The New York Public Library's Digital Gallery Chosen One of 50 Coolest Websites 2005 by Time Magazine

The New York Public Library's online treasury of more than 360,000 digital images has been chosen as one of the "50 Coolest Websites 2005" by Time magazine. The Digital Gallery's online collection is praised for its free access and downloads, in addition to the site's easy usability. The "My Digital" page, which saves and references user favorites, is also highlighted as one of the site's best features. "Lose yourself in this vast collection..." says Time . The NYPL Digital Gallery can be found at http://digitalgallery.nypl.org.

NYPL's Digital Gallery was also recently chosen by Netscape as "Cool Site of the Day!" in the "Gadgets & Tech" section of its website. "There's a category for everyone to appreciate and enjoy, no matter what your tastes are," stated the review. Recent coverage in The New York Times and The Christian Science Monitor was also favorable. "The Public Library's digital gallery is lovely, dark and deep. Quite eccentric too," wrote The New York Times' Sarah Boxer. "Once again the web makes accessible to millions artifacts that previously were only available to a relative handful, and with the strengths of this production, it's not even remotely surprising that the Library was forced to enhance the site's serving capacity," wrote Jim Regan for The Christian Science Monitor.

The NYPL Digital Gallery offers thousands of unique images in the form of prints, illustrated manuscripts, photographs, maps, postcards, cigarette cards, menus, posters, and other visual materials; it provides researchers anywhere in the world with around the clock access to an unparalleled collection of free images drawn from The New York Public Library's Research Libraries. Once materials are located, they can be viewed in three different sizes and may be downloaded free of charge.

The Digital Gallery was only launched in March 2005, but it was included by Time among other long established innovators in the Web world. The New York Public Library, the only public institution to have its website honored, joins the world's online community center Craig's List; the Bible of "geek" culture BoingBoing.net; the breakthrough photo sharing site Flickr; and "the urban travel guide" Gridskipper in being recognized as one of the coolest websites. The entire list can be found on the magazine's website.

About The New York Public Library
The New York Public Library was created in 1895 with the consolidation of the private libraries of John Jacob Astor and James Lenox with the Samuel Jones Tilden Trust. The Library provides free and open access to its physical and electronic collections and information, as well as to its services. It comprises four research centers - the Humanities and Social Sciences Library; The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts; the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture; and the Science, Industry and Business Library - and 85 Branch Libraries in Manhattan, Staten Island, and the Bronx. Research and circulating collections combined total more than 50 million items, including materials for the visually impaired. In addition, each year the Library presents thousands of exhibitions and public programs, which include classes in technology, literacy, and English as a second language. The New York Public Library serves some 13 million patrons who come through its doors annually and another 13 million users internationally, who access collections and services through the NYPL website, www.nypl.org.

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Contact: Gayle Snible,  212.704.8600

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