New York City Department of Records Municipal Archives: Creating a Sustainable Preservation Environment

FAIN: PF-266759-19

New York City Department of Records and Information Services (New York, NY 10007-1210)
Sylvia Kollar (Project Director: January 2019 to present)

A planning project to develop recommendations for improving the storage environment at the New York City Municipal Archives, which stewards 243,000 cubic feet of manuscripts, official correspondence, audiovisual materials, architectural records, maps, ledgers, vital records, over two million photographs, and 185 terabytes of digital records pertaining to the history of the city from 1645 to the present.

The New York City Department of Records and Information Services requests Endowment support to develop plans for improving and implementing strategies for long-term storage and preservation of archival material. Dating from the 1600s to the early 21st century, the collections provide extensive documentation of NYC municipal government and include significant intellectual content important for humanities research in American urban history, public education, criminal justice, health care, and planning. The project workplan is to engage the services of professional engineers who will undertake a comprehensive survey and analysis of the extant HVAC and storage system, produce a report on environmental conditions, prepare detailed recommendations for improvements, and produce designs for a new HVAC system with an emphasis on sustainable energy use. The project time period is 12 months.