Book Conservator (Specialist III)

Overview For more than 125 years, The New York Public Library (NYPL) has been an essential provider of books, information, ideas, and education. With collections numbering more than 56 million items and serving more than 16 million patrons in person each year and millions more online, NYPL’s reach is both local and global. Our mission is to inspire lifelong learning, advance knowledge, and strengthen our communities.

At our world-class research centers–including the Humanities and Social Sciences Research Library at the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, the Library for the Performing Arts, and the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture–expert staff facilitate the work of our diverse communities, offering inspiring reading rooms, exhibitions, fellowships, and a dynamic range of research services. Their work is supported by dedicated staff on the Collections and Research Services teams. We are proud to be the most public and widely used research library in the world.

The Book Conservator position is located in the Library’s Conservation Division and is part of a team of conservation staff specializing in bound, flat, or photographic materials. The Division supports the collections of NYPL’s three research centers and provides conservation assessment, treatment, research, and training to advance the preservation of the collections and meet the conservation needs of the Library’s active acquisitions, exhibition, loan, and digitization programs. This position focuses especially on the paper-based collections – including manuscripts and archives, books, scrapbooks, ephemera, posters, and other works on paper – of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, one of NYPL’s three dedicated research centers. Founded in 1925 and named a National Historic Landmark in 2017, the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture is one of the world’s leading cultural institutions devoted to the collection, preservation, and interpretation of materials focused on African American, African, and African Diaspora experiences.

Conservation at NYPL consists of two units -- the Goldsmith Conservation Lab and Collections Care, both located at the Library Services Center in Long Island City, Queens -- headed by the Shelby White and Leon Levy Associate Director of Conservation. Conservation at NYPL is a unit of Preservation under Collections and Research Services.

Responsibilities

• Performs multi-item (batch) and single-item conservation assessment, treatment, and research in accordance with the AIC Code of Ethics and Guidelines for Practice
• Collaborates with colleagues both within and beyond Conservation to achieve the preservation of the collections, especially in the context of exhibitions at the Schomburg Center and the Library’s commitment to access
• Maintains a regular on-site visiting schedule at the Schomburg Center to help determine conservation priorities and meet basic book and paper needs, while minimizing unnecessary movement of collections; as appropriate, coordinates the regular visiting schedule with the monthly Office Hours of the Senior Photograph Conservator and the Collections Care Manager
• Contributes to the development and refinement of the lab’s processes, assets, and capabilities
• Participates in the training of conservation interns and technicians
• Promotes professional and public community participation in preservation through outreach
• Performs other related duties as assigned