Contextualizing Collections

Digitization and Community Building

When Boston Public Library’s digital imaging lab began operating in the fall of 2005, it was focused on digitization as a means to conserve and preserve the library’s special collections. A range of items such as photographs, maps, manuscript pages, postcards, and prints are digitized in this lab with high-end digital camera systems and flatbed scanners.

Social Media: Being in the Moment

The February blizzard in New England prompted a three-day citywide closure of all Boston Public Library locations while the snow was cleared. Like many other cities and towns in the area, Boston faced a wintry weekend and all library programs were either cancelled or postponed.

The intense storm brought about something else for Boston Public Library: one of its busiest social media weekends on record. The storm forced the library, productively speaking, to move off its slate of scheduled social media posts and participate in Boston’s in-the-moment conversations. It was a healthy reminder to the organization about the power of being present.

Strategic Planning: Staying Alive

Completing a strategic plan is an important milestone for any organization, but the story does not end there. A strategic plan’s success depends on how well, how actively, and how authentically it is brought to life. So often a plan or final report can sit gracefully on a shelf or rest quietly as a PDF on the web. At Boston Public Library (BPL), we are in the midst of implementing our strategic plan, the BPL Compass. Here are three things the organization is doing to bring the plan to life.

Strategic Planning: Go Big or Go Home

Boston Public Library successfully completed a strategic plan at the end of 2011, something we call the BPL Compass. There is a lot about the structure of our planning process that would sound familiar to other organizations in the midst of developing their strategy. But in the year that has passed since the library’s Board of Trustees unanimously approved the BPL Compass, three things have emerged as unexpected keys to our success.

Beyond Circulation: Library Reach

Recently, Google published its Zeitgeist 2012, a stunning, worldwide summary of the most searched and trending topics of the year. The information is arranged into sections, one of which is Humanities, where the ten most searched-for libraries in the United States are prominently featured. My colleagues at the Boston Public Library (BPL) were tickled to […]