When you decide how you would like to transport your materials to the Boston Public Library, we will give you a pick-up or drop-off date based on our ability to store and digitize the material in a timely fashion.

Once a date has been set, the material should be packed in travel-safe, human-liftable boxes and the boxes should be prepared prior to the arrival of whomever is picking up the materials. For books, the type of box that often holds reams of printer paper is a good size (nothing larger). If you are transporting a large number of small, archival boxes, placing a few of them inside a larger box facilitates the transportation process.

If you choose to have BPL staff collect your materials, most often the pick-up will be performed by professional librarians in an SUV. The librarians have experience handling rare materials and will endeavor to ensure the safety of your materials during the transportation process. They are not, however, professional movers. Packing materials too heavily or too insecurely represents a risk to the health of the librarians and the safety of the materials. The BPL reserves the right to refuse to transport any materials that have not been sufficiently packed.

If you choose to have BPL staff collect your materials, we also reserve the right to refuse transport due to signs of extensive fragility, disrepair, volatility, instability, mold, infestation, or other conditions that may adversely affect the aforementioned materials, other materials, or the BPL staff and/or equipment during transportation or digitization.

Transporting Materials to the Boston Public Library for digitization

When the digital lab is ready to accept custody of your materials, it is time to decide how to transport your materials to the library.

There are three ways to transport the materials:

1. Hire professional shippers to transport the materials to the BPL. We recommend this method if the collections are particularly large and/or physically uniform and stable. Bound materials usually are good candidates for shipping unless they are particularly rare and fragile. If you would like to hire shippers we recommend W. B. Meyer. We have used them in the past and they have experience in transporting materials for libraries and archives. For more information about their services, visit the Meyer website.
2. Bring the materials to the BPL yourself. This method is recommended for those libraries digitizing materials that are particularly fragile or valuable. The library does not insure the materials we are digitizing. Transportation is the riskiest part of the process and many institutions feel more comfortable moving their own materials.
3. Librarians from the BPL can drive to your institution, pick up your materials, and transport them back to the BPL. This is the most commonly selected and often the most convenient option. However, it is also the slowest, as we generally wait until we have several institutions in the same area of the state and an opening in our schedule to perform the pick up.