AIC 53rd Annual Meeting

The Research Libraries of the New York Public Library (NYPL) are advancing climate action in collections contexts through improved collaboration, application of materials science, and communicating with internal and external peers. 

The NYPL Research Libraries includes three historic research centers: the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building (1911) at 42nd Street, the Library for the Performing Arts (1965) at Lincoln Center, and the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture (1905, 1979) in Harlem. They are three very different buildings given their construction, mechanical HVAC systems, and building envelopes. As a library, NYPL has centered access to information in its mission for over 125 years. Access is strengthened by a coordinated infrastructure of preservation and operations activities including management of storeroom environments, maintenance of well-designed drainage systems, conscientious exhibition planning, careful transport, routinely performed housekeeping, and so forth. Preservation is the job of a great variety of people working in synchrony within and with NYPL. 

But, for decades, preservation and registration contexts have centered on stringent adherence to legacy setpoints interpreted from works by Garry Thomson. Most people in collections preservation work have had at least one confrontation about achieving an appropriate environment within storerooms and exhibitions, resulting in chagrin, remorse, and sometimes outrage. Increasingly, we see a new future as many of us realize that preservation and the planet are not served well by static set points, but through more active, ongoing, and collaborative exchange and experimentation. 

This presentation will review how that change has been occurring at NYPL. It begins with the establishment of the NYPL Collection Management program in 2016, its participation in the Getty Conservation Institute Managing Collection Environment’s program in 2017, reviving an improved environmental monitoring strategy and adopting wider seasonal environmental parameters in 2018, the hiring of NYPL’s first energy management team in 2021, and education of staff about new preservation environment goals. We will discuss managing issues with challenging exhibition spaces in our historic structures, including communications with staff and potential lenders about areas lacking mechanical HVAC. This talk will specifically highlight learning from our facilities and capital planning teams, working together, and strategizing how to make NYPL preservation strategies more sustainable.