquired to date. The following new manuscript collections were received: the papers of physicist Felix Villars, materials scientist Nicholas J. Grant, consulting engineer Peter Glaser, LIDS professor John E. Ward, and a small collection of papers of Lydia G. Weld, the first woman to receive a degree in naval architecture from MIT. Also received were significant additions to the papers from the family of linguist Kenneth Hale and from the family of mathematician Dirk Struik. Perhaps the most compelling records the archives acquired this year were the two banners placed in Lobby 10 to capture the written thoughts and feelings of the entire MIT community after the September 11 terrorist attack. A box of memorial objects left with the banners has also been preserved. Shirley Jackson was honored at a Corporation luncheon on December 7, and officially thanked for her gift of the papers from her tenure as director of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Enabling Effective Access to Collections

Delayed implementation of several features of our new library management system, Ex Libris's Aleph system, impeded Collection Services' ability to provide timely access to new collections. At the same time, other initiatives expanded our options for enhancing access.

3rd Barton

Last year's annual report chronicled the significant efforts related to planning the implementation of a new library management system. The public functions of the new system were implemented on July 9, 2002. Unfortunately, a few major obstacles significantly delayed the implementation of the processing functions.

One of these obstacles was the failure of Ex Libris to deliver a loader for incorporating records from our major supplier of catalog records. This record loader was not installed until late November, resulting in a five-month delay in loading catalog records for new materials. By December there were in excess of 8,000 volumes in the workspace awaiting final processing. In valiant efforts to catch-up, some staff worked extra hours, others volunteered to work across departments, and temporary staff was hired. However, there was still a significant arrearage at the end of the year.

Another obstacle was the unanticipated delay and miscommunication surrounding our need for a test server for many functions, including testing the loading of authority records and records from other vendors. This server was not purchased and installed until late spring. That enabled staff to finally test authority record loading, loading of records from miscellaneous vendors, and year-end closing processes (nerve-rackingly close to year-end!).

A third major obstacle was the limitation of the system for report generation. Some of these "reports" are basic outputs needed for our business practices, like purchase orders. The information technology librarian, the systems manager, and many other staff worked diligently to analyze and develop uses of the canned reports. A significant breakthrough was realized when we engaged the IS Data Warehouse staff in a collaboration whereby our data is loaded into the Data Warehouse and reports can be generated with the BrioQuery software. (The process of setting up all of the various reports we wish to utilize is still continuing.) Due to these delays in report writing, as well as to problems with the fund accounting system, our acquisitions processes could not be fully implemented until October. It is a credit to the acquisitions staff that they were able to order and receive orders for the entire year's expenditures in the remaining eight-month period, even in a year when we had additional funding as described above.

We are working hard (and smart) to return in the next year to a steady-state processing environment without delays that impede access to our rich collections. We are confident the new system will become a useful tool, instead of a major hurdle, when staff have the time to explore and utilize all of its features.

Enhanced Navigation Implementation Group

One of the Library Council strategic initiatives for the year was to plan the implementation of ExLibris' SFX and Metalib applications to provide enhanced navigation of information resources. A system-wide group, co-chaired by the head of Serials and Acquisitions Services and the information technology librarian, was formed to explore the potential of these tools. Some of the group members presented a demonstration at the all-staff meeting on June 26. There are very interesting possibilities for significantly enhancing access to information resources by cross-searching between various databases and by linking between resources. The group's report is due in July, and after it is received decisions will be made about implementation in FY2003.

Metadata Advisory Group

A second group, chaired by the head of Bibliographic Access Services, was charged with developing metadata expertise, coordinating metadata applications within the libraries, and providing advice and guidance related to metadata for digital projects at MIT. Collectively they upgraded their knowledge of several metadata schema. Several group members contributed to adapting the Library Application Profile of Dublin Core to a descriptive metadata schema for Dspace, and to the creation of a MARC to Dublin Core crosswalk. One of the group members became part of a two-member team carrying out a three-month study to advise the Open CourseWare Project on its metadata needs.

These efforts, as well as those related to SFX and Metalib, significantly expand the skill-base and "reach" of Collection Services librarians.

Barton Records

In spite of the difficulties encountered in normal processes, staff were diligent in their efforts to provide access to newly acquired materials in all formats, as well as enhanced access for existing collections in Barton.

In spite of the loss of system capacity for five months, monograph cataloging productivity for the year was at levels similar to the last three years. MIT publications staff initiated a process whereby we insert abstracts into records for MIT theses, vastly improving keyword access. Database Maintenance carried out several projects to clean up Barton data that was corrupted during the migration to Aleph. The copy-based cataloging section worked as a team with original catalogers to carry out cataloging of the conferences in the IEEExplore database, a cooperative project with the Catalog Department at the University of California, San Diego. In original cataloging, all titles in the gifts backlog were cataloged during system downtime. The rare books cataloging project completed the first full year of production. In special formats cataloging, steady progress was made on CD-Rom, video and electronic database cataloging. Maps cataloging has slowed somewhat due to other projects. In music cataloging, with the searching assistance of acquisitions staff during down-time, work began on cataloging scores from the collection of the late MIT professor John Corley. Work also began on cataloging sound recordings recently acquired from the MIT Museum.

Serials cataloging created 755 catalog records for e-serials and e-journals. They also completed a project, begun in 1998, to create online catalog records for all of the unclassified periodicals represented in the card catalog. In addition, the work to create online catalog records for the serial collections in the RSC continued, with a focus now on the 500s and 600s of the Dewey Decimal collection, and on journals being moved to the Harvard Depository. RSC staff continued the multi-year project scanning DDC monograph title pages for cataloging by OCLC; an additional 12,000 records were created this year.

A cross-unit (serials cataloging, database maintenance, systems, and special formats) effort resulted in planning and readiness for utilizing OCLC set records for the Kluwer journals package. These records should be loaded early in the new year.

So while backlogs exist, catalog access continues to increase in breadth and depth.

Vera Records

The Libraries continue to provide two access tools for digital resources, Barton (the online catalog of the Libraries' collections) and Vera (the web-based listing of e-journals and databases). Digital Resources Unit staff, with assistance from serials acquisitions staff, added 1,356 records for e-journals (a 41 percent increase) and 96 records for databases (a 35 percent increase) to Vera.

Access to Archives Collections

In February the Institute Archives reduced public service hours in order to initiate an intensive processing project to organize important administrative and research material related to MIT's history. By year-end the staff had completed the arrangement and description of the Planning Office records, in addition to working on several smaller collections. The project will continue until February 2003.

Two special processing projects were carried out with the support of grants. Dr. Peter Glaser provided funds to process his papers, the bulk of which relate to his work concerning the solar power satellite. The American Institute of Physics awarded the archives a grant to process the papers of physicist Victor Weisskopf.

Other significant efforts this year were revisions to the Institute Archives' public web site and a new service "Ask the Archives," by which means the staff provides immediate response to researchers requesting information online. The department continued its ongoing exhibit of an "Object of the Month," with a specific goal of making the rich diversity of the archives' holdings more apparent.

Once again, undergraduate and graduate students in a course taught by Professor David Mindell made intensive use of the collections. These group projects resulted in public presentations of the research in early December.

Manuscript collections with substantial use this year were the papers of mathematician Norbert Weiner, engineer Harold Edgerton, historian and philosopher of science Thomas Kuhn, MIT president Jerome Weisner, and the Rotch Traveling Scholarship. As always, presidential and Corporation records were in use frequently, as well as those of the Social Action Coordinating Committee and the Albert Farwell Bemis Foundation.

Finally, a renovation of the Institute Archives' space provided significant improvements to conditions for using the collections, as well as for staff functions. This space change was precipitated by the need to vacate storage space in the basement in order to accommodate the expansion of Preservation Services space. The archives staff worked with the Libraries' administrative staff, MIT project managers, and the architectural firm of Hallor and Associates to plan the renovation. Construction took place between December 2001 and March 2002.

Managing Collections

Government Documents

Our serials acquisitions librarian, with assistance from many staff throughout the Libraries, carried out an extensive self-study of our depository government documents processes and services, as required by the Federal Depository Library Program (FDLP). This work also prompted staff to develop a government documents collection development policy and a government information web page. In addition, a government documents procedures manual is now available on the staff web site. The Dewey Library, the Humanities Library, and the Science Library completed reviews of the superintendent of documents classes and items, resulting in a significant number of de-selection decisions and the discovery of many items (especially electronic versions) requiring cataloging.

Collections Space

The project to install compact shelving in the Hayden basement was completed in October 2001, adding approximately 8,000 linear feet of shelving, with the capacity to house about 48,000 journal volumes. In addition to the shelving installation, the entire basement and much of the science collection on the first floor were shifted into a more logical arrangement. Shelving for unbound journal issues was purchased for the first floor. All bound volumes are now integrated in the basement shelving. All of the shelves and volumes were also cleaned.

Storage

Storage activity was slower-paced than in previous years, due in part to the new capacity in the Science Library and also to the processing issues related to the Aleph implementation. Nevertheless, 36,000 volumes were moved to Harvard Depository and 14,000 were added to the RetroSpective Collection in Building N57.

Two changes were implemented regarding user access to stored collections in the RetroSpective Collection. The stacks were closed to browsing for safety and security reasons, and a policy was implemented requiring people without MIT identification to schedule on-site visits one business day in advance. Planning to deliver articles electronically continued. The technology involves image capture on a Minolta planetary scanner and delivery of files to the users via the web using the Prospero software incorporated into the Ariel 3.01 software. A test phase with Document Services as the "customer" was initiated in May, with a full fee-based service anticipated for the fall semester.

Preservation

Preservation Services staff continued their usual attention to caring for the Libraries' collections in a number of ways—commercial bindery preparation and management, in-house repair treatments, responding to various building leaks, and a condition survey of rare books in tandem with the rare books cataloging project. However, the excitement in Preservation Services was generated by planning for new space and an expanded program. A combination of donor funding and CRSP support enabled planning for a new laboratory. The planning was assisted by Nancy Carlson Schrock, preservation consultant, and Michael Hallor, architect. Construction began on May 28, with an estimated completion date of late August.

A new donor-funded position, conservator, was posted in the late spring, with the expectation of filling it by the time the new laboratory is ready for use. Dedicated to conservation of rare and unique materials, this position will enable the Libraries to address the deterioration of some of the remarkable items in its collections, and, in some cases, to perform digital scanning so that researchers may have access via the web.

