Chris Bourg is an American librarian, sociologist and former officer of the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...

. She has been the director of

Massachusetts Institute of Technology Libraries The library system of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT Libraries) covers all five academic schools comprising the university. The print and multimedia collections of the MIT Libraries include more than 5 million items, with ov ...

since 2015.

Career and education

Bourg graduated with a

B.A. Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four yea ...

from Duke University and a

M.A. A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Tho ...

from the University of Maryland. She went on to study sociology at

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

where she completed an M.A. and PhD. Her doctoral thesis titled ''Gender mistakes and inequality'' was supervised by Cecilia L. Ridgeway. She worked at Stanford for 12 years where she held several roles including associate university librarian for public services. She started as the director of

, overseeing the library and

MIT Press The MIT Press is a university press affiliated with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, Massachusetts (United States). It was established in 1962. History The MIT Press traces its origins back to 1926 when MIT publish ...

in 2015. She took over the role from previous director Ann Wolpert, who had been in the position for 17 years. Prior to her career in libraries, Bourg spent 10 years as an officer in the

, teaching for three years as a faculty member at

West Point The United States Military Academy (USMA), also known Metonymy, metonymically as West Point or simply as Army, is a United States service academies, United States service academy in West Point, New York. It was originally established as a f ...

. Bourg is a frequent public speaker and has given multiple conference keynotes. 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 Discrimination is the act of making unjustified distinctions between people based on the groups, classes, or other categories to which they belong or are perceived to belong. People may be discriminated on the basis of race, gender, age, relig ...

, resulted in

online harassment Cyberbullying or cyberharassment is a form of bullying or harassment using Electronic communication network, electronic means. Cyberbullying and cyberharassment are also known as online bullying. It has become increasingly common, especially ...

and personal attacks. Bourg is known for talking openly about and challenging

systemic racism Institutional racism, also known as systemic racism, is a form of racism that is embedded in the laws and regulations of a society or an organization. It manifests as discrimination in areas such as criminal justice, employment, housing, healt ...

within the library profession. She has also called into question the neutrality of librarianship. During an

American Library Association The American Library Association (ALA) is a nonprofit organization based in the United States that promotes libraries and library education internationally. It is the oldest and largest library association in the world, with 49,727 members a ...

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." Bourg has been equally vocal about open access publishing. In 2013 she resigned from the editorial board of the ''

Journal of Library Administration The ''Journal of Library Administration'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal that covers library management. It was established in 1980 and is published 8 times a year by Routledge. The editor-in-chief is Gary M. Pitkin (University of Northern Col ...

'', along with the editor-in-chief and other board members, as a sign of support for open-access publishing following the death of

Aaron Swartz Aaron Hillel Swartz (November 8, 1986 – January 11, 2013) was an American computer programmer, entrepreneur, writer, political organizer, and Internet hacktivist. A prolific programmer, Swartz helped develop the web feed format RSS, the tech ...

Select publications

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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bourg, Chris Living people American librarians American women librarians Massachusetts Institute of Technology faculty Stanford University alumni Women in the United States Army Duke University alumni University System of Maryland alumni Year of birth missing (living people) American women academics 21st-century American women