The New York Public Library's Picture Collection Receives Digitization Grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services

Digitization of 30,000 Images to Create an On-Line Picture Collection

New York, October 16, 2000 -- The Branch Libraries of The New York Public Library have received a Federal Instituteof Museum and Library Services (IMLS) National Leadership Grant of $442,677 to create  an on-line Picture Collection. Out of the 35 libraries that submitted proposals in the "Preservation or Digitization" category, The New York Public Library received the largest award among 12 libraries whose proposals were funded this year. The two-year project will begin in December 2000.

The New York Public Library will use the federal grant, along with matching private funds, to digitize, catalog, and make available on the Internet 30,000 out-of-copyright images from its Picture Collection.

Housed at the Mid-Manhattan Library, the Picture Collection is a huge circulating and reference archive consisting of over five million images ­ illustrations clipped from books, magazines, newspapers, and catalogs, as well as postcards, linecuts, prints, and photographs ­ organized under nearly 12,000 subject headings. Created in 1915 as a modest collection of pictorial materials, The Picture Collection has grown into the largest collection of its kind in any public library system. The Collection is used on-site by over 60,000 visitors annually. Many patrons who use the Collection for research and inspiration are from New York's creative arts communities including artists and designers working  in advertising, fashion, theater, film, and website development as well as teachers and  students.

The images from the Picture Collection that are to be digitized will be selected from some of the most heavily used subject headings: Costume, American History, New York City, African American History and African American Life, Pioneer Life, Exploration, Slavery and Slave Ships, and Personalities.

The New York Public Library will contract with a digital imaging vendor to digitize the 30,000 images and new and existing library staff will create catalog records for the images. The Library plans to provide public programming around the collection and develop collection use guidelines to assist researchers and educators in the use of pictorial materials. The Library will also consult with representatives from the user community as the project progresses.

IMLS is an independent federal grantmaking agency located in Washington, D.C. that fosters leadership, innovation, and a lifetime of learning by supporting museums and libraries.

The New York Public Library offers a wide variety of free programs for adults, young adults, and children at all 85 of its branches, located throughout the Bronx, Manhattan, and Staten Island.  More information on programs.
 

History of The Picture Collection at the New York Public Library

Advancements in printing and photographic technology at the turn of the century created a public demand for visual materials which The New York Public Library met by assembling illustrations from books and  magazines that otherwise would have been sold for scrap paper. Originally an activity of the Cataloguing Division, the Picture Collection was allied with the Children's Division, where the files of illustrations primarily served educators, and then became an independent circulating department in 1914. The earliest picture  collections in libraries had been founded by John Cotton Dana (1856-1929), first in Denver, Colorado, and then in Newark, New Jersey, where he was simultaneously director of the library and the museum. Dana  was also a leading theorist of museum and library management, as well as audience development. His ideas led the NYPL Picture Collection to cultivate its audience among professionals and the educated general  public rather than serve needs which could be met through school libraries or the Board of Education.

The Picture Collection's expanding audience soon encompassed the broad range of modern industries  developing in post-World War I New York ­ commercial art, mass-market publishing, advertising, fashion design, film, theatre, and popular entertainment. After a decade, the rapidly growing collection held 50,000 items and had firmly established itself as a routine resource for these new businesses. Under Romana Javitz's practical and artistically empathetic leadership (1929-1968), it became the Library's main repository for picture research by topical subject. The browsing files are direct sources for researchers while they also serve as visual indexes to original sources for images in copyright. A fluid repository reflecting the ever- shifting nature of popular taste, reacting to trends, and providing images for any conceivable subject matter, the Picture Collection richly complements the diverse collections in the The New York Public Library.

The Picture Collection is now a treasure trove of over five million illustrations clipped from books, magazines, catalogs, and pamphlets, as well as postcards, prints and photographs. Whether for inspiration or documentation, the current patrons of the Picture Collection ­ primarily designers, illustrators, and picture researchers, but also historians, students, and writers, engaged in industries as diverse advertising, interior design, book publishing, theatre, fashion, film, and, now, website development ­ borrow and average of two thousand  pictures per day, half a million annually.

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