Chris Bourg

Chris Bourg
Education
EmployerMassachusetts Institute of Technology
Websitehttps://chrisbourg.wordpress.com/

Chris Bourg is an American librarian, sociologist, and former officer of the United States Army. She has been the Director of Massachusetts Institute of Technology Libraries since 2015, and is also the founding director of the Center for Research on Equitable and Open Scholarship (CREOS) at MIT. Bourg is an advocate for open access and open science, serving on the Board of Directors of organizations such as the Center for Open Science, the Center for Open and Reproducible Science at Stanford's Data Science Institute (DSI-CORES), and open access publisher Annual Reviews.[1][2]

Education

Bourg graduated with a B.A. from Duke University in 1987[3] and a M.A. in sociology from the University of Maryland in 1994.[4] She went on to study sociology at Stanford University where she completed an M.A. and PhD.[5] Her doctoral thesis, titled Gender Mistakes and Inequality (2003), was supervised by Cecilia L. Ridgeway.[6][7] Prior to her career in libraries, Bourg spent 10 years as an officer in the United States Army, teaching for three years as a faculty member at West Point.[8][5][9]

Career

Bourg worked at Stanford University for 12 years where she held several roles including associate university librarian for public services. She became the director of Massachusetts Institute of Technology Libraries in February 2015, overseeing both the library and The MIT Press. She took over the role from previous director Ann Wolpert, who had been in the position for 17 years.[5] Bourg then chaired the search committee to find a new director for the MIT Press, hiring Amy Brand effective July 2015.[10][11] Bourg continues to serve on the MIT Press Management Board.[12]

Bourg was asked to convene the MIT Ad Hoc Task Force on the Future of Libraries in October 2015,[13] to co-chair the MIT Ad Hoc Task Force on Open Access to MIT’s Research with Hal Abelson in 2017,[14] and to co-chair the MIT Working Group on Scholarly Content and Generative AI with Claire Schneider in 2025.[15] Bourg is a member of the Roundtable on Aligning Incentives for Open Science of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine,[16][17] and of the Higher Education Leadership Initiative for Open Scholarship.[2]

Bourg is a frequent public speaker and has given multiple conference keynotes.[9] In a 2018 keynote at a Code4LIb conference, she discussed diversity in software development. The talk, which referenced research by the Kapor Center for Social Impact indicating record numbers of people are leaving tech environments due to discrimination, resulted in online harassment and personal attacks.[18][19][20] As of April 3, 2018, the Council of Prairie and Pacific University Libraries (COPPUL) and hundreds of other organizations and individuals signed the Code4Lib Community Statement in Support of Chris Bourg.[21]

Bourg is known for talking openly about and challenging systemic racism within the library profession.[9] She has also called into question the neutrality of librarianship. During an American Library Association panel in 2018 Bourg argued against the possibility of neutrality concluding that: "If we believe that libraries have any role to play in supporting and promoting truth in our current post-truth culture, then our work is political and not neutral."[22]

Bourg is vocal in support of open access publishing and open science.[8] Bourg is the founding director of the Center for Research on Equitable and Open Scholarship (CREOS) at MIT. Bourg serves on the Board of Directors of organizations such as the Center for Open Science, the Center for Open and Reproducible Science at Stanford's Data Science Institute (DSI-CORES), and Annual Reviews.[1][2] In 2013 Bourg, along with the editor-in-chief and other board members of the Journal of Library Administration, resigned as a sign of support for open-access publishing following the death of Aaron Swartz.[23]

Select publications

Chapters

  • Segal, Mady Wechsler; Bourg, Chris (2005). "Professional leadership and diversity in the army". In Matthews, Lloyd J. (ed.). The future of the Army profession (2nd rev. & expanded ed.). Boston: McGraw-Hill. ISBN 9780073536095.
  • Jones, Shannon D.; Murphy, Beverly, eds. (2019). "Introduction". Diversity and inclusion in libraries : a call to action and strategies for success. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 9781538114407.

