Alexa Pearce is the Gershwind & Bennett Family Associate Vice Provost for Collections and Scholarly Communications at the University of Pennsylvania. She has held previous librarian roles at the University of Michigan and New York University and has taught in LIS programs at the University of Michigan School of Information, the Pratt Institute, and Long Island University. Pearce’s professional service has included participation in the OCLC Research Library Partnership Leadership Roundtable, HELIOS Open, CHORUS Academic Advisory Working Group, and Big Ten Academic Alliance Heads of Public Services.
Vannevar Bush’s “The Endless Frontier” served as both blueprint and symbol of the American research enterprise. His writings are worth re-examination, as the country grapples (again) with the relationship between science and the American public.