Collections Management Division
Purpose
The Collections Management Division (CMD) operates the Library’s storage facilities and inventory control systems. These systems and facilities keep the collections safe and make them available for the Library's users.
CMD has custodial responsibility for over 25 million items general collections items and works with every Library division to plan and provide storage and inventory management services. CMD collaborates with offices across the Library, including Integrated Support Services, Security and Emergency Preparedness, and the US Copyright Office. CMD also works closely with the Architect of the Capitol on the planning, construction, and maintenance of collections management facilities.
Within the Preservation Directorate, CMD works closely with the Conservation Division on maintaining the collections in good condition and ensuring that collection storage areas are operating to requirements. Preservation Research and Testing Division and CMD collaborate to ensure supplies and materials used in construction projects and collections processing meet preservation standards. Preservation Services Division (PSD) and CMD both operate services at large scale, with intersecting workflows related to library binding and other preservation services, and PSD maintains and develops key management information systems to support CMD’s operations.
CMD by the Numbers
- Manages more than 25 million items in the General Collection.
- Tracks over 8.5 million items in preservation storage facilities.
- Fulfills an average of 350 retrieval requests per day.
- Processes approximately 200,000 new collection items each year.
- Transfers over 300,000 items into preservation storage each year.
- All accomplished with 89 staff members.
Services
Collections Retrieval and Distribution
CMD staff operate the facilities, materials handling equipment, and management information systems that enable the Library’s collections to reach the various locations where they are used by patrons or processed by Library staff. CMD performs this work in each of the Capitol Hill facilities —the Thomas Jefferson Building, the John Adams Building, and the James Madison Memorial Building—and at the Library’s Cabin Branch Interim Storage Facility and Ft. Meade Preservation Repository in Maryland. CMD is in the early stages of market research and process analysis to apply and adapt technology and methodologies from the broader logistics industry to the library sector.
Circulation and Delivery Services
CMD serves as the custodial Division for the Library General Collections and is the primary responsibility center for circulation of all the Library’s collections. CMD creates and reviews the inventory records required to put collections into secure storage at Ft. Meade and performs the logistics functions of transportation and storage of those materials.
When collections circulate within the Library for business purposes, Library telework, or to external parties, CMD maintains chain-of-custody by linking items to valid user accounts and issuing any required property passes. This includes operation of circulation service points for designated users to receive collections and passes, return of items, and consulting with staff on issues related to these functions. In support of this work, CMD staff are engaged in several ongoing projects to create digital inventory records and improve the inventory control methods for the collections.
Collections Storage Planning and Allocation
The Library’s collections of over 172 million physical items exist in every format that has been used to record and transmit knowledge and creativity, from microforms and manuscripts to photographs and films, books and scrolls, posters, records, discs, and more, including at least one printing press. CMD is the Library’s center of expertise and operational backbone for the program to store these collections in conditions that ensure their safety, security, and ongoing accessibility. This includes work with the Architect of the Capitol (AOC) to design and build out the preservation facilities at Ft. Meade and, with AOC and other Library offices, to continually optimize storage on Capitol Hill.
CMD Organizational Chart
Contacts
Collections Management Division
Matthew Martin, Acting Chief
[email protected]