Records Management

The expertise and perspective of Institute Archives staff were requested in relation to two Institute initiatives this year.

The Financial Data Retention Project, sponsored by the Institute auditor, the director of libraries, and the associate controller of CAO, investigated the need for a team to review the challenges of financial records which are increasingly in electronic form. The head and associate head of the Institute Archives were members of the Financial Data Retention Team.

The second project was initiated by the newly reconfigured Environmental, Health, and Safety Office, which is seeking assistance in designing an electronic information delivery system. The associate head is advising the EHS staff members who are managing the project, with the proposed assistance of an outside records management consultant.

Changing Organizational Structure

Institute Archives and Special Collections

When a vacancy occurred in the position of associate director for public services in August, the reporting line for the Institute Archives and Special Collections was transferred to the associate director for collection services on an interim basis. In May, the head of the Institute Archives announced her resignation, effective June 7. After consultation, the director of libraries announced that the Institute Archives would report within Collection Services on a permanent basis. This restructuring will provide better coordination of efforts related to all of the Libraries' collections. The position of head of the Institute Archives was posted in June.

Digital Resources Acquisitions

Once again this year, it became apparent that we had insufficient staff assigned to supporting the acquisition of digital resources. Several years ago we created the position of digital resources acquisitions librarian, and more recently we dedicated a part-time support staff position, digital resources acquisitions assistant. This year, instead of transferring a single additional position, we restructured in a way that we hope will enable us to respond more flexibly in the future. The digital resources acquisitions librarian will continue to be responsible for managing orders for databases and packages, for negotiating licenses when a standard license does not suffice, for serving as the licensing and compliance expert for the Libraries, for chairing NERD (the group that selects digital products purchased from central funds), and for coordinating DigProb (the group that responds to user problems with digital resources).

Other tasks, along with the position of digital resources acquisitions assistant, were reassigned to the serials acquisitions section. The head of that section is responsible for all of the financial transactions and records, and for managing the use of the standard license and standard interfaces. The section staff will be responsible for managing orders for individual e-journals. As time goes by, we anticipate a continuing gradual transition of staff effort from the acquisition of print resources to the acquisition of digital resources.

Recognizing Staff

One Collection Services staff member and one Collection Services staff group were recognized with the Libraries' Infinite Mile Awards:

During April-May 2002, we hosted a Fulbright scholar, Cecile Pierre, from the Bibliotheque Interuniversitaire Scientifique Jussieu in Paris. Her research project related to the management of digital information resources in libraries in US universities. She worked directly with the digital resources acquisitions librarian, attending meetings and contributing to discussions. She also visited five other libraries in New England. Cecile challenged our assumptions and forced us to articulate our beliefs and goals. It was a pleasure, as well as an honor, to host her.

Carol Fleishauer
Associate Director for Collection Services

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Administrative Services

Administrative Services (AS) supports the MIT Libraries' mission and goals in the areas of budget analysis and planning, delivery services, facilities-planning/operations, financial, payroll and staff records, personnel, and procurement. The services provided by AS are fundamental to the operation of the libraries—recognizing its role in providing the infrastructure necessary to support  library staff in their provision of services and resources to library users and their responsibilities to the Institute. The goal of AS is to work behind the scenes in concert with library staff and with departments throughout the Institute to insure that staff are recruited, hired, retained, remunerated, and provided growth opportunities consistent with MIT policies in well-planned and maintained facilities, at present and in the future, and that all funding is accounted for and fairly distributed within the libraries.

The associate director for administration and the AS staff in collaboration with the director and the other associate directors have worked to define and refine the role for AS, especially in its expanded role to plan for facility renovation and expansion. The involvement in this area will continue to grow as the Libraries explore the physical needs necessary to provide services and to house resources in the 21st century.

Budget and Financial

The Libraries' new integrated computer system, Aleph, went online in July 2002. Preparatory and subsequent to the implementation, the financial administrator collaborated with colleagues in Serials and Acquisitions Services to test the transfer of financial data from the previous system to the new. In addition, several training sessions were given by the financial administrator to instruct staff on the ins and outs of accessing financial data. For the first time, the Data Warehouse was utilized to draw information from our internal systems, compile reports, and support analysis of budget trends over a period of years. The processing of invoices for payment is being sent electronically to the CAO, which has proven to be an efficient process for the Libraries and CAO. Further efficiencies and reduction of costs have been realized by expanding the use of the VIP Card throughout the Libraries.

During FY2002 a complete revamping of the internal budget process of the Libraries was accomplished. This included new spreadsheets that enabled better expense and budget projections with links between accounts that would reflect changes from one allocation to another. The Materials Budget Council (MBC) was formed to facilitate communication and streamline payment and accounting of library material expenditures between Serials and Acquisitions Services, Collection Management Services, and Administrative Services.

Delivery Services

The year presented challenges to Delivery Services from the significant amount of construction on campus hampering the distribution of items, to the threat of terrorist attacks by way of mailed devices, to the anthrax scare. Staff took the necessary precautions to protect themselves and their colleagues within the libraries. Moving materials throughout the libraries while distributing mail and other delivery services requires not only coordination and cooperation; it requires strong backs. The number of items moved throughout the libraries has steadily increased. Shifting an ever-increasing number of the Libraries' holdings into storage, either at the RSC or the Harvard Depository, has significantly increased the requests for and return of materials from these locations, placing additional demands upon Delivery Services.

Facilities and Operations

FY2002 saw significant steps taken on several critical facility issues, including short-term maintenance, building renovation and upgrades, and major efforts to identify long-term facility needs. In January 2002 AS was pleased to welcome the new facilities and operations administrator. The administrator has had significant experience working within the Institute's Department of Facilities, thereby providing the Libraries a better understanding of and communication with this department.

During the year, the Libraries agreed to pilot an ergonomics study in collaboration with the Environmental Health and Safety Department. The Libraries were selected due to the breadth of issues encountered within it—from the need to move and lift heavy items, to reaching and stretching, to the extraordinary percentage of staff time spent using a computer. The review began during the summer of 2002, and will be completed during 2003. At the conclusion of the project, it is anticipated that the Libraries will have identified needed modifications in the work environment as well as having established a plan to remedy the identified needs.

Early fall of 2002 saw the completion of the compact shelving project in the Hayden Library basement. This project enabled the collections to have space to grow for approximately five years, while providing the opportunity to shift collections into a more logical order. AS also supported the re-shelving and reorganization of the Science Library, including the installation of new periodical shelving. At the same time an ADA compliant workstation was installed in the Science Library to make the Hayden Libraries accessible to all patrons.

Unfortunately, this year saw an increase in thefts of computers—from staff and patrons. Security steps were initiated within several of the libraries including more signage informing library users to monitor their belongings, and the installation of more secure devices at fire exits.

The need to prepare for an emergency was also addressed this year. At the request of the Risk Management Department, the libraries determined the value of all collections and equipment throughout the MIT Libraries—no easy task. It was accomplished through collaboration of Collection Services and Administrative Services. Although it was time consuming, the results have been informative to Risk Management and the libraries. The value of the collections, either to replace or restore, was much higher than previously calculated. This study coincided with developing an emergency preparedness plan and the start on a "disaster recovery plan" for the Libraries.

CRSP FY2002 Projects

The MIT Libraries were given an anonymous gift to support the creation of a preservation center that will house a rare book conservation laboratory. The gift was to purchase the necessary equipment and cover some staff costs. In order to house the additional equipment and staff necessary for such a center, the Libraries identified space adjacent to Preservation Services. The concurrent impact required a juggling of space between preservation, the Library Systems Office, and Institute Archives. The first step in this renovation began in January 2002 in the archives reading room and staff areas. Although inconvenient to users and staff (who accepted the hardships with stoicism), the renovation was completed by mid-March. The result was an enhanced space for researchers to access important Institute archival materials, while providing attractive and functional spaces for staff. An additional need addressed was improved security. In May 2002 Preservation Services and the Systems Office were relocated for the summer. Renovation started on the preservation center and offices for the systems staff and will be completed in August 2002.

A second project, also funded as part of the FY2002 CRSP projects, was the renovation of Hayden Library entrance to create a twenty-four-hour study space and to integrate reserves and interlibrary borrowing into an area behind the Hayden circulation desk. An enhanced science reference and computer cluster will also result from this renovation. The 24x7 study room will be immediately inside the entrance to Hayden Library. This space will provide a mix of table, soft seating, and group study rooms. This renovation will be completed in August 2002. The creation of this facility is the first step by the Libraries to meet the needs voiced by students for comfortable, safe and attractive spaces to study, whenever the need arises.

Finally, two smaller changes resulted from the above renovations. The map collection was relocated to a better space formerly occupied by the Libraries' training facility. The training facility will be incorporated into the Digital Instruction Resource Center (DIRC) to be located in the former reserve book room.

Long-Term Facility Planning

During FY2002, the effort continued to assess the long-term facility needs of the MIT Libraries. Since the MIT Libraries are housed in facilities that have had, for the most part, the same footprint since the 1960s, the ability of the libraries to house collections and provide services consistent with the demands and expectations of students and faculty of a world-renowned research institution is seriously compromised.

Several significant steps were taken during FY2002 to plan for long-term facility needs. In particular were a study undertaken by the Faculty Committee on the Library System (FCLS) and its report, "MIT Libraries: Meeting Critical Needs for the 21st Century," issued May 1, 2002. This report culminated from the study undertaken during the year to examine the needs of the Libraries' collections, services, preservation, access, study space, and staff space. The unanimous recommendation of the FCLS is that the best solution to address the needs of the MIT community is to build a new combined Science and Engineering Library, at an estimated cost of $100M–$120M for 250,000–300,000 sq. ft. and to renovate the Hayden Library to an integrated Humanities and Social Science Library at a cost of $50M. This recommendation was supported and endorsed by the Undergraduate Association, the Graduate Student Council, the Library Visiting Committee, and the Faculty Policy Committee. The administration agreed to support a planning study to evaluate options, sites, and costs and to identify donors and other funding sources to make this recommendation a reality.

