Session Number

03

Description

The relationship between research universities and industry has been characterized in many ways. Some have called it a mutually beneficial arrangement of what we might call symbiosis. At the other end of the spectrum are observers who view the situation in a much more negative manner, using terms like parasitic, exploitative, and non-productive. One must hasten to add that not all of the detractors are to be found on university campuses any more than are all of the supporters in industrial research laboratories. There are many varieties of university-industry co-operation and most of them are of the successful variety, at least in the USA. This paper attempts to look at a particular model of such a relationship - the one existing at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology - to see what generalizations might be made as well as to look at a whole spectrum of activities, including those not immediately involving the MIT Libraries. This paper is divided into three main sections, as follows. 'The Environment' deals with the institutional environment as weIl as covering some of the history of MIT's co-operative programme with industry. 'The Resources' describes the various library and library-related activities that are provided to industry, including some that are still in the planning stage. 'Inhibitions and Controls' looks at some of the constraints that the Libraries in particular face in attempting to provide services to industry and in working with other university departments and offices in the whole area of industrial liaison.

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The Technological University Library and Industry

The relationship between research universities and industry has been characterized in many ways. Some have called it a mutually beneficial arrangement of what we might call symbiosis. At the other end of the spectrum are observers who view the situation in a much more negative manner, using terms like parasitic, exploitative, and non-productive. One must hasten to add that not all of the detractors are to be found on university campuses any more than are all of the supporters in industrial research laboratories. There are many varieties of university-industry co-operation and most of them are of the successful variety, at least in the USA. This paper attempts to look at a particular model of such a relationship - the one existing at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology - to see what generalizations might be made as well as to look at a whole spectrum of activities, including those not immediately involving the MIT Libraries. This paper is divided into three main sections, as follows. 'The Environment' deals with the institutional environment as weIl as covering some of the history of MIT's co-operative programme with industry. 'The Resources' describes the various library and library-related activities that are provided to industry, including some that are still in the planning stage. 'Inhibitions and Controls' looks at some of the constraints that the Libraries in particular face in attempting to provide services to industry and in working with other university departments and offices in the whole area of industrial liaison.