MESSAGE FROM EILEEN M. FLANNELLY, Deputy Commissioner

Welcome to the website for the Department of Records & Information Services.

The Department, through its unique Library, is the portal to both historical and contemporary information concerning city government. The Records Management Division provides for and facilitates the professional administration, storage, and retrieval of the working records of dozens of city agencies, the courts, and district attorneys. And our renowned Municipal Archives preserves and provides public access to the records of the city’s government throughout its four-hundred year history. The wealth of documentation, including photographs, moving images, sound recordings, maps, architectural drawings, ledgers, and office records serve as the collective memory of the nation’s largest city.

I am pleased to note some of our most important accomplishments. Beginning in 2003, we provided free public access to all reports and publications issued by New York City government agencies, via our website. We automated the Library catalog, and it too is now easily searchable on the website. Also beginning in 2003, we implemented the e-payments system providing on-line ordering convenience to our patrons who purchase products and services.

During 2008 and 2009, with special funding from Mayor Bloomberg, we inventoried the entire archive of records from the administration of former Mayor David N. Dinkins, over 2,000 cubic feet, and preserved nearly 1,000,000 documents on microfilm. I am especially excited to report our advancements in providing access to our extraordinary photograph collection. In the last three years we have cataloged 75,000 pictures and have digitized more than 800,000 images, including the city-wide 1980s “tax” photograph collection. Within a few months we expect to announce that patrons can access and search the picture collections, and purchase reproductions, via our website.

In our records division, we employed a special team to clear a massive back-log of 50,000 cubic feet of obsolete records. They identified, labeled, and entered into the records tracking system more than 160,000 items.

Looking ahead, we will continue to help our client agencies achieve cost savings through improved records management practices. Preserving the treasures of the Municipal Archives and City Hall Library collections and making them accessible to the public is an on-going challenge that we look forward to meeting with the latest technologies and the hard-work of our talented staff.

I invite you to visit us in our beautiful landmark headquarters building at 31 Chambers Street. Please bookmark our site and check back often.

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