Consistent with the recommendation discussed above, two other studies were begun or completed during FY2002—HASS Committee on the Humanities Library and the Program Plan for the Dewey Library. For discussion of the HASS Report see the Humanities Library FY2001 annual report. Program planning for the Dewey Library is described in the Dewey Library FY2002 annual report.

Procurement

Procurement of library supplies and equipment, and the monitoring of all contracts with vendors are completed by the facilities and operations administrator. With the appointment of the administrator in January there was a redistribution of duties among staff within AS. Major equipment purchases and contractual arrangements remained with the administrator, while the purchase of supplies and monitoring of departmental expenditures moved to the administrative assistant. This arrangement provides for all accounts receivable and payable being centralized under the supervision of the financial administrator. Assessments are currently underway to determine the cost benefit of maintenance contracts versus "as needed" service calls for much of the Libraries' equipment.

Personnel

Recruitment

The Libraries filled 13 librarian and other administrative staff positions as a result of serious searches during FY2002. Among the vacancies filled were two associate director positions, the entry-level, librarian I position of data services librarian, a facilities and operations administrator, and the newly created position of assistant to the director. Searches that were initiated this year that have not yet been completed are those for the head of the engineering and science libraries and the head of Institute Archives and Special Collections.

The number of support staff positions filled this year was 16—half the number filled last year. Two of these positions were clerical positions and the others were library assistant positions. Of our 14 recent library assistant hires, eight of them are currently enrolled or plan to enroll in library school. MIT is an attractive environment for library school students, both for the opportunities for stimulating, meaningful work in an academic library setting, and for the tuition assistance benefit that provides many of these individuals, whose financial situations may otherwise preclude them from pursuing a master's degree, to do so. These factors have enabled the MIT Libraries to be a successful competitor in the local job market. However, salary requirements for many of these incoming library assistants have created internal equity issues, which will require serious analysis and attention over the next year.

The recruitment of student assistants in the libraries remains a challenge. There are many other jobs on and off campus that offer better wages and more meaningful career opportunities for students. In order for many library departments to carry out routine, basic services, historically performed by student workers, it has become necessary to hire temporary hourly/casual employees. While this strategy has proven effective in some cases, the legal time restrictions on this type of employment often creates hardships for departments that have invested valuable training time with these employees.

Affirmative Action

With the appointment of an Asian/Pacific Islander to a supervisory position in the Rotch Library, the Libraries increased its minority representation among the administrative staff to five percent. Of the thirteen searches conducted this year, a total of four minority candidates were interviewed, resulting in one minority hire. Despite diligent recruitment efforts in the serious search process we have been able to identify only a very few minority applicants in our candidate pools. Each applicant pool is carefully reviewed to identify any possible minority applicants, and to interview those applicants who meet the qualifications.

Minority representation among the support staff remains higher than administrative staff at 12 percent. It is interesting to note that three of the Libraries' Infinite Mile Award recipients this year are among these underrepresented minorities.

Retention

The Libraries recorded a total of 18 terminations this year—five from the administrative staff and 13 from the support staff. Of the five departing administrative staff members, one went out on long-term disability, the others pursued promotional or educational opportunities. Of the 13 departing support staff members, two received long-term disability, and the majority of the others cited reasons such as job opportunities in other fields of interest, family relocation, and commuting issues. Three support staff, freshly equipped with library science degrees, obtained professional librarian positions at local universities.

Efforts of the MIT administration on behalf of the Libraries to improve librarian and other administrative staff salaries, including the recent market adjustment received in November 2001, continue to improve not only our competitive position among peers but staff morale. According to the Association of Research Libraries' (ARL) recent salary survey (reporting 2000–2001 data), MIT ranked 18 of 112 in average professional salary, up from 23 last year. Among our true peer institutions (22) in this group, the MIT Libraries have risen in the standings from 12 to 9. It is worth noting as well that last year seven of the peer institutions outranking MIT were located in the northeast; this year only four listed average salaries higher than MIT's.

MIT dropped from a 15 ranking last year to 17 in ARL beginning professional salary. Two points worthy of note relative to this drop are: other institutions within our peer group realized a drop as well, which strengthened MIT's standing—up from 8 last year to 6 this year; and the ARL salary report is based on data submitted in August 2001 which does not reflect the impact of the market adjustment applied to librarian salaries in November 2001. (This latter point applies to average professional salary figures discussed in the previous paragraph as well.) Applying the November market adjustment as well as the FY2003 base allocation to beginning professional salaries, MIT will report a figure of $41,500 this year which represents an increase of approximately 9.25 percent.

Library administrative staff were also beneficiaries of the Institute's focus on improving IT salaries. This year's market survey of IT positions conducted by the Compensation Office again revealed a clear need to address salaries for IT positions within the Libraries, which represent tremendous recruitment challenges for us. Data provided by HR during this process indicated most library IT salaries to be below the market minimum, some as much as 32 percent, which would have required $65,000 to bring all staff up to the market minimum. The special allocation of $13,000 provided by HR, was a first step in addressing these salary issues.

Librarian Promotions

In FY2002 the Libraries promoted four librarians in accordance with the established promotion policy for this career track. In February, a librarian I, after attaining the goals set forth in her promotion plan, was promoted to librarian II. In September, the libraries put in place a revised promotion policy for advancement from librarian II to librarian III. While librarian II is generally considered the full performance level for librarians, the revised policy provides the opportunity for further advancement for those librarians who have developed a significant and specialized expertise in an area of librarianship that has had a major impact on the Libraries and/or the profession. As a result of this new policy, in January, the Libraries promoted three librarians to the rank of librarian III. These were the first such promotions since 1990.

Rewards and Recognition

In late June the staff of the Libraries joined together once again at a luncheon and awards ceremony to celebrate both collective and individual accomplishments during a very demanding year. A total of 16 staff members—seven individuals and two teams—were recognized for their contributions in the areas of innovation and creativity, communication and collaboration, results, productivity, and outcome, and community through the Infinite Mile Award program. Awardees received a certificate of appreciation and a cash award.

The Spot Award program kicked off on July 1, 2001. The program consists of a monthly drawing of four names from a pool of submitted "thank you"s. The award is $100 in gift certificates to vendors such as The Home Depot, Amazon.com, and the Cambridgeside Galleria Mall. Over 1,000 thank you notes were received throughout the year and 48 awards distributed.

Training and Professional Development

Responsibility for providing technology training opportunities for library staff is shared by many groups and individuals in the Libraries outside Administrative Services and are mentioned elsewhere in this report. For non-technology training, many library staff avail themselves of MIT's Office for Organization and Employee Development offerings, which are convenient and receive good reviews from attendees, both administrative and support staff. In addition, a special session of "Giving Performance Appraisals," open to all library supervisors, was scheduled in November 2001 in preparation for the support staff performance evaluation cycle.

Participation in professional organizations and conferences is also an important way for librarian and other professional staff to receive training and keep up-to-date with current technologies and best practices in the library profession. Over two-thirds of the Libraries' professional staff participated in these types of development opportunities over the past year.

In an effort to support the Libraries' fiduciary responsibility in making the best use of the limited funds allocated for professional development and to provide a framework for the fair and equitable application of funding across the system, the Libraries charged a task force this past year with the review of the current policy. The work of the task force included identifying merits or inadequacies in the current policy, seeking out best practices, and recommending policies and standards for the allocation of financial support. The task force completed its work in April and the revised policy will take effect at the beginning of FY2003.

Conclusion

This has been a year of refinement and growth built upon the changes begun during the first year of the reorganized Administrative Services. In almost all aspects, Administrative Services has made progress documenting, streamlining, and evaluating policies and procedures. The continuing goal of Administrative Services is to facilitate the work of the libraries in a seamless manner.

Jim Mullins
Associate Director for Administration

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Technology Planning and Administration

FY2002 has been a decisive year for technology planning and deployment in the MIT Libraries, and for furthering the Libraries' role in technology planning for many important initiatives of the university. The Systems Office continues to consolidate and improve the technology base of all library operations, while preparing to absorb the many new developments coming out of the Libraries' new digital library research program. The DSpace program has made considerable progress, and is rapidly becoming one of the major international efforts in building digital library infrastructure and defining its impact on libraries, academia, and scholarly communications. Other research projects have continued to build the MIT Libraries' role in driving the national digital library agenda while we have also become a significant contributor to MIT's many academic computing initiatives (OpenCourseWare and the Open Knowledge Initiative, among others).

Systems Office

During FY2002 the technology-related activities of the MIT Libraries reached even farther into the realms of academic computing and new digital library developments. The Systems Office completed a major project to successfully deploy a new library management system, replacing the Barton online catalog with a state-of-the-art system that prepares us to meet the ever-increasing demands placed on library resources. The Barton system underpins the work of almost all library staff, as well as being of critical importance to the faculty and students of the Institute. Successful management of this transition project avoided any disruption to the thousands of MIT users who depend upon it, and has streamlined the libraries' operations considerably. The new Barton system is fully integrated with other important MIT systems (e.g. SAP, the Data Warehouse, etc.) allowing the libraries to achieve even higher levels of efficiency and interoperability with the automated business systems of the university.

The System Office has also focused on improving the productivity of library staff in several ways: increasing the deployment and adoption of productivity applications (e.g. MeetingMaker calendaring software, FileMaker Pro database software, and Macro Express software for improved automation of highly repetitive tasks) and insuring that the technology tools staff use (e.g. desktops computers, printers, scanners, etc.) are the best possible.

Finally, the Systems Office has been a key contributor to many technology-related initiatives in the Libraries, providing technical expertise and experience in managing complex, innovative, and high-risk projects. The group's contributions to efforts such as ENAV (to improve the ability of the Libraries to support faculty and student use of its many licensed networked scholarly resources), the new Geographic Information System being developed at the Rotch Library for Architecture and Planning, and the Digital Reference project (to bring the Libraries' content experts online), have made those projects possible.

DSpace Project

Great progress was made on many fronts in the past year on the DSpace project, MIT Libraries' joint project with Hewlett-Packard to develop and deliver institutional digital repository services to the MIT community. At the same time that interest in using DSpace at MIT has grown significantly, interest in using the DSpace software platform from other institutions worldwide has rapidly increased. DSpace activities in the past year have put us in a strong position to meet the expectations of all interested parties.

