New director of MIT Libraries
New director of MIT Libraries
Chris Bourg has been appointed as the next Director of the MIT Libraries, following a nationwide search that began after the Libraries’ previous director of 17 years, Ann Wolpert, passed away in October 2013.
Bourg is currently the Associate University Librarian for Public Services at Stanford University, where she supervises the largest division of Stanford University Libraries. Prior to her 12-year tenure at Stanford University Libraries, she served as an officer in the United States Army for a decade, during which she spent three years teaching sociology and leadership as a faculty member of the United States Military Academy at West Point.
In her new role at MIT, which will begin in February 2015, Bourg will supervise more than 260 staff members from MIT Libraries and MIT Press. An advocate for open-access models for scholarly publishing and the use of digital technologies to advance teaching and research, Bourg said that she has “long admired MIT’s commitment to openness, inclusion, and innovation.”
She said she looked forward to “engaging in conversations across the MIT community about the future of library spaces, services, and resources,” with a vision of turning MIT Libraries into “a leader in creating new models for scholarly communication and research libraries.” In addition, as a senior officer with oversight responsibility for the MIT Press, Bourg will provide strategic guidance to the Press to create a larger global presence.
—Angela Leong