Core Messages

Core messages are not public-facing messages but the key takeaways we want our audiences to have.

• We are powerful versus vulnerable
• We are synonymous with MIT and make its open access mission possible
• We are the future of libraries: infinite expertise and resources, accessible, partnering, hands-on, inclusive, physical and digital/destination and ubiquitous
• MIT Libraries define not only a new kind of research library but a new information future

Voice

Voice is the personality that comes through in written and verbal communication. It should remain fairly consistent, even as the tone and audiences of communications change. 

• Bold, clean
• Reflecting MIT's heart-skipping achievements 
• Welcoming to all kinds of people
• Simultaneously upholding the highest standards and fun and down to earth

Underlying Values/Philosophy

Again, not public-facing messages but guiding ideas about what distinguishes the MIT Libraries.

• Open versus paywalls
• Knowledge versus information
• Community versus isolation
• Partner versus subordinate role
• Friendly equalizer—no prerequisites for entry; expert help without judgment

Manifesto

A written declaration of our values and views. 

We’re here to help save the world. From a post-truth universe. From bias. From paywalls.
We’re here to invite you to get your hands dirty with information. To take us into the field. We’re your embedded experts.
We invite you to create new knowledge. It’s what we’re doing every day.
We’re here to safeguard the world’s knowledge.
We’re here to find and defend the truths of many voices, some new, some long silenced. We’re here to close the rift between theory and practice and the divides between disciplines. We’re here to share rather than to hoard, to open up rather than to seal off and shut tight.
Don’t believe anyone who would have you choose between the physical and the digital. We’re way past that.
We’re all in one place and that place is everywhere. Some people think libraries need saving.
At MIT, we think all libraries—big, small, neighborhood, academic, online and in-person—just might be the ones doing the saving.
Join us.

Saving the world, bit by bit
MIT Libraries

Elevator Pitch

Ideas for verbal/conversational messaging.

The MIT Libraries are MIT, meaning that the Libraries are the world’s portal into all of the work being done at the Institute. We make MIT’s “Open Access” mission possible.

MIT Libraries define not only a new kind of research library but a new information future.

Our librarians are co-creators and embedded experts on research teams. Our spaces and hands-on tools make it possible for students to get their hands dirty with information and close the rift between theory and practice. Divides between disciplines disappear here, opening the way for new thinking.

We recover and preserve forgotten or silenced voices. We pioneer the way libraries all over the world protect, empower, and disseminate knowledge and truth.

Some people think libraries need saving. We see it another way. Libraries are helping to save the world.