The DSpace software platform has matured from a development system to a stable architecture. Through a program of iterative design, early alpha and beta releases, design reviews, and usability testing, we have arrived at a target internal design and public user interface which we feel will serve the project well over the long term. While there will continue to be additional development and ongoing maintenance of the DSpace system, we expect to be fully prepared to launch a reliable and tested system to the entire MIT community in fall 2002.

The early adopters beta program began in fall of 2001 as an MIT internal beta program. By spring of 2002 we established DSpace communities from a wide range of organizations at the Institute, including a school, a department, a lab, a research center, and the MIT Press. At the end of FY2002 we had begun to load hundreds of titles into DSpace, including technical reports from the Laboratory of Information and Decision Systems, working papers from the Sloan School, backlisted digital books from MIT Press, and articles from the Center for Technology, Policy, and Industrial Development. We also began working closely with faculty from the Department of Ocean Engineering to plan for how to scale up the DSpace system to accommodate large datasets resulting from their research. We have endeavored to quickly incorporate what we've learned from these early experiences into system improvements.

During the past year, a DSpace transition committee consisting of several area heads from collections, public, technical, and systems services, along with DSpace project representatives worked to plan the many critical aspects of launching the DSpace service at MIT. This group met intensively to develop detailed plans and timelines to ensure training, promotion, staffing, service definition, production support, and other issues were brought to light and well-considered early. The committee's work, now complete, was presented to the Libraries' staff and used to guide implementation of the production service. Simultaneously, work funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation allowed us to develop a DSpace business plan, resulting in a full cost accounting of DSpace operations and support.

We are looking forward to the next year of the DSpace project, which will bring the live service to all of MIT; free distribution of the DSpace software platform worldwide; a joint effort to bring DSpace services to Cambridge University through a project of CMI, and to other institutions of higher learning through the development of an early federation program; and the beginning of the follow-on DSpace research project with faculty from the Lab for Computer Science, and additional research staff from HP Labs and the World Wide Web Consortium.

Deja Project

During 2002 the Libraries concluded a project funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to plan a preservation archive of "dynamic" electronic journals that would be reliable, secure, enduring, and sustainable over the long term. Mellon's request for proposals had previously laid out that it was interested in preserving intellectual content in large amounts before it was too late to preserve the wealth of research electronic journals are currently making available to the scholarly community.

The Mellon Foundation and librarians realize that e-publications are at risk. Many electronic journals won't survive the vagaries of business bankruptcies and mergers, nor technology's obsolescence and failures. Knowing this, the Mellon Foundation challenged its library-grantees to protect the peer-reviewed research that is published on the web in electronic journals. But effective archiving of electronic materials raises all sorts of challenges. Besides the technological hurdles, there are many organizational, policy and managerial problems. Legal questions as well as educational and cultural issues emerge as some of the most difficult areas to change to enable a smooth transition to archiving electronic journals and an uninterrupted continuation of service to a library's patrons.

Our project involved investigating the MIT Press's own web publication, CogNet. From there we scoured the world of electronic journals to understand more precisely what aspects of electronic journals made them dynamic and what sorts of provisions— digital repositories, tools, standards, and practices—could be used, built, and established to archive their content for the long term.

The successful completion of this project has enabled the MIT Libraries to begin preparing itself for the inevitable reality of collecting, managing, describing, and preserving digital journals as it has done for print journals since the founding of the Institute. Building on systems like DSpace, we have insured that the Libraries are not only prepared to take on this role at MIT, but to be an international leader for this type of activity.

Academic Computing Initiatives

During the past year the Libraries have worked to become an important and effective contributor to the development of academic computing initiatives at MIT. Teaching and learning have always depended on the Libraries as the part of the Institute that has responsibility for the acquisition, management, distribution, and preservation of the record of research and scholarly communication. As much of the teaching and learning activities of MIT faculty and students has begun to migrate to the online, digital environment, the Libraries have successfully migrated with them.

In 2002, the Libraries strengthened its relationship with both the OpenCourseWare and the Open Knowledge initatives. OpenCourseWare (OCW) is a major institutional initiative to bring MIT's educational materials to the Internet, and many of those materials are library-based. The Libraries began a process to help OCW in several ways. We are developing recommendations for the standards and procedures that OCW will use to describe education materials (i.e. its "metadata") to facilitate its discovery by faculty and students, its management by staff, and its long-term viability through preservation. We also worked with OCW staff on envisioning how the Libraries can help support the long-term archiving of digital education materials, as it has traditionally done for some printed material but expanding our role in this arena.

Open Knowledge Initiative, is defining new standards in the area of instructional technology systems (commonly called course management systems or learning management systems). These systems have need of long-term digital repositories both to locate useful teaching materials and to house faculty-created digital material. These are significant assets of educational institutions, and their professional management is a critical aspect of the mission of our organization. The Libraries are working together with Information Systems to enable the continued transition from the print and aural teaching tradition to the digital future.

Future Opportunities

The past year has seen many advances in the infusion of technology into the Libraries. A new associate director for technology is now in place, and is actively building a dynamic, innovative, and internationally important program of digital library research. This research will be done is addition to, as well as informing, the mission-critical work of supporting the technology base of the Libraries in its day-to-day work. The MIT Libraries' technology efforts, mirroring those of the institution as a whole, continue to take on new significance in an increasingly networked, digital world.

MacKenzie Smith
Associate Director for Technology

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MIT Press

The launching of significant operational and program initiatives, and turbulence in the marketplace characterized our year in FY2002.

We completed the monumental task of making the transition to TriLiteral, a partnership fulfillment venture with Harvard University Press and Yale University Press. Those tasks included the design and building of a 150,000 square foot fulfillment center; the design and implementation of a new state-of-the-art fulfillment management system; the relocation of 7 million books; staff reductions at the press to allow outsourcing of order processing and customer service; the hiring and training of over 80 people to staff the new facility. There were lots of glitches in this complex process, most expected and some unplanned for, and everything was done on time. The new system has already demonstrated its value with speedy turnaround and happy customers. In addition, we should start to experience annual savings at the level of $200K+ beginning in FY2004.

The second major series of events include continuing progress in marrying technology with publishing. We set the last pieces in place in the process of building and managing the digital archive of books and journals and we launched our digital POD initiative tailored to our needs in collaboration with one of our major suppliers, Edwards Brothers.

The Digital Projects Lab, the innovative publishing unit of the press, designed and developed two enterprise-scale online scholarly communities—CogNet and ArchNet. In September we transferred the fully functioning beta version of ArchNet, a site devoted to architects and planners with a special interest in the Islamic world, which was commissioned by the Agha Khan Trust for Culture, to the School of Architecture and Planning. In October CogNet, owned by MIT Press and a content-rich resource for researchers and students in the brain and cognitive sciences, marked its first anniversary as a fee-based service. As of the end of this fiscal year, CogNet is projected to break even (supporting 2.5 FTEs) by the end of the calendar year.

This fiscal year also saw the end of our successful two-year collaboration with Hewlett-Packard Labs' Digital Content and Remastering (DCRM) department. In the spring of 2000, we entered into an agreement with DCRM to provide us with print-on-demand quality files (PDF) for approximately 1,500 out of print books and nearly 300 journal backissues. The files were generated using an image analysis engine developed by the HPL engineers. This digitization and remastering effort has allowed the MIT Press to recover a significant percentage of its stranded assets; these books and journals are now back in print' and available for sale or redistribution. In the spring it was decided to decommission this innovative publishing group, effective July 1, due to lack of funds.

FY2002 was a second tough year for academic publishing, particularly university presses. Continuing dominance in the superstores and build-out of major wholesalers and Internet booksellers like Amazon had filled the pipeline and the bookshelves with inventory, and the university presses enjoyed robust growth in backlist sales beginning in FY1999. There was over-expansion and the inevitable contraction in FY2001, and FY2002 witnessed record returns as a lot of inventory came back. The MIT Press weathered the storm better than most university presses. While gross sales improved by 6.5 percent in FY2002, returns increased by 50 percent to 31 percent of net sales. Frontlist sales continued to be strong (up 4 percent over last year), and European sales were up 6 percent, continuing a robust growth trend.

The downward correction was primarily in gross domestic sales (deep backlist sales down 17 percent), and returns were exacerbated by US and Canadian wholesalers and Internet booksellers restructuring their operations. The creation and implementation of TriLiteral during the year had a negative impact on returns processing in FY2002.

On the bright side, net from the journals operation exceeded forecast for a net gain of $274K. Subsidiary rights sales grew 9 percent to $480K, and bookstore sales reported an increase in net gain to $93K on a sales base of $800K.

In summary, the net from our publishing operations were negative at $1.43M. This does not include TriLiteral transition costs of $965K, or interest costs of $222K. Total loss transferred to the balance sheet as negative reserves at the end of the year was approximately $2.8M.

Comparative Operating Results (in thousands)

 
FY2002
FY2001
FY2000
Total Net Book Sales
16,344
17,103
18,029
Cost of Sales
7,492
7,341
8,039
Gross Margin on Sales
8,852
9,762
9,990
Other Pub. Income
350
642
182
Bookstore Net
92
74
25
Total Income
9,294
10,478
10,197
Operating Expenses
10,995
10,549
9,996
Net Books Division
(1,701)
(71)
201
Journals Net
274
71
301
Net Pub. Operations
(1,427)
-
502

Highlights from the Book Division

MIT authors:

Among the noteworthy books by non-MIT people from our scholarly and professional program were:

New hardcover books for trade and general audiences included:

Books published primarily as texts included:

Editors in the Acquisitions Department included Laurence Cohen (editor-in-chief; social theory, science and technology studies); Roger Conover (art and architecture); John Covell and Elizabeth Murry (economics, finance, and business); Clay Morgan (environmental studies); Barbara Murphy (neuroscience); Robert Prior and Douglas Sery (computer science); and Tom Stone (psychology and linguistics).

Production Department

Desktop Publishing

We presently produce 100 percent of our new titles from PDF files. We scan all art packages using hi-end equipment, receiving electronic files back as hi-resolution files for our use (both application and final PDF files) for print. Our present goal is to convert all final files for electronic or web use for future products and for archiving.

Archiving

To date we have over 595 titles in our archive with RR Donnelley in Allentown, Pa.

RRD is responsible for archiving our front and deep backlist (Classic Series) including all text, jacket covers, and insert files for all our content at present. By archiving our content in various formats, such as application files and PDF files for text, jackets and inserts, we have the ability to repurpose our content for multiple uses.

