Date: Wed, 30 Nov 94 22:30:50 -0500
From: Hal Abelson <hal@martigny.ai.mit.edu>
To: JAFFE@MITLNS.MIT.EDU
Cc: hal@martigny.ai.mit.edu
Subject: from someone who is not a faculty officer
Reply-To: hal@mit.edu
Address: MIT AI Lab, NE43-409, 545 Technology Square, Cambridge, MA 02139
Phone: (617) 253-5856 Fax: (617) 258-8682
Bob,
I'm writing to suggest that the Faculty Committee on the Library System
be renamed Committee on the Library and Information Systems and the
committee's charter be expanded accordingly.
Information systems is a growing force in MIT education, and the
evolution of information systems will be a major factor in shaping the
MIT educational environment over the next decade. There has been off
and on faculty input into this evolution (currently through the
Academic Computing Council), but this input has tended to be of an ad
hoc form, and without clear lines of authority. Something as central
to MIT's educational agenda as information systems should be monitored
and advised by a standing committee of the faculty.
In addition, the link between libraries and information systems is
becoming increasingly blurred. For one thing, the computer network
will become a major (the major?) channel of distribution of library
materials as information gets moved increasingly to digital form.
Also, there are many policies (for example, approaches to the
licensing of databases, print materials, and software) where the
library system and MIT's computer facilities need to formulate a
uniform policy.
-- Hal