The Boston Library Consortium (BLC) has welcomed the Boston Public Library (BPL) as its newest member – joining 22 other institutions in the BLC’s network working on innovative solutions that enrich the creation, dissemination, and preservation of knowledge.
Established in 1848, the Boston Public Library is a pioneer of public library service in America. It was the first large, free municipal library in the United States; the first public library to lend books; the first to have a branch library; and the first to have a children’s room. Today’s Boston Public Library is a robust system that includes the Central Library in Copley Square, 25 neighborhood branches, the Norman B. Leventhal Map and Education Center, the Kirstein Business and Innovation Center, and an archival center. The BPL serves nearly 4 million visitors per year and millions more online, offering public access to world-class special collections of rare books, manuscripts, photographs, and prints, along with rich digital content and online services.
“We are delighted to welcome the Boston Public Library back to the Boston Library Consortium,” said Andrew White, BLC’s President and the Caleb T. Winchester University Librarian at Wesleyan University. “Part of the strength of the BLC is the variety of scope and missions across member institutions. As an extraordinary regional and national institution, BPL brings significant resources and expertise to BLC’s collective work.”
BPL’s holdings of more than 23 million items place it among the largest collections in the country, including books, maps, manuscripts, letters, drawings, and other original works dating back as early as the 10th century. BPL maintains a circulating collection of more than 1.6 million items alongside an extensive digital collection of special collections materials.
The membership will position BPL to participate in all consortial programs and strategic initiatives, including the consortium’s membership communities, reciprocal borrowing privileges between BLC member institutions, and professional development activities to strengthen the expertise of library staff.
BPL’s history with BLC dates back to the consortium’s early beginnings in 1970 as one of the founding five members. BPL was eager to promote the use of the resources of the library among the academic community and joined with Boston College, Boston University, Brandeis University, and Tufts University to form the Boston Consortium Libraries, later known as the Greater Boston Consortium of Academic and Research Libraries and subsequently the Boston Library Consortium.
“The members agreed that the five libraries ought to build their research collections cooperatively, insofar as possible without jeopardizing the integrity of their own libraries and to share resources wherever feasible,” wrote David R. Watkins, then Director of Brandeis University, in a feature entitled ‘A Short, Personal History of the Greater Boston Consortium’ in the consortium’s first newsletter in November 1974. “The first step was a cooperative purchase: the microfilms of the economic documents of the confiscated records of the German Foreign Office on deposit in the National Archives. Shortly thereafter a grant of federal funds administered by the Commonwealth was obtained through the Boston Public Library which provided large-size microfilm reader printers for each library. Next the Boston Public Library scheduled stops of its delivery truck, thus facilitating loans between the libraries,” continued Watkins.
BLC also maintained its offices at BPL’s Central Library in Copley Square from 1976 until 2010.
For David Leonard, BPL President, BLC membership positions BPL to share, exchange, and partner with institutions across the northeastern United States.
“At a time when sharing trusted information is of paramount importance, we are so pleased to re-join the BLC,” says Leonard. “Sharing information, resources, and expertise with other members will increase our value to the diverse communities we serve; we also look forward to sharing our unique set of experiences as both an urban public library and an academic research library with our BLC colleagues.”
“Boston Public Library has a vibrant history with the Boston Library Consortium dating back more than 50 years,” added Charlie Barlow, BLC’s Executive Director. “BPL’s distinctive position as both an academic and public library opens new possibilities for the consortium to explore in the years ahead.”
Efforts are underway to support BPL’s implementation of BLC’s consortial resource sharing systems at the Central Library in Copley Square.