Edwards Brothers Program

We presently have 44 deep backlist titles from the Classical Series in the archive at RR Donnelley.

We are preparing to implement the EB program for producing and selling one-off titles, and are in the process of converting the balance of the 1,500+ text files and paper covers for these titles to complete the EB POD program. We are working with IT on the Bookmaster purchasing and invoicing details.

SGML/XML

We are in the process of typesetting the text and preparing XML files for Arbib, The Handbook of Brain Theory and Neural Networks, 2nd edition, which is due for delivery in the fall of 2002.

Personnel Changes

Robert Kinkaid came on board in May 2001. Bob's responsibilities have included the production and manufacturing of over 300 reprints this year alone. He has been instrumental in assisting the production manager in implementing the EB POD program for both reprints and Classic Series, And he handles some new titles as well.

Janet Timmerman celebrated her six-month anniversary with Production on June 3, 2002. Janet has done a superior job in learning department procedures for composition, printing, and binding for new books. Janet is already a big contributor to the department's workflow, handing close to 30 new titles to date.

Editorial

We have finally filled the electronic manuscript/art coordinator position. This position handles file conversion, version control, manuscript cleanup, inventorying, renaming, and organizing electronic files, evaluating file usability, redrafting art on selected projects, and consulting with authors in electronic manuscript preparation. The person in this position has been trained in TeX (and its variants Scientific Word and Textures). She has also been doing layout for difficult projects and projects on a special fast track and is preparing new electronic art and manuscript preparation guidelines for authors.

The number of manuscripts edited partially or entirely on screen continues to increase. Several editors are now providing edited disks on most of their projects. The editors using Word 97/98 or Word 2000 have been trained in the basics of creating macros and using redlining. In many cases, an initial electronic cleanup on the author's files takes care of mechanical tasks such as conversion to house style, editing notes and references, spell-checking, and reformatting for ease of editing to produce a new, more efficiently edited manuscript.

We routinely receive indexes and other manuscript materials as formatted e-mail attachments as well as on our FTP site; the editors have individual folders on the FTP site and have been trained in the relevant file transfer programs.

We have added new file conversion programs that allow us to convert files from programs such as NotaBene that we were previously unable to read. We have created macros for use on Windows-based machines for cleaning up and reformatting documents. We also now have templates for manuscript breakdowns and figure tags. An editorial template (with built-in cleanup macros) created by Kevin Krugh for Harvard University Press has been employed on selected projects. We have increased our capability for working with a variety of media. In addition to word-processing programs, we have been working in Photoshop, Quark, Excel, PowerPoint, Access, and FileMaker.

We do on-screen formatting of front matter and indexes for camera-ready projects.

Editorial now has a spreadsheet tracking system for all projects, keeping track of page counts (including average pages per manuscript), numbers of illustrations, and other pertinent data for use in analysis of workload and budgets. A color-coded work log tracks individual editors' projects. An additional log tracks electronic media submitted with manuscripts.

Most of the editors are now working on Windows machines, and most now have Zip drives capable of reading the new 250 Mb disks. We now have a faster, higher-capacity printer devoted solely to manuscript printing.

We continue to serve as a resource for authors with questions about word processing: what programs to use, how to prepare disks for the publishing process, and how to use features available in Word. A new diskette label for authors' use should help us deal with authors' disks and improve file version control.

Design Department

We designed and formatted our entire list of heavily illustrated books on the computer using Quark Xpress, low-resolution scans for placement, and unedited text files from author-supplied disks. Final pages were saved as Postscript and PDF files for internal and outside use.

We created jackets on the computer from concept to mechanical, using figures made possible by scanning and manipulating found art, objects, and/or clippings from printed material, and downloaded images from authors or photo services from various web sites.

We mounted all of our jackets on the web site for internal and author viewing, and archived Postscript jacket and cover files on an FTP site for press-wide and outside electronic use. We created innovative interior designs and modified formats for undergradute and graduate text books in one color to compete with full-color text or trade books. We continue to modify our existing formats to accommodate manuscripts with different needs.

We laid out color inserts on the computer using low-resolution scans for positioning.

Our flatbed scanner continues to aid us in creating jacket images from reflective or transparent art and creating electronic versions of interior images used for dummying.

We assisted our electronic manuscript and art coordinator in the process of examining authors' art packages before they are turned over into the system.

Domestic Sales

Domestic sales have continued many of the downward trends we began to see last fiscal year—continued consolidation, the closure of warehouses, and flattened online sales. A subtle reallocation of online sales has also emerged due to increased reliance this year on wholesaler fulfillment. We have also seen a decline in many booksellers' ability to sell backlist titles and their increased dependence on used book and remainder sales to fill this fiscal gap. It is being debated in the trade whether aggressive marketing and sales of these titles have helped to hamper the backlist and paperback reprint market. Remainders and hurts are now prominently displayed, where paperback reprints used to command attention. Even online, customers are now offered at least one used copy of almost every title we sell. Many times these titles are offered by other online vendors, rather than individuals, but the fact remains that it is easier now, more than ever before, for an author, reviewer, student, or used book vendor to resell books that may have otherwise resulted in a new book sale. Booksellers argue that these books serve as incentives and get customers in the stores where they end up buying new books as well. The jury is still out on this one.

Wholesalers

Our two major wholesalers, Ingram, and Baker and Taylor, have continued to adapt their services to keep up with the evolving market. Five years ago, retail independents were Ingram's biggest customers for MIT Press books. Now, almost 55 percent of our book sales to Ingram go to on-line booksellers, with Amazon making up the largest share. Retail chains like Borders and Barnes & Noble account for 20 percent, while retail independents are at 9 percent. Ingram offers shipping directly to the customer for online booksellers, allowing their warehouse to be used as a surrogate, increasing delivery times and allowing Amazon to keep their stock levels lean. This service also allows many smaller online booksellers, such as frontlist.com, to operate without a warehouse.

Ingram recently closed the last of their smaller warehouses and has opened a state-of-the-art distribution center in Chambersburg, PA, directly across the street from their returns center, strategically located to better allocate returned stock to new customers, rather than returning it to publishers. This is a very welcomed move and should allow Ingram to operate at a higher level of efficiency, meaning fewer returns in the coming year.

Baker & Taylor has benefited greatly from Ingram's reorganization in the past year. Our sales with them are up 30 percent, the majority of this increase resulting from online sales and sales through Yankee Book Peddler, their library wholesale division serving four-year academic libraries. Of all books sold to B&T this year, 34 percent went to online booksellers and 32 percent to Yankee Book Peddler. Only 4 percent of MIT Press sales went to independent bookstores. B&T continues to build their library market and will be launching their eBook Library competitor to NetLibrary this fall. This is an exciting opportunity for eBook revenue, while still maintaining strong print book sales in this market.

Online Booksellers

Amazon, our largest online bookselling customer continues to be our biggest customer, once factoring in MIT Press wholesale book sales that have gone to Amazon. Our bestselling titles tend to be professional titles in economics and computer science. Here are our bestselling Amazon titles since Jan. 1, 2002:

Title
Author
Copies Sold
The Elusive Quest for Growth: Economists' Adventures and Misadventures in the Tropics
Easterly
1,746
Financial Modeling, 2nd Edition
Benninga
1591
Introduction to Algorithms, 2nd Edition
Cormen
930
Unlocking the Clubhouse: Women in Computing
Margolis
803
The Myth of the Paperless Office
Sellen
621
Tomorrow's Energy: Hydrogen, Fuel Cells, and the Prospects for a Cleaner Planet
Hoffman
544
Out of the Crisis
Deming
459
Sources of Power: How People Make Decisions
Klein
453
Supercade: A Visual History of the Videogame Age 1971–1984
Burnham
432

BN.com is a distant second in online booksales. They have made many attempts to increase their market share, undercutting Amazon's prices and shipping costs, but have made up little ground. In a move indicative of this unfulfilled market growth, BN.com recently sold their Reno warehouse to Barnes & Noble because they were not generating enough business to maintain a dedicated dot com warehouse. Now Barnes & Noble rents out space to BN.com and the arrangement seems beneficial for both companies. Our bestselling BN.com titles since Jan. 1, 2002:

Title
Author
Copies Sold
Intro to Algorithms, 2nd Edition
Cormen
1,064
Econometric Analysis of Cross...
Wooldridge
218
Elusive Quest for Growth
Easterly
168
Intelligent Design Creation and...
Pennock
162
New Economics, 2nd Edition
Deming
154
Out of the Crisis
Deming
153
Financial Modeling, 2nd Edition
Benninga
147
Guide to Econometrics, 4th Edition
Kennedy
133
Macroeconomic Essentials
Kennedy
126

In the past year, BN.com absorbed FatBrain.com into their operations. BN.com acquired FatBrain initially to better position themselves in the corporate sales arena. Unfortunately, this proposition was never given proper support and FatBrain has become the latest dot com casualty in the bookselling world.

Retail Independents

Retail independents have also weathered another rough year. While overall independent bookstore sales are up slightly, sales of MIT Press books are down. Sales of our professional and technical list are finding fewer opportunities in brick-and-mortar stores and continue to have their best sales online.

We've seen the closure of a few key stores including the Bibelot chain in Baltimore and the Georgetown Olsson's. Many key MIT Press stores, as previously mentioned, have been unable to sell our backlist titles as they once had and our sales with them reflect this decline. Some of these stores include Harvard Book Store, Seminary Co-op, and Cody's. Some of our other major accounts, however, are slightly above last year. These stores had extraordinary success with our frontlist and include the World Bank Info Shop, Powell's, Labyrinth, and St. Mark's.

The great hope for independent bookselling was a program call Booksense, launched a few years ago. While many university presses hoped this would lend more attention to books that lacked the marketing budgets of larger trade house books, this has not been the case. It is becoming increasingly difficult to secure prominent space for a book in stores without having to pay large sums in cooperative advertising. This prompted us to focus on key accounts in key regions, mostly stores in urban markets or college towns. We recently ceased using the commission rep services of George Scheer and Associates, who for seven years covered the southeast region for MIT Press. Independent bookstore sales in this region have seen a steady decline. The region is primarily populated with chain accounts that we already serve in-house. Our in-house sales assistant will be working with the remaining key independent accounts by phone and at trade shows.

