Building a modern data capability inside one of the world's most trusted institutions without compromising privacy, governance, or public trust.

Institutional Context

The New York Public Library is one of the world's most respected cultural and civic institutions, serving millions of patrons across physical branches, digital platforms, and research services.

Through its vast and unique collection of books, research, and unique historical items, NYPL significantly contributes to:

• Public access and education
• Research excellence
• Deep commitments to privacy and trust
• Accountability to diverse public and institutional stakeholders

The Strategic Question

As NYPL's services, programs, and digital engagement continued to expand, leadership recognized that data could better support strategic planning, impact measurement, and operational decision-making.

Any data initiative needed to meet an exceptionally high bar:

• Privacy-first by design
• Grounded in real staff needs, not technology assumptions
• Aligned to NYPL's mission and public responsibilities
• Governance-led, not technology-led

Crawford McMillan's Role

Crawford McMillan has partnered with NYPL across three phases of a data transformation program, providing strategic advisory, program leadership, and technical delivery.

• Conducted stakeholder research spanning 40-50 interviews across every major function, producing a comprehensive, cross-functional map of data needs across the institution
• Evaluated, shortlisted, and negotiated procurement for three enterprise platforms (data warehouse, governance tooling, business intelligence), structuring vendor evaluation and procurement processes across data warehouse, governance, and BI tools, accelerating decision-making and enabling informed cost comparisons
• Created institution-wide recognition of data governance as an essential foundation for the library's data transformation strategy.
• Built a framework for data governance and established a practice for it within NYPL's data transformation team.
• Accelerated the development of NYPL's internal data capability, supporting the maturation of NYPL's internal data capability, including the expansion of the data team and foundational skills, architecture, and governance

What Made This Engagement Distinctive

Human-centered approach: Every technical decision was grounded in staff needs and the impact on patrons. The team conducted extensive stakeholder research before building anything, ensuring the data platform serves real operational questions rather than theoretical capability.

Privacy as architecture, not afterthought: NYPL's commitments to patron privacy were treated as design constraints embedded in the data architecture, governance model, and access controls from day one.

Governance that works in practice: Rather than delivering a governance framework as a document, the team implemented governance through real use cases, testing stewardship roles, access workflows, and data standards against actual staff interaction.

Institutional sensitivity: The work respected NYPL's culture and public accountability while still driving meaningful progress on pace and clarity in decision-making.

Strategic Significance

This engagement has helped NYPL:

• Approach data as a long-term institutional capability
• Ensure that innovation remains consistent with public trust
• Build the foundation for insight-driven decision-making without compromising privacy or values
• Move from assessment through planning into tangible delivery within twelve months
• ~25 use cases identified, structured, and being prioritized
• Platform evaluation narrowed from open field to defined direction (Snowflake), supported by proof-of-concept
• 4 governance vendors evaluated, narrowed to 2 finalists, supported by proof-of-concept
• Procurement-ready requirements delivered across data warehouse, governance, and BI
• NYPL's internal data team doubled during the engagement
• At the conclusion of this phase, NYPL is no longer in an exploratory stage—it is executing.