General Preservation Needs Assessment for Bank Street College Archives

FAIN: PG-51299-11

Bank Street College of Education (New York, NY 10025-1898)
Lindsey Wyckoff (Project Director: May 2010 to September 2012)

A general preservation assessment of 600 linear feet of administrative records, audiovisual materials, photographs, and artifacts documenting the history of the college and its predecessor, the Bureau of Education Experiments, from its founding in 1916 to the present. The records document the college's support of education for underprivileged youth, the creation of models for the desegregation of public schools, and the development of the Head Start program in the 1960s.

Bank Street seeks support to conduct a general preservation needs assessment for its archives collection. The needs assessment will serve as the blueprint for a comprehensive long-term preservation plan for a collection that documents the institution's significant history and work in progressive education over the course of the twentieth century. A grant of $5,650 will enable the College to hire a specialist in document preservation and preservation assessments to conduct a needs assessment. The College's staff archivist and library staff will then incorporate the findings into a long-term preservation plan for the collection.