Articles

References

  1. 1 2 "Our Team". Annual Reviews. 2026. Retrieved 2026-08-24.
  2. 1 2 3 Center for Open Science. "The Center for Open Science Welcomes Chris Bourg and Marcus Munafò to its Board of Directors". www.cos.io. Retrieved 2026-08-24.
  3. ↑ Bourg, Chris (January 16, 2014). "The Neoliberal Library: Resistance is not futile". Feral Librarian. Retrieved 24 August 2026.
  4. ↑ "Chris Bourg, MA, 1994 | SOCY l Sociology Department l University of Maryland". Department of Sociology, University of Maryland. Retrieved 24 August 2026.
  5. 1 2 3 Denny, Heather (21 November 2014). "Chris Bourg named director of MIT Libraries". MIT News. Retrieved 8 January 2021.
  6. ↑ Bourg, Chris (2003). Gender Mistakes and Inequality. doi:10.31235/osf.io/854hd. hdl:1721.1/103856. Retrieved 8 January 2021 – via SocArXiv Papers.
  7. ↑ M. Chris Bourg. "Gender Mistakes and Inequality." Ph.D. dissertation, Stanford University Department of Sociology, 2003. Proquest dissertations 3085162 (accessed October 2, 2024) and Stanford University Libraries https://searchworks.stanford.edu/view/5506740 (accessed October 2, 2024).
  8. 1 2 Leong, Angela (25 November 2014). "New director of MIT Libraries". The Tech. Retrieved 8 January 2021.
  9. 1 2 3 Robertson, Tara A. (2017). "A Feminist Among Us: An Interview with Chris Bourg". In Lew, Shirley; Yousefi, Baharak (eds.). Feminists Among Us: Resistance and Advocacy in Library Leadership. Library Juice Press. pp. 172–188. Retrieved 8 January 2021.
  10. ↑ Dizikes, Peter (15 June 2015). "Amy Brand named new director of the MIT Press". MIT News | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Retrieved 24 August 2026.
  11. ↑ Manaktala, Gita (August 6, 2015). "Meet new Press Director Amy Brand, part one". The MIT Press Newsletter. Retrieved 24 August 2026.
  12. ↑ "MIT Press Management Board". MIT Press. Retrieved 24 August 2026.
  13. ↑ MIT Ad Hoc Task Force on the Future of Libraries (24 October 2016). "Institute-wide Task Force on the Future of Libraries". MIT Libraries. Retrieved 24 August 2026.
  14. ↑ "MIT convenes ad hoc task force on open access to Institute's research". MIT News | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 7 July 2017. Retrieved 24 August 2026.
  15. ↑ "Working Group on Scholarly Content and Generative AI". MIT Organization Chart. August 12, 2026. Retrieved 24 August 2026.
  16. ↑ "Roundtable on Aligning Incentives for Open Scholarship". National Academies. Retrieved 24 August 2026.
  17. ↑ "Promoting Equitable and Inclusive Implementation of Open Scholarship Policies: Proceedings of a Workshop—in Brief (2024) National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2024. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press". National Academies. 16 May 2024. doi:10.17226/27801. Retrieved 24 August 2026.
  18. ↑ "ARL Denounces Harassment of Chris Bourg following Code4Lib Keynote". Association of Research Libraries. 12 March 2018. Retrieved 8 January 2021.
  19. ↑ McKenzie, Lindsay (13 March 2018). "Harassment of MIT Libraries Director Denounced". www.insidehighered.com. Retrieved 8 January 2021.
  20. ↑ Heller, Margaret (3 July 2019). "Community Best Practices". Community Technology Projects: Making Them Work. Chicago: American Library Association. ISBN 978-0-8389-1837-1. Retrieved 8 January 2021.
  21. ↑ "COPPUL stands with Chris Bourg". Council of Prairie and Pacific University Libraries (COPPUL). 3 April 2018. Retrieved 24 Aug 2026.
  22. ↑ Carlton, Amy (12 February 2018). "Are Libraries Neutral?". American Libraries Magazine. Retrieved 8 January 2021.
  23. ↑ Brandom, Russell (26 March 2013). "Entire library journal editorial board resigns, citing 'crisis of conscience' after death of Aaron Swartz". The Verge. Retrieved 8 January 2021.
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