Stewarding and Providing Digital Access to The Rosenbach's Rare Books and Manuscripts Collection

FAIN: ZPA-284061-22

Rosenbach of the Free Library of Philadelphia (Philadelphia, PA 19103-6510)
Judith M. Guston (Project Director: May 2021 to March 2024)
Elizabeth Fuller (Co Project Director: November 2021 to March 2024)

A Philadelphia library in retaining three staff positions, creating two new  positions, and developing their online catalogue.  

The Rosenbach requests funding to plan and move forward a series of collections stewardship projects comprising cataloging the majority of the rare book and manuscript collection, migration to a cloud-based collection management system (CMS), a collection management policy update, the sale of several hundred of non-accessioned items, and collections policy-driven deaccessioning. The Rosenbach currently lacks the capacity to manage these projects and requests funding for two additional FTE positions to efficiently move them forward, along with some equipment/software purchases toward the same end. These projects are part of The Rosenbach’s strategic plan (FY17-FY22) and have been deferred because of the pandemic.