Update on the Founding Research Collection Initiative
We are excited to announce that the Boston Public Library has started the first phase of its Founding Research Collection initiative by issuing an RFP to hire a Project Manager to lead this vital work.
Earlier this year, the Associates of the Boston Public Library, in partnership with the Boston Public Library Fund, together made a $2.1 million grant to clean, catalog, and preserve over 400,000 volumes from the BPL's Founding Research Collection. This Collection has formed an integral part of the Library’s holdings since its inception in the 1850s, representing some of the first volumes that the BPL collected as the nation’s first large, municipally funded public library. The project aims to ensure the long-term preservation of these important materials and facilitate widespread public discovery and access.
Original home of the Founding Research Collection -- the Boston Public Library's Bates Hall, 55 Boylston Street, ca. 1858.
The Boston Public Library is seeking a Project Manager/Consultant to lead this work. The experienced, detail-oriented project consultant will be responsible for developing, implementing, and overseeing the completion of this major initiative to clean, inventory, catalog, store, and provide access to hundreds of thousands of the Library’s most significant research holdings. He or she will develop detailed project plans, identify and oversee vendors, lead coordination efforts, manage the project schedules, and ensure the cleaning, inventory, electronic cataloging, and storage and patron retrieval plan for approximately 150,000 volumes of the Founding Research Collection.
For more information about the position or to apply, please visit the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners' website.