Claire Merwin

Claire Merwin supports the Contracts Services office at the Library of Congress, where she facilitates the procurement of mission-critical support services essential to the preservation and digital stewardship of the nation’s cultural heritage. While her formal title is not listed, her work centers on managing non-IT service contracts that sustain the operational infrastructure enabling large-scale digitization, metadata management, and public access to archival collections. She handles acquisitions for specialized support services, including facility maintenance, training, and accessibility-related functions, ensuring alignment with the Library’s mandate to modernize its technological and physical environments while upholding accessibility standards. Merwin maintains consistent relationships with a select group of contractors including Clovernook Center for the Blind & Visually Impaired, Accessibility Services Inc., and the University of Washington, reflecting a preference for organizations with deep expertise in accessibility, cultural preservation, and institutional collaboration. These partnerships often involve long-term, performance-based agreements for services that require niche technical knowledge, particularly in adaptive technologies and archival support systems. Her contracting approach emphasizes trust, institutional alignment, and service quality over volume, fostering stable vendor relationships rooted in mission compatibility rather than competitive bidding alone. Her procurement portfolio shows no use of socioeconomic set-asides, with 100% of awards issued under full and open competition. This reflects a strategic focus on selecting the most qualified providers based on technical capability and institutional fit, rather than socioeconomic criteria. While small business participation is not formally prioritized, several of her contractors are small or specialized entities with unique expertise in serving cultural and accessibility-focused missions. Her primary NAICS focus areas include janitorial services, pest control, commercial machinery maintenance, and professional training—reflecting a broad but intentional need to sustain the physical and operational environments of the Library’s preservation facilities. She procures services that ensure the safe, secure, and accessible functioning of infrastructure supporting digitization labs, archival storage, and public access points, demonstrating expertise in non-IT operational procurement critical to mission continuity.