Introduction

Two public library collections, readily accessible through the Digital Public Library of America (DPLA) were chosen for review and comparison. The Maps digital collection at the Denver Public Library (DPL) was chosen for its historical significance to the state of Colorado and the two items chosen from this collection are very representative of the breadth and depth of the maps in the collection, which are sorted into subcategories in the collection itself. The Seattle Historical Photograph Collection at the Seattle Public Library (SPL) was chosen for its strong visual representation of Seattle’s history, and notably its social history, and for its relevance to the history of Seattle as well as for my personal interest. While maps and photographs are both visual media, the types of visual media included in each collection are different and the decision was made to compare these collections due in large part to a desire to compare image scanning quality of two different visual media: Printed and/or hand-drawn maps and photographic prints, whose quality may be limited by the photographic techniques and materials available to the photographer at the time.

History

In Denver, libraries were founded as early as 1886, and in 1910, the city opened its Central Library, funded by Andrew Carnegie. Since then, the Denver Public Library’s physical collections have included special collections on the history of Colorado and Denver, covering everything from geology to commerce. The DPL’s digital collections were begun in 1995 with the opening of the Michael Graves addition to the Burnham Hoyt building in downtown Denver. Digitization efforts were significant through 2015 and continue to this day as the DPL embraces new digitization technologies.

In Seattle, the first public library opened in 1891, with its first permanent home established at the Yesler Mansion shortly thereafter. This building was destroyed by fire in 1901, leading the city to build the Central Library Carnegie branch with a financial gift from Andrew Carnegie. This branch opened in 1906 and the Seattle Public Library expanded across Seattle with neighborhood branches opening throughout the 20th century. In 1995, the SPL launched its first website after shifting to a computer-based catalog system in 1988, and began digitizing collections, an effort that continues and adapts to this day as new technology becomes available. Special Collections and Special Collections Online at SPL focus on Seattle history from the earliest days to the present and beyond, and the SPL actively seeks items from community members to expand their digital collections.

References

Denver Public Library. (2023). The history of the Denver Public Library. https://history.denverlibrary.org/history-denver-public-library

Seattle Public Library. (2023). Our history. https://www.spl.org/about-us/the-organization/our-history

Collection policy

At the Denver Public Library, digital collections are drawn from special collections including the Western History and Genealogy Department and the Blair-Caldwell African American Research Library. Items are chosen based on the collection criteria, which is documenting and preserving the people, events, and places that shaped the Western United States and specifically Colorado. New items that meet the collection criteria are digitized as needed and continually added to the digital collections through the present day and the DPL states that this effort will continue into the future.

At the Seattle Public Library , Special Collections Online (digital collections) are selected from across the SPL’s Special Collections and digitized if they are born-physical or included in Special Collections Online if they are born-digital. SPL’s criteria for their Special Collections and Special Collections Online are that the items must exist to document Seattle history from its founding to the present day and the SPL states that this effort will continue into the future, actively soliciting items from the public.

References

Denver Public Library. (2023). About the digital collections. https://digital.denverlibrary.org/digital/about

Seattle Public Library. (2023). Special collections. https://www.spl.org/programs-and-services/arts-and-culture/special-collections

Seattle Public Library. (2023). Special collections online. https://cdm16118.contentdm.oclc.org/

Quality of images

The digitized representations of the maps chosen for the Maps digital collection at the Denver Public Library are high-resolution .JPG scan files with very good clarity. The digital images include the entire item and, in some cases, the mounting board for the item, and the images are properly exposed, with excellent contrast and clarity and in the case of color images, very good color quality with minimal if any distortion. When zoomed in to the tightest level, some minor digital artifacts such as pixelization and ghosting are visible, likely due to the .JPG format. Also when zoomed in, artifacts from the analog representations such as paper folds, errant print and ink marks, and even the mounting adhesive or tape are visible, further indicating high-quality scans. Metadata is mostly complete for each of the two items reviewed with notable exceptions: Neither of them have any information on the scanning history and the technology used, and while both items do have discrete, direct links via an OCLC.org content DM identifier, there is no metadata field to indicate a permanent identifier. The items’ analog representations’ call numbers are included in metadata, as is a clear statement on rights and use. No Library of Congress subject headings are included, nor is the metadata at the level of detail seen in the Seattle Public Library collection.

The digitized representations of the photographic prints chosen for the Seattle Historical Photograph Collection at the Seattle Public Library are high-resolution .JPG files that have been converted from the original, very high resolution .TIF scanned files. As a result, image quality is very good to excellent with some expected digital artifacts such as pixelization and ghosting likely resulting from the conversion to .JPG format. Zooming in to the closest level of the scan shows things like folds, staining, mounting adhesive and tape residue, and fine photographic detail from the original, analog print representation. The metadata for each of the two items studied is very thorough and includes all expected descriptive information, notes on known copyright and fair use, and, notably, a field including clear information on the digitization process and history for each item. Each item has a digital identifier and includes metadata for Library of Congress subject headings; geographic location including coordinates, street address, and latitude and longitude of the item photographed; and the decade the analog representation was created (e.g., 191u) to aid in finding the item online.

