Aaron and Clara Greenhut Rabinowitz Director of Preservation Services

United States·Long Island CityFull Timeexecutive

OtherDirector

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Overview

OverviewFor more than 125 years, The New York Public Library (NYPL) has been an essential provider of books, information, ideas, and education.

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OtherDirector

Overview
For more than 125 years, The New York Public Library (NYPL) has been an essential provider of books, information, ideas, and education. With collections numbering more than 56 million items and serving more than 16 million patrons in person each year and millions more online, NYPL’s reach is both local and global. Our mission is to inspire lifelong learning, advance knowledge, and strengthen our communities.

At our world-class research centers–including the Humanities and Social Sciences Research Library at the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, the Library for the Performing Arts, and the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture–expert staff facilitate the work of our diverse communities, offering inspiring reading rooms, programs, exhibitions, fellowships, and a dynamic range of research services. Their work is supported by dedicated staff on the Collections and Research Services teams. We are proud to be the most public and widely used research library in the world.

The Collections and Research Services division, which includes Preservation, Special Collections Processing, Digital Collections Operations, Collection Development, and Access & Research Services, operates as a highly integrated, cross-functional management team. This group also partners with staff at the research centers to manage the ongoing development and processing of our exceptional research collections, advance unified discovery and expanded access with our partners in Digital, both in-person and online, and ensure stewardship of the collections at every stage of the collections lifecycle.

NYPL seeks a proven, strategic, and highly collaborative leader to oversee the operations and services of the Barbara Goldsmith Preservation department, which includes the Barbara Goldsmith Conservation Lab, one of the leading conservation labs in the country, and Collection Management, including Registrar services. The Preservation Services Director is responsible for unifying and aligning staff around the Library’s preservation program and policies, best practices, and strategic preservation initiatives, building a culture of collaboration with staff at the research centers, Exhibitions, BookOps, Facilities, Capital Planning, and with ReCAP and its partner institutions to ensure that the research collections are accessible and stored and cared for properly for current and future generations.

Some expectations for this role are that within:

1 month, this person will:

Meet their team, understand the department structure and the Library’s strategic initiatives, staff goals, the scope of grants and projects underway, and key dependencies and partnerships with other departments
Meet key partners in the Research Centers, Exhibitions, BookOps, Facilities, Security, and Capital Planning
Understand the scope of the Digital Collections Operations team, which oversees all reformatting operations and the implementation of the digital preservation strategy

3 months, this person will:

Launch work on key strategic initiatives, beginning with development of an updated preservation policy for both internal and external audiences through a collaborative process with NYPL stakeholders
Gain a better understanding of gaps in resources, workflows, and systems to support the Library’s strategic initiatives, prioritizing the partnership with the Director of Digital Collections Operations to develop a plan for new digitization-at-scale workflows
Understand the extent and condition of the Library’s current storage spaces

6 months and beyond, this person will:

Develop a long-term roadmap for the preservation and care of the research collections
Align the Preservation department’s organization structure and capacity to support the Library’s strategic initiatives
Build and maintain strong partnerships within Collections and Research Services and with stakeholders across the Library as well as external partners

Responsibilities

Shapes and effectively communicates preservation policies, standards and best practices for all collection formats
Launches and leads, as part of the Library’s 5-year Strategic Plan, the initiative to develop a preservation policy for both internal and external audiences engaging stakeholders from the research centers and across the Library
Develops a 10-year collections storage master plan that identifies spaces that need to be decommissioned, requirements for storage room improvements, standards to guide capital projects, and forecasts for future physical and digital storage needs
Oversees collections emergency preparedness and disaster recovery planning ensuring staff training, compliance, and alignment with Library-wide policies and practices
In partnership with the Director for Special Collections Services and other stakeholders, contributes to an updated and dynamic Total Cost of Stewardship model
Supports the Exhibitions and Outgoing Loan programs by optimizing workflows and ensuring the safe, legal, and organized processing and movement of collections
Develops improved workflows for collections control and movement of special collections between research locations, balancing risks with access and workflow efficiencies
Lead the development and implementation of collections control and condition review processes to support the Library’s ambitious digitization strategy
Contributes to the development and implementation of the Library’s digital preservation strategy
Manages budgets and grants, coordinates the Library’s fine art insurance, and contributes to fundraising initiatives
Develops and supports staff to achieve excellence, fostering inclusion and professional growth, including training opportunities for early-career practitioners
Effectively manages organizational change, strengthening a collaborative team environment by aligning people and processes to deliver the best possible services
Represents NYPL at various local, national and consortial conferences and committees related to preservation
Performs other related duties as required