EBooks

In the last year the eBook craze has subsided and we find ourselves in a strong position to build upon the modest successes we've experienced. We've fine-tuned our internal workflow to allow us to work with our existing eBook partners in an efficient and profitable manner. Our monthly revenues with NetLibrary are consistent and have motivated us to expand our eBook library presence with Baker and Taylor's new library service, ED, to be launched this fall.

We have contracts with Books24x7 and eBrary, and continue to look at new models that fit our workflow, require little cost, and have realistic revenue potential.

Promotion, Publicity and Direct Marketing

Direct Mail

FY 2002 brought some changes to our traditional subject-area direct mail program. The focus of the press's acquisitions in certain areas has shifted, forcing us to reconsider how we reach some of our target markets.

We continued to produce subject-area promotions in all our key discipline areas: political science; economics; science, technology, and society; art, architecture, and visual culture; neuroscience; computer science; cognitive and brain sciences; philosophy; linguistics; and environment. We added two focused brochure mailings promoting titles in computer music and our new book series in bioethics. These were mailed to highly targeted lists of individuals we would not regularly reach through our subject-area catalog mailings. After reviewing sales from our winter computer science catalog, we decided to eliminate our spring catalog and instead produce focused promotions to individual areas of our computer science list. The areas to be targeted are telecommunications and business computing, computational biology, and new media. These promotions are currently in production and will mail in FY2003. Our plan for the foreseeable future is to continue to produce a computer science catalog on an annual basis, and do targeted mailings to specific areas of the computer science list as the need arises. Another change this year was to reconsider the format of our direct mail in linguistics from a catalog announcing new and backlist titles to a flyer announcing new books only. This seemed appropriate given the small number of new books in linguistics. We mailed the new books flyer as broadly as the catalog, but at substantial cost savings. We produced a special-promotion reference mailing for Robinson's Handbook of Automated Reasoning. Additionally we produced two seasonal announcement catalogs, as well as numerous on-demand flyers promoting individual titles.

Our traceable direct mail sales for FY2002 are $122,660.96. Direct mail sales continue to decline as we compete for customers with online booksellers, bookstores, and even our own web site and exhibit sales. However, we believe that direct mail remains an effective means to reach the professional audiences interested in our titles, who may learn of (or be reminded of) our books through these mailings, but who may elect to purchase them (sometimes at substantial discounts) from retailers or at conferences. Direct mail promotions effectively target individuals to make them aware of both frontlist and backlist books in their areas of interest. They serve to reinforce our text promotion and advertising, and they are important tools for our acquisitions editors in building their lists.

Textbook Sales

In FY2002 we mailed 34 direct mail text promotions to over 90,000 US professors in various disciplines. Approximately 25 percent of those promotions were remails, primarily of economic texts. Highlights included new editions of the bestselling texts Akmajian's Linguistics 5th Edition and Farmer's A Linguistics Workbook 4th Edition. Wooldridge's Econometric Analysis of Cross Section and Panel Data had the highest direct response rate of all the FY2002 text mailings.

There was a nice cluster of new computer science texts including Biermann's Great Ideas in Computer Science with Java, Bruce's Foundations of Object-Oriented Languages, Pierce's Types and Programming Languages, and Hand's Principles of Data Mining. Having a cluster of texts in the same discipline enabled us to promote the new texts as well as the backlist. It's a building process rather than a one-time promotion.

Exhibits

The MIT Press exhibited titles at 134 US professional and academic conferences in FY2002. This generated $203,567 in exhibit-reported sales, slightly more than the actual $195,057.06 from FY2001. Overall expenses in FY2002 were $93,350, slightly higher than the $88,124 spent in FY2001.

Here are FY2002's top ten US conferences, ranked by at-meeting sales: Society for Neuroscience 2001, $31,845; Allied Social Science Association/American Economic Association, $11,700; College Art Association, $8,671; Association for Research in Vision and Opthalmology (ARVO), $5,768; RECOMB 2002: 5th International Conference on Research in Computational Molecular Biology, $5,179; Computer-Human Interaction, $4,890; Toward a Science of Consciousness, 2002, $4,573; American Political Science Association, $4,375; International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence, $3,766; Cognitive Neuroscience Society, $3,712.

Advertising

Advertisements for MIT Press books appeared in over 600 trade and scholarly journals and magazines, as well as conference programs and web sites. All of these ads were produced in-house by our advertising manager. The continued focus of the advertising program is to implement better target marketing and wider exposure, with an eye to new print and online media, while staying under budget. Major ad campaigns were implemented for Tomorrow's Energy, Douglas Gordon, Imaging Her Erotics, Artifacts, The Myth of the Paperless Office, The Human Embryonic Stem Cell Debate, Inventing Modern America, Reload, Concrete and Clay, Baroness Elsa, Envisioning Science, and The Illusion of Conscious Will.

Advertisements for these books appeared in such publications as American Scientist, Technology Review, New York Review of Books, The American Prospect, Science, Chronicle of Higher Education, The Nation, New Republic, Harper's, Mother Jones, Whole Earth, New York Times Book Review, The New Yorker, Art in America, Bomb, and Artforum.

Publicity

MIT Press titles received extensive coverage by US print and broadcast media in FY2002. Here are a few highlights.

The Elusive Quest for Growth by William Easterly was the subject of wide print, television, and radio coverage. Features on Easterly and the book appeared in The New Yorker, Newsweek, New York Times, Washington Post, the Washington Times, and Christian Science Monitor. Positive reviews appeared in The Economist, Forbes, Wall St. Journal, Foreign Affairs, and Washington Times. Television interviews/features aired on CSPAN's Book TV, New England Cable News's Business Day, and CNBC-TV'sBusiness Center. Easterly did radio interviews with The Connection (NPR), Public Interest (NPR), Voice of America'sTalk to America, as well as many other local radio shows across the United States.

Supercade: A Visual History of the Videogame Age, 1971–1984 generated buzz in some interesting places. Van Burnham's nostalgic look at the classic arcade and home video games of her youth was recommended by theBoston Globe, Playboy, Artforum, Booklist, Boston Herald, Copley News Service, DirecTV, IEEE Spectrum Magazine, LA Weekly, Library Journal, Booklist, PSE2 Magazine, Next Generation Magazine, Publishers Weekly, The Fader, Salon.com, Village Voice, and NPR's quiz show Wait, Wait—Don't Tell Me.

In a memoir of his own, John McDonald, the ghostwriter of Alfred Sloan's famous memoir, My Year With General Motors, tells the little-known story of that classic business book's publication—which GM tried vigorously to suppress. A Ghost's Memoir has been favorably reviewed by the New York Times Book Review, Business Week, Washington Post Book World, Across the Board, and public radio's popular program Marketplace, whose reviewer said, "McDonald has given us what may be the best book about business, and about book publishing, to appear this year."

Inventing Modern America: From the Microwave to the Mouse received excellent notices in the Boston Globe, Kirkus, New Scientist, Journal of the American Medical Association, American Scientist, Technology Review, and Publishers Weekly, among others. The author, David Brown, discussed the book on NPR's Tech Nation, hosted by Moira Gunn.

Unlocking the Clubhouse: Women in Computing generated broad coverage, including scores of radio and several television interviews for authors Jane Margolis and Allan Fisher. The book was also covered by print publications including the Chicago Tribune, Boston Globe, San Jose Mercury News, PC Magazine, Seattle Times, King Features Syndicate, Chronicle of Higher Education, CNET News, and San Francisco Chronicle.

Peter Hoffmann's Tomorrow's Energy also received high-profile coverage. The book was reviewed in American Scientist, New Scientist, Foreign Affairs, Science News, Booklist, Chemical and Engineering News, and Library Journal. Hoffmann and the book were featured in two separate articles in the New York Times, one of which ran on the wire, as well as articles in USA Today and the Seattle Post Intelligencer. He was also a guest on NPR's Science Friday.

A major feature story in the New Yorker generated additional publicity for Abigail Sellen and Richard Harper's The Myth of the Paperless Office. The article, by science writer Malcolm Gladwell, discussed the book at length and featured quotations from the authors. This prompted additional interviews for Sellen and Harper, including one that is scheduled to appear inReader's Digest in August.

Irene Gammel'sBaroness Elsa has received much admiring coverage in New York, including reviews or feature stories in the New York Times Book Review, New York Magazine, and Village Voice. In addition, the New York Times Magazine plans a fashion spread inspired by the book and its colorful subject, the dadaist poet and artist Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven, who will be represented by a model or actress. The piece is scheduled to appear in August of this year and will mention the book.

Electronic Promotion

In FY2002, we again posted announcements for new professional and trade books to email lists, web sites and Usenet groups in relevant fields. During his time here, Jud Wolfskill developed a sophisticated set of databases to generate book announcements and store promotional statistics. It also stores information about relevant listservs and web sites, and this database is now quite extensive, thanks to Jud's efforts and the input of authors and acquisitions editors.

Unfortunately, because of the shift of our web site to a new server some months ago, information on the number of hits our book announcements generated is unavailable to us. However, anecdotal evidence suggests that promotional efforts in this field have continued to attract valuable attention to our books. Once again, books in computer science drew the most interest. For example, Benjamin Pierce's Types and Programming Languages was promoted on 24 listservs and web sites. (This represents nearly 70 percent of those moderators to whom the announcement was sent.) Other well-promoted titles include the second edition of Cormen's Introduction to Algorithms (13 lists and sites), McDermott's Mind and Mechanism (13), Hebrich's Learning Kernel Classifiers (11), Schölkopf's Learning with Kernels (11), and Unlocking the Clubhouse by Margolis and Fisher (10).

Awards

This fiscal year, the MIT Press continued to increase the number of awards won, with big winners in environment, psychology and neuroscience, art and architecture, computer science, and design. Four books received two or more awards—Hands on the Land: A History of the Vermont Landscape by Jan Albers; The Boulevard Book: History, Evolution, Design of Multiway Boulevards by Allan B. Jacobs, Elizabeth Macdonald, and Yodan Rofé; Times Square Roulette: Remaking the City Icon by Lynne B. Sagalyn; and Environmentalism Unbound: Exploring New Pathways for Change by Robert Gottlieb.

Following is a summary of all awards won from July 2001 through June 2002.

