Associates of the Boston Public Library

The Associates of the Boston Public Library is an independent, nonprofit organization dedicated to conserving and digitizing the Boston Public Library’s special collections of rare books, manuscripts, and other items of significant historic interest. The Associates is working to ensure continued public access to these irreplaceable treasures by underwriting their conservation, cataloging, digitization, and exhibition. Through these efforts, the Associates is helping the Boston Public Library to achieve its fundamental mission of providing the highest level of free educational resources to the citizens of the Commonwealth, as well as preserving knowledge, culture, and history for the benefit of all. The Associates oversees the David McCullough Conservation Fund and the William O. Taylor Fund, both of which are making extraordinary conservation projects possible.

Since its founding in 1972, the Associates has been the creator and underwriter of a wide array of programs, designed to heighten public awareness of the Boston Public Library's vast free, educational resources. These programs have included Literary Lights (an annual black tie dinner honoring outstanding New England authors); Literary Lights for Children (a program at which four distinguished children's authors tell Boston school children why and how they became writers); a Hundred-Year Retroactive Book Award competition; art and architecture tours; readings; lectures; curatorial evenings designed to enhance public awareness of the Library's holdings; exhibitions; musical performances; and discussions of current events featuring key decision makers. In addition, the Associates sponsors a Children’s Writer-in-Residence program annually.