NYPL

The New York Public Library Digital Library contains many collections on arts and literature, cities and buildings, culture and society, and much much more. Collections are geared towards public use, meaning anyone with Internet access is an intended audience. They boast “free and open online access to hundreds and thousands of digital images…”. Specifically, I looked at: “America’s National Game:” The Albert G. Spalding Collection of Early Baseball Photographs. Described as:

Over 500 photographs, prints, drawings, caricatures, and printed illustrations from the personal collection of materials related to baseball and other sports gathered by the early baseball player and sporting-goods tycoon A. G. Spalding. This collection includes 19th-century studio portraits of players and teams of the day, rare images, photographs, and original drawings.

Photographs are provided in high quality scans, supplying both front and back digital scans. Users are also able to add selected items to a list, enabling one to create their own collection of preferred items. Additionally, the library sells prints of all items, as they are in the public domain, and they offer printer-friendly versions of digital scans. Digital scans are coupled with comprehensive metadata: subject(s), physical description, medium, notes, collection guide, creator, etc.

Here is an example of a digital scan:

Overall, the website is easy to use and extremely user-friendly. They even have a preview for their upcoming new look. Their About Us page offers great detail into their project history, goals, and digitization efforts. Of particular relevance to this class they detail the resolutions and separate scannings done for each item.