Continuing its winning streak from last year, Hands on the Land: A History of the Vermont Landscape by Jan Albers was lauded for its contribution to the knowledge of the culture, landscape, and architecture of New England and North America. The Pioneer America Society (PAS) presented its Fred B. Kniffen Award to Hands on the Land as the best new book published about the North American cultural landscape. The Society for the Preservation of New England Antiquities (SPNEA) presented Hands with its annual prize for the book that best advances the understanding of the architecture, landscape and material culture of New England and the United States from the seventeenth century to the present.

Six MIT Press books were honored in five separate environmental awards.

Two of the American Political Science Association's (APSA) sections presented the MIT Press with awards. The Science, Technology, and Environmental Policy (STEP) section awarded two books with a prize for the best book on environmental policy published within the last three years. Domestic Sources of International Environmental Policy: Industry, Environmentalists, and U.S. Power by Elizabeth R. DeSombre won the 2001 Lynton Keith Caldwell Award and Waste Trading among Rich Nations: Building a New Theory of Environmental Regulation by Kate O'Neill won the same award for books published in 2002.

The Land That Could Be: Environmentalism and Democracy in the Twenty-First Century by William A. Shutkin was chosen as the Best Book in Ecological and Transformational Politics by the section on Ecological and Transformational Politics of the APSA.

For the second year in a row, an MIT Press title received the Harold and Margaret Sprout Award of the International Studies Association's Environmental Studies Section. The award recognizes the best book on the topic of international environmental affairs. Environmental Leadership in Developing Countries: Transnational Relations and Biodiversity Policy in Costa Rica and Bolivia by Paul F. Steinberg was the 2002 winner.

Environmentalism Unbound: Exploring New Pathways for Change by Robert Gottlieb, has been selected as a finalist for the 2002 C. Wright Mills Award presented by the Society for the Study of Social Problems (SSSP).

In addition, Environmentalism Unbound was a Bronze Award Winner in the category of Environment in the ForeWord Magazine Book of the Year Awards. Infinity and Perspective by Karsten Harries was a Bronze Award Winner for Philosophy and The Boulevard Book: History, Evolution, Design of Multiway Boulevards by Allan B. Jacobs, Elizabeth Macdonald, and Yodan Rofé was a Silver Award Winner for Architecture. Bandwagon Effects in High Technology Industries by Jeffrey H. Rohlfs was a finalist in the category of Business.

The Boulevard Book: History, Evolution, Design of Multiway Boulevards by Allan B. Jacobs, Elizabeth Macdonald, and Yodan Rofé won the award for Excellence in Design and Production in the 2001 Professional/Scholarly publishing Annual Awards Competition sponsored by the Association of American Publishers (AAP/PSP). The Handbook of Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience edited by Charles A. Nelson and Monica Luciana was a winner in the category of Single Volume Reference: Science. And Times Square Roulette: Remaking the City Icon by Lynne B. Sagalyn received Honorable Mention in the category of Architecture and Urban Studies

Times Square Roulette: Remaking the City Icon by Lynne B. Sagalyn and designed by Michael Sims and Yasuyo Iguchi, was also recognized along with other MIT Press titles in The 2002 AAUP Book, Jacket, and Journal Competition, which notes excellence in design. Times Square Roulette was recognized in the category of Scholarly Illustrated along with Reyner Banham: Historian of the Immediate Future by Nigel Whiteley and designed by Emily Gutheinz. Touch by Tiffany Field and designed by Patrick Ciano was a winner in the category of Jackets.

Two prestigious prizes were awarded to MIT Press authors in the fields of art and architecture. James S. Ackerman, author of the 2001 book Origins, Imitation, Conventions: Representation in the Visual Arts, won the International Balzan Foundation's 2001 Balzan Prize in the history of architecture, which includes town planning and landscape design.

Carolee Schneemann, author of The 2001 book Imaging Her Erotics: Essays, Interviews, Projects, won the Jimmy Ernst Award in Art presented by The American Academy of Arts and Letters. The $5000 prize is given to a "painter or sculptor whose lifetime contribution to his or her vision has been both consistent and dedicated."

Two photography awards feature a sampling of our prominent photography books and authors. The 2002 Infinity Award for Writing presented by The International Center of Photography for excellence in the field of photography was awarded to Ariella Azoulay for her book, Death's Showcase: The Power of Image in Contemporary Democracy.

Karl Blossfeldt: Working Collages edited by Ann and Jürgen Wilde was chosen as the Best Historical Monograph for 2001 by photo-eye Books as part of the annual Best Photography Books of the Year Awards. The awards were announced in photo-eye's 2002 spring catalogue.

Three prestigious awards in psychology and neuroscience were awarded to MIT Press books and authors for outstanding work in these ever evolving fields. The New Cognitive Neurosciences, second edition along with editor-in-chief Michael S. Gazzaniga won the 2002 William James Book Award presented by the Society for General Psychology, Division One of the American Psychological Association. This award is given for the book that best assembles research and ideas from the various sub-fields of neuroscience and psychology.

James McClelland and David Rumelhart, authors of Parallel Distributed Processing: Explorations in the Microstructure of Cognition, won the 2002 University of Louisville Grawemeyer Award for Psychology for their work in the field of cognitive neuroscience on a cognitive framework called parallel distributed processing and the concept of connectionism. A $200,000 cash prize accompanies the award.

An Odd Kind of Fame: Stories of Phineas Gage by Malcolm Macmillan received this year's prize for Outstanding Book in the History of the Neurosciences presented by the International Society for the History of the Neurosciences (ISHN).

MIT Press titles were well represented in awards given in the fields of computer science and information science. From Gutenberg to the Global Information Infrastructure: Access to Information in the Networked World by Christine L. Borgman was presented with the ASIS&T Best Information Science Book Award by the American Society for Information Science and Technology. The award is given to the author(s) whose book is judged to have made the most outstanding contribution in the field of information science during the calendar year preceding the ASIS&T annual meeting. The award was presented Wednesday, November 7, 2001 at a banquet during ASIST's annual meeting in Washington, D.C.

In recognition of their outstanding leadership and service in the field of computer-human interaction a number of MIT Press authors have been chosen as recipients of awards given by The Association for Computing Machinery's Special Interest Group on Computer-Human Interaction (ACM SIGCHI). The CHI Lifetime Achievement Award has been awarded to Donald A. Norman, author of The Invisible Computer: Why Good Products Can Fail, the Personal Computer is so Complex, and Information Appliances are the Solution. The following MIT Press authors have been elected into the CHI Academy: John M. Carroll, author ofMaking Use: Scenario-Based Design of Human-Computer Interactions; Sara Kiesler, co-author of Connections: New Ways of Working in the Networked Organization; and Thomas K. Landauer, author of The Trouble with Computers: Usefulness, Usability, and Productivity. The awards were presented at the CHI 2002 Conference, April 20–25, 2002 in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Beyond Our Control?: Confronting the Limits of Our Legal System in the Age of Cyberspace by Stuart Biegel was a Finalist in the 2001 Communication Policy Research Award presented by The Donald McGannon Communication Research Center.

The following books have been honored in the Independent Publisher Book Awards 2002 (The Ippy Awards) presented by Independent Publisher—Inventing Modern America by David E. Brown was the winner in the category of Science and Supercade: A Visual History of the Videogame Age, 19711984 by Van Burnham was a finalist in the category of Popular Culture.

Gabrielle Hecht, author of The Radiance of France: Nuclear Power and National Identity after World War II, received the 2001 Edelstein Prize (formerly the Dexter Prize) presented by the Society for the History of Technology (SHOT). This award recognizes the author of an outstanding scholarly book in the history of technology published during any of the three years preceding the award.

The MIT Press was recognized in 2001 for an outstanding contribution to the advancement of management knowledge when Disappearing Acts: Gender, Power, and Relational Practice at Work by Joyce K. Fletcher was chosen as a finalist in the George R. Terry Book Award presented by the Academy of Management.

In the field of economics, The Economics of Risk and Time by Christian Gollier received the Paul A. Samuelson Award presented in January 2002 by the TIAA-CREF Institute for outstanding scholarly writing on lifelong financial security.

Finally, Jürgen Habermas was awarded the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade by the Association of Publishers and Booksellers of the Federal Republic of Germany. This prize is given to "a personality who has in an outstanding degree contributed to the realization of the idea of peace particularly by his or her activity in the field of literature, science and art." The award was presented during the Frankfurt Book Fair at St. Paul's Church in Frankfurt, Germany, on Sunday, October 14, 2001.

International Sales

MITP's FY2002 export sales came in at $5.007 million—down just 0.07 percent from previous fiscal year. A worldwide economic slump and a strong US dollar against most foreign currencies were two leading reasons MITP exports remained more or less flat against prior year, as well as continuing long-standing problems in Canada with the Chapters and Indigo chains. Total export sales of $5.007 million during FY2002 accounted for approximately 30 percent of overall book sales for the MIT Press.

For an industry-wide perspective, Publishers Weekly reported in its March 18, 2002 issue that US book exports fell eight percent in 2001 to $1.7 billion. Exports to 11 of America's 15 largest book markets fell, and the dollar value of book exports to those major trading partners, which comprised 88.6 percent of all exports, dropped 8.4 percent to $1.52 billion, according to figures from the US Commerce Department.

MITP's London office sales increased to $3,482,000, up 6.2 percent from prior year. London office sales remained slightly above budget for most of the fiscal year. Sales in Great Britain amounted to $1,775,820 or 51 percent of total London office sales, and European sales amounted to $1,706,180 or 49 percent of total London office sales, using exchange rate GBP 1.00 = USD 1.47 on June 28, 2002.

Though this has been a challenging year, many of the problems in other parts of the world did not directly affect the UK economy to the same extent as they did the US economy. The British trade has not been buoyant, returns have been higher than desired, and sales rep calls remain difficult with chains such as Waterstone's and Ottakers; yet MITP turnover at most independent UK shops increased slightly due to efforts by sales reps, who concentrated on specialist shops which still offer knowledge-based service to customers. Academic sales in the fall and holiday retail sales in December were much stronger than anticipated. Central buyers of the Borders Group UK now see our representatives, and we are making some progress with buyers at Amazon.co.uk.

