A Traveling Hub of Information: An organizational history of the Library at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory

The Library at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory has undergone many changes to staffing, functions, services, and physical space in its seven decades of continuous operation, but none more curious and interesting than its assignments to various reporting organizations over time. This paper offers a chronological examination of the history, changes, and (possible) reasoning behind is organizational journey. According to an internal reorganization timeline, historic organization charts, and other documents, the Library has occupied organizational space under Lab Personnel, Human Resources, Documentation and Materiel, Logistics, and currently Engineering and Science. The JPL Library is not unique in this situation; to be sure, specialized libraries are continually moving around organization charts, shifting between more specific and more general lines of reporting, and ever asking “Does the library serve the entire institution, or a limited population of users?” The author will offer an analysis of the benefits and challenges of each reorganization, as well as how each organizational home reflected and influenced the Library’s role at the Lab.