About NYPL Digital Archives

The Digital Archives program facilitates the management of all born-digital portions of archival acquisitions by the 11 curatorial units of the NYPL Research Libraries. The program is part of the Digital Preservation unit. It works closely with Archives Unit within the Preservation and Collections Processing division.

Services

The Digital Archives program provides the following services:

  • Site Visits - Assessing the scope of born-digital materials of an archival collection prior to acquisition
  • Accessioning - Providing appropriate transfer methods for digital materials between a donor and the library
  • Transfers - Transferring accessioned digital files to secure storage environment for further analysis, processing, and description
  • Processing - Analyzing the composition of a collection’s digital components as a whole. Supporting archivists in processing the born-digital component of a collection
  • Packaging - Transferring processed born-digital materials to systems for long-term storage and access

The program works with all digital materials from the 1980s to the present day such as floppy diskettes, personal laptops, CDs and DVDs, backup hard drives, network folders, and email accounts.

Staff

Al Rhonemus, Digital Archivist

Consults on assessments of born-digital material before accessioning, transfers digital objects from original media, supports archivists during processing of electronic records, and packages collections for long-term storage and access.

Drey Jonathan, Digital Archivist

Consults on assessments of born-digital material before accessioning, transfers digital objects from original media, supports archivists during processing of electronic records, and packages collections for long-term storage and access.

Nick Krabbenhoeft, Assistant Director of Digital Preservation

Manages the Digital Archives programs, develops workflows in response to changing collecting needs, and oversees long-term management of born-digital materials.

Former Staff

The following people contributed to the NYPL Digital Archives program.

  • Caroline Gil Rodríguez
  • Susan Malsbury
  • Don Mennerich

Fellows

The following people completed fellowships in the Digital Archives program.

  • Paris McGarry - Pratt Fellow 2021
  • Jack O’Malley - Pratt Fellow 2021
  • Michelle Rothrock - Pratt Fellow 2020
  • Bernadette Patino - Pratt Fellow 2019
  • Kasey Calnan - Pratt Fellow 2018
  • Anne Boissonault - Pratt Fellow 2017

Program History

The Digital Archives program began in 2011. Major collections include the Timothy Leary papers, the Merce Cunningham papers, and the Lou Reed papers (winner of SAA’s 2019 CFW Coker Award).