One of the best stories about a book
would be probably the story of tracking down
someone's thesis from the United Kingdom from 1960
that one of our researchers needed here.
I think it was in conjunction with working on the Mars Rover.
And that hunt took about six months.
It required tracking down the people individually
and securing permission from the family for the author, who
was elderly, for that thesis to be copied
before it could be released.
And I was really happy that we were
able to get a scan of that thesis
and put it in the hands of our professor on campus.
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I am Chris Sherratt.
I have worked at the MIT Libraries for over 25 years.
When I walked into the library, there was a card catalog.
I'm almost embarrassed to say it.
And the online catalogs were just starting.
There was no such thing as online journals.
People came over to consult paper journals.
It was a completely different world.
And yet it required some creativity and ingenuity
to figure out what people needed and how to find it in an age
without laptops, without computers.
So you can imagine how great it is now
to have that kind of power.
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The MIT Libraries has long had a practice
of convoying up people on the staff that work with the people
in these disciplines and buy books.
So when I provide reference, I learn
what they're working on, right.
And that informs what I buy.
And when I see what I buy and I remember
what people are working on, I'm able to make those connections.
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For every book on the shelves here, there's
tens of books online.
And if you didn't know that or you
didn't know who was buying those,
or how we buy them to bring that kind of resource
to the MIT community, you might think our information
stopped years ago.
So a lot of things are not online.
Many, many things are.
It's our job to help people navigate that.
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There's of course lots of material
that MIT has made itself in the archives.
But then there's also material that's already been sent off
campus to storage.
And some of it has been scanned and digitized.
But others of it has not been.
And I always love it when they ask
me to find hard things that they can't find —
just using the open internet.
Those are treasure hunts.
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It's a lot of detective work.
And that's part of what is great.
The search and the journey is its own destination.
It's a lot of fun.
But if you find the treasure at the end, it's even better.
The cost of information and information
that is closed behind pay walls is
a real factor in free and open information access to everyone.
And I think the MIT Libraries is passionate about that.
Our staff is passionate about that .
And so we're making inroads into the open access movement,
and being able to tear down some of those walls
and work within and without our constraints
to bring more information to more people.
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Well, I have —
I'm a paper girl.
I kind of have a bias towards print for my own enjoyment.
But here at work, I totally rely on things being
online, because MIT is fast.
And you have to be able to provide it fast.
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It's been a wonderful, wonderful career.
MIT's been awesome.
I can't think of a better place I'd want to do this.
And so, as it happens, I've been here a long time
and seen a lot.
And I still love and have always loved coming to work —
what a gift.
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