The Beinecke Library 2022-2023 Annual Report, including statistics and selected recent acquisitions, can be read and downloaded here:
Beinecke Library 2022-23 Annual Report
Yale Library’s vast and diverse special collections are among Yale’s most distinctive assets. Access to these rare books, manuscripts, archives, maps, photographs, ephemera, recordings, born-digital content, and more distinguish Yale’s educational programs in the humanities. Researchers at Yale and from around the world depend on the cultural heritage we preserve as the foundation for their research to discover and create new knowledge.
The Beinecke Library is the largest special collections repository at Yale, but six other special collections repositories have also collected and made accessible significant unique and rare collections. Some units—Arts, Divinity, Medical Historical, and Music—have supported specific disciplines; others—the Lewis Walpole Library, and Manuscripts and Archives—have multi-disciplinary collections with a broad range of collecting areas. The interconnectedness of these collections is a strength.
To ensure that Yale Library may continue to innovate and lead in providing access to and promoting these unique resources for the largest possible audience, the Beinecke Library reorganized effective July 1, 2022, and its role within Yale Library expanded. Beinecke Library now serves in a leadership role for all Yale Library’s special collections and provides services and coordination to support essential stewardship activities. To make this expansion possible, the Beinecke Library and the Manuscripts and Archives repository integrated its staff, services, and collections on July 1, 2022.
As part of this reorganization, Beinecke Library has also strengthened connections with several critical partners who support the work of special collections at Yale Library, notably Library IT and Preservation and Conservation Services.
The Beinecke Library is now organized into five departments: Collections, Research, and Education; Community Engagement; Digital Special Collections and Access; Public Services, Operations, and University Archives; and Special Collections Technical Services. Michelle Light, Director of the Beinecke Library and Associate University Librarian for Special Collections, together with Beinecke’s new department directors, developed a strategic plan to guide the reorganization and the path forward for the reimagined Beinecke Library. This report offers selected examples of progress in the first year toward the new organization’s goals in addition to statistics traditionally reported annually.