New Director of the MIT Libraries

November 21, 2014
Martin A. Schmidt, Provost, 2014–2022 |

To the members of the MIT community:

I am very pleased to announce that Chris Bourg, currently the Associate University Librarian for Public Services in the Stanford University Libraries, has been selected as the next Director of the MIT Libraries, with an anticipated start date of February 2015.

This appointment results from a search that began earlier this year to identify a successor to Ann Wolpert, who passed away in October 2013. Since that time, Steve Gass has graciously served as Interim Director of the Libraries.

For the past twelve years Chris Bourg has held positions of increasing responsibility at the Stanford Libraries, where she developed a deep appreciation for the critical role of scholarly communication in a research university environment, and its links to education and service to the community. She also has considerable experience with leveraging the capabilities of digital technologies in order to enhance library services. Chris holds a PhD in sociology from Stanford and has taught at the U.S. Military Academy in this area of expertise. I encourage you to read the article in MIT News that provides a fuller description of Chris’s background.

I am very much looking forward to working with Chris as she undertakes the leadership of the MIT Libraries, particularly at a time when the nature of library services is evolving to accommodate a variety of needs related to research and education. I know you will join me in welcoming her to the MIT community.

I want to express my special and sincere thanks to Steve Gass, who generously agreed last fall to put his personal plans on hold and step in as Interim Director of the Libraries. For the past year, Steve has done an outstanding job in this role as the search process for a permanent director was conducted and I will miss his thoughtful advice and counsel. Please join me in conveying to Steve our greatest appreciation for his service to the Institute during this time.

Finally, I wish to thank the committee, chaired by Professor Lorna Gibson, that advised me on the selection of the new Director of Libraries. I greatly appreciate the time and energy that this group, whose members are listed below, devoted to the search process.

Sincerely,

Martin A. Schmidt
Provost


Libraries Director Advisory Committee:

  • John Charles, IS&T
  • Iain Cheeseman, Biology
  • Arindam Dutta, Architecture
  • Tracy Gabridge, Libraries
  • Lorna Gibson, Materials Science and Engineering
  • Erica James, Anthropology
  • Mark Molaro, Graduate Student, ChemE
  • Kai Von Fintel, Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences
  • Eric Von Hippel, Management