In Europe, one of the factors beyond our control this past fiscal year has been the strong US and UK currencies, making American and British books very expensive and difficult to sell and booksellers hesitant to order stock. Another problem for many of our European booksellers has been the high shipping costs for ordering single titles into Europe from John Wiley & Sons Ltd., our distributor for the UK and European markets; the expensive postal rates resulted in some booksellers canceling backorders and/or in routing their orders via UK wholesalers for consolidated ordering and more economical shipping. The Euro currency was introduced on January 1, 2002, and so far there seems to be mixed reaction to it from our European trade customers. There was good news for consumers in Sweden, where VAT (valued added tax) on books dropped from 25 percent to 6 percent, also on January 1, 2002. Top 10 European markets for MITP by sales were Germany, $288K; Holland, $196K; Sweden, $143K; France, $113K; Italy, $102K; Norway, $100K; Denmark, $87K; Spain, $80K; Switzerland, $71K; and Belgium, $68K. Sales to Eastern Europe totaled $54K, up 19 percent from prior fiscal year, and sales to Russia were $14K.

Sales to Canada of US$231K fell for a second year, declining 26 percent from FY2001 sales of US$314K, and tumbling 47 percent from FY2000 sales of US$597K. The strong US dollar and the increase in US postal rates did not help us in this market, yet our biggest problem in Canada was the long-standing non-payment and returns situation concerning the old Chapters account and old Indigo Books account (previously the leading two book chains in Canada), which resulted in purchase orders being held for most of the fiscal year. The good news is that in April we settled the accounting and returns problems for these two old accounts, and we established a new account at TriLiteral for Indigo Books and Music Inc., the mega-book chain formed last year when Indigo Books' parent company, Trilogy Retail Enterprises LP, purchased the Chapters chain. We are now very optimistic that the Canadian market will bounce back for us in FY2003. During FY2002, sales of MITP student texts accounted for 70 percent or US$163K, overall sales to Canada.

Japan sales declined 30 percent to $454K, from prior year. Japan's ongoing economic and political woes led to reductions in library budgets this past year, which resulted in fewer orders from our key library wholesaler United Publishers Services Pte.; our sales to United Publishers Services declined by 29 percent this year. MITP sales to the two major book retailers in Japan are down—Maruzen by 24 percent, Kinokuniya Bookstores by 28 percent. The Japanese book trade is feeling the impact of online bookstores on individual purchases—as evidenced by the recent closure of Jena Bookstore (art and architecture books) in the Ginza district of Tokyo, and English-language book departments at Maruzen's Osaka and Hiroshima stores. Now Japan seems to be emerging, perhaps temporarily, from an 18-month recession, its worst in a series of slumps since 1990. The NYT reported in June of 2002 that Japan's government recently declared that the economy had "bottomed out," yet despite a recent 1.6 percent rise in consumer spending, Japanese consumers are still hunkering down. Unemployment in Japan remains relatively high at 5.2 percent; wages are eroding; and 173,000 people filed for personal bankruptcy last year, four times the number in 1995. Graduates face the worst job market in half a century as manufacturers shift operations to China, where young engineers can be paid a fraction of what Japanese earn. Overall, there remains a gloomy outlook for the national economy in the coming year or two.

Sales to Australia increased 17 percent to US$168K, over prior year. This was welcome news, considering that the weak Australian dollar hit an all-time low against the US dollar and made imported books even more expensive than before. Australian consumers and booksellers seem to have adjusted to the introduction of GST (a national goods and services tax, in effect since July 2000), which raised book prices an average of 10 percent. These days the main feedback from booksellers in this market is postage "sticker shock"—their reaction to increased U.S. postal rates for single title or small orders. For Australian publishers and booksellers—particularly booksellers in and around Sydney, who have had a rough time these past two years—sales have stabilized and optimism has replaced the previously prevailing doom and gloom attitude.

Bright spots among Asian markets were in exports to Taiwan, which increased 32 percent to $162K. The gain was led by increased units for two International Student Edition texts: Hoy's Mathematics for Economics 2nd Edition, and Cormen's Introduction to Algorithms 2nd Edition. Sales to South Korea increased by 14 percent to $106K; sales to Singapore increased by 52 percent to $101K; sales to China increased by 57 percent to $46K; sales to Hong Kong increased by eight percent to $45K. The majority of sales to these Asian markets have been to textbook suppliers and to library suppliers.

Export sales to Latin America remain challenging, with Brazil, Mexico and Puerto Rico the only really active markets for us this past fiscal year. Sales to Brazil increased by 5 percent to $48K, sales to Mexico declined by 2 percent to $55K. All our export activity to Argentina dried up due to the Argentine economic crisis. In Puerto Rico we are currently pursuing adoptions for select texts, and we currently service a few English-language book importers in Jamaica, Venezuela, Colombia, and Chile. Sales strategies and changes in representation for the Latin markets, are currently under review.

FY2002 export sales to the Middle East region (ex. Wiley UK) increased by 48 percent to $92K, with the majority of sales billing to academic and library suppliers in Turkey, Egypt, Tunisa, U.A.E, Cyprus, Lebanon and Jordan. The significant increase in export sales to this region is mainly due to a change in sales representation to Anthony Rudkin and Associates of Oxford, England, and to a greater focus on these markets by our London office.

MITP sales to India (ex. Wiley UK) increased 26 percent to $64K from prior fiscal year, and sales to South Africa decreased 25 percent to $19K.

FY2002 International Book Sales by Major Area

 
FY2002 Actual
FY2001 Actual
+ / - %
FY2000 Actual
 +/- %
Australia
$169K
$143K
18
$172K
-17
Canada
$231K
$314K
-26
$597K
-47
Japan
$455K
$601K
-24
$626K
-4
UK/Europe
$3.482M
$3.280M
6.2
$3,190 M
3
Other Export
$670K
$702K
-4.5
$741K
-5
Total Export
$5,007M
$5,040 M
-0.07
$5,327 M
-5

Subsidiary Rights

Our subsidiary rights program has at its core the sale of translation rights to our books. The income generated by the licensing of foreign rights increased by 14 percent since FY2001. The number of contracts signed increased by approximately 10 percent during FY2002. In particular, we are licensing more Chinese simplified character editions, and activity in Eastern Europe, especially Poland and Russia, has increased noticeably. Total income from translations remains spread evenly between backlist and frontlist titles. Our strongest disciplines in the translation market are economics, computer and cognitive science.

A significant shift over the last few years has been the increase in income from our reprint program, which includes permission to photocopy and to publish excerpts from our books, as well as the sale of paperback reprints. In the category of reprint sales, we continue to license selected English language reprints in those markets where we forecast limited income from sales of our own editions.

Income from our reprint program increased by 6 percent since FY2001, and constitutes a substantial portion of total subsidiary rights income.

During FY2002 income from sales to book clubs decreased by 69 percent since FY2001. This market is the least predictable for subsidiary rights; it depends both on our publishing list and on the financial formula required by book clubs.

Income from the license of electronic rights during FY2002 more than doubled over the preceding year. The bulk of this income is derived from subscriptions to the online edition of The MIT Encyclopedia of Cognitive Science. The category of electronic rights is somewhat misleading: we make a distinction between sales of the entire book in electronic form and sales of portions of books for which we receive royalties on the basis of frequency of access. Only the second category is included as subsidiary rights income.

Overall, subsidiary rights income in FY2002 increased by 9.3 percent over FY2001.

Subsidiary Rights Income FY00–FY02

 
FY2000
FY2001
FY2002
Translations
$198,668
$184,081
$210,766
Reprints
$206,484
$243,988
$258,881
Book Clubs
$4,098
$7,298
$2,271
Electronic, AV rights
$3,574
$3,996
$8,047
TOTAL
$412,034*
$439,363
$479,965
*Please note that this total reflects disbursement of royalties due an author who requested payment before the end of the royalty year.

Journals

IN FY2002, the journals program earned sales of $5.7 million, an 18 percent increase over last year, and had a net gain of $273,755 compared to last year at $71,304. The deferred subscription reserve account balance is $2.3 million.

Three new journals were added: Asian Economic Papers, Molecular Imaging, and PAJ: A Journal of Performance and Art. Six journals were terminated or left our program by the end of the fiscal year: Markup Languages, NBER Frontiers in Health Policy, NBER Innovation Policy, NBER Macroeconomics, NBER Tax Policy and the Economy, and Studies in Nonlinear Dynamics and Econometrics.

The division ends the fiscal year publishing 35 journals. The others are: American Journal of Bioethics, Artificial Life, Computational Linguistics, Computer Music Journal, Design Issues, Evolutionary Computation, Global Environmental Politics, Grey Room, Harvard Design Magazine, International Organization, International Security, Journal of Architectural Education, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, Journal of Cold War Studies, Journal of Economics and Management Strategy, Journal of Industrial Ecology, Journal of Interdisciplinary History, Journal of Machine Learning Research, Leonardo, Leonardo Electronic Almanac, Leonardo Music Journal, Linguistic Inquiry, Neural Computation, Neurology and Clinical Neurophysiology, Presence, October, Perspectives on Science, Quarterly Journal of Economics, Reflections: The SoL Journal, The Review of Economics and Statistics, TDR: The Drama Review, and The Washington Quarterly.

Over the past year the Journals Division has made significant improvements to our web site including increased content, linking partnerships, mailing lists, electronic media, and a new interface design. We now serve movies, sound, pictures, supplemental pages, and applications for journal articles. All journals that provide the MIT Press with forthcoming tables of contents are now listed on the site. In some cases we have TOCs listed a year in advance of the article publication. Mailing lists are now built into the user account management system. Users who create a profile on our site will be able to subscribe to various lists with one click. Presently, we net over 100 new subscribers to our lists per week—an improved sign-up average of 6 lists.

In addition, the Journals Division was heavily involved with MIT CogNet, our electronic community in the cognitive and brain sciences. In FY2002, CogNet successfully emerged from an experimental prototype to a business product. Although it is not financially self-sustaining yet, its membership is steadily growing. Despite minimal marketing efforts, CogNet's paid institutional site licenses has increased by more than 20 percent from 2001 to 2002. In addition, during that same timeframe, all but two subscribing institutions did not review and their reason was due to lack of funds.

CogNet ended the fiscal year ahead of its sales goal with 68 paid institutional site licenses and approximately 80 trial subscriptions.

Frank Urbanowski
Director

 

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