Ease of access

The Denver Public Library states that they strive to make their digital collections including Maps as available as possible to the public, including downloads, and this access is provided by the library under licensing agreements as indicated by the user and agreed by the DPL. Commercial use and download of digital items must be specifically arranged with the DPL and this use is subject to a fee. The items in DPL’s digital collections are easy to access directly from the DPL’s main website by choosing digital collections in the search bar’s drop-down menu at the top of the page or by scrolling to the bottom of the page and clicking on digital collections under the Special Collections header. The main digital collections page is clear and easy to navigate and clicking on any of the collection headers or suggested subjects takes the user to a faceted search page for exploring digital collections. The DPL’s contributions to the DPLA are equally easy to find by searching on Denver Public Library and then using the resulting faceted search page to choose Denver Public Library as the contributing institution. The DPL has contributed 107,318 digital items to the DPLA through various partners and notably through the Plains to Peaks Collective. A Google search on Denver Public Library digital collections takes the user directly to the DPL Digital Collections page and also lists several of the individual collections as links as well as research tools at the DPL.

The Seattle Public Library digital collections are easy to find in the DPLA by searching on Seattle Public Library and narrowing the results to Contributing Institution: Seattle Public Library with no other facets selected. This returns the 13,056 items contributed by the SPL to the DPLA across partners and notably from Northwest Digital Heritage. Searching for and finding the Seattle Public Library’s Special Collections Online (digital collections) page is less straightforward. From the main SPL website, users can search for more or less anything in the SPL’s website, but a search on digital collections does not bring up an internal link to the SPL’s Special Collections Online page, although searching on an individual collection name does bring up that collection. On the SPL’s homepage, users can scroll down to a features section that currently includes a link to Special Collections which takes users specifically to the Helix newspaper digital collection. From this collection page, the most expedient way to access Special Collections Online as a whole is to then click on the Special Collections Online logo in the upper left corner of the page, which takes the user to the SPL’s Special Collections Online page where, in this case, users can look through the list (with representative thumbnail images) at the bottom for the Seattle Historical Photograph Collection. In Google, a search on Seattle Public Library digital collections takes the user directly to the Special Collections Online main page, and searching on a specific, known SPL collection name in Google takes the user directly to that page at the SPL site as well as the DPLA site if that collection has items in the DPLA aggregator.

References

Denver Public Library. (2023). About the digital collections. https://digital.denverlibrary.org/digital/about

Seattle Public Library. (2023). Special collections. https://www.spl.org/programs-and-services/arts-and-culture/special-collections

Seattle Public Library. (2023). Special collections online. https://cdm16118.contentdm.oclc.org/

Other meaningful differences between Maps and the Seattle Historical Photograph Collection

The notable and meaningful differences between the two collections lie in volume, ease of access, and metadata, as well as some differences in scan quality. The Denver Public Library’s digital collections and their Maps collection within that are easy to find through a number of routes (DPL website, DPLA, and Google) and their stated commitment to making their digital collections as accessible to the public as possible while maintaining copyright restrictions as required is underlined by this ease of access. Additionally, the DPL has contributed over 107,000 items to the DPLA aggregator through its partner collectives. The two items studied in the DPL’s digital collections for discussion here meet the criteria for inclusion in the DPL’s collections by documenting the people, places, and events that have shaped Colorado and Western United States history. Their metadata is less complete than the Seattle Public Library’s digital collection metadata, and their scans start as high resolution .JPG rather than .TIF, meaning that they are a slightly lower scan quality than those at the SPL. There is one notable exception to this: The DPL’s collection of Sanborn Insurance Maps, which were scanned at the University of Colorado – Boulder as high resolution .TIF files and which on close examination show a level of detail that includes pen and pencil scratches and ink bleed for hand-colored maps. Because those items are borrowed from an academic library, they were not selected for inclusion here.

The Seattle Public Library’s Special Collections Online (digital collections) and the Seattle Historical Photograph Collection within that are easy to find at the DPLA website and relatively easy to find through Google, but are surprisingly difficult to find through the Seattle Public Library itself. Additionally, once the user finds the Special Collections Online web page, they are asked to choose from a list of collections, after which they are able to search for items, adding a step to the search process over the Denver Public Library’s Digital Collections toggle – Enter search term step which leads first to the main Digital Collections page and then directly to a faceted search page. The SPL has contributed just under 10% of the number of items contributed by the DPL to the DPLA at about 13,000 items overall in the aggregator through, notably, the Northwest Digital heritage partner collective. Having said this, these roughly 13,000 items are very easy to find in the DPLA. An examination of, first, the scan quality, which shows these digital files to be of excellent quality; and second, the metadata field for each item covering scanning history and process brings forward an important and obvious difference in the metadata of these digital files over the metadata of the DPL’s digital files: Inclusion of digital scanning history and process. This metadata field also consistently shows that the SPL digital files originate as very high-resolution .TIF files before being converted to .JPG. Regarding metadata, the SPL Seattle Historical Photograph Collection has much more thorough metadata overall and includes several digital finding aids such as “191u,” as an example, for the decade the analog representation was created.

For variety, volume, and sheer ease of access and use, the Maps collection at the Denver Public Library has the edge, but for scan quality and completeness of metadata, including the finer points of scanning technology and copyright, the Seattle Historical Photograph Collection at the Seattle Public Library has the edge. Having said this, any user might become frustrated trying to find any part of the SPL’s Special Collections Online through the SPL website.

References

Denver Public Library. (2023). Maps. Accessed at https://digital.denverlibrary.org/digital/search/searchterm/maps 

Seattle Public Library. (2023). Seattle Historical Photograph Collection. Accessed at https://cdm16118.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p15015coll4 

Why these two sites were selected and what has been learned

These two collections were chosen out of a combination of interest in the included items and topics and location. I live in Colorado and have for the last 26 years and upon reflection, I realize that I do not know as much as I should about the long and rich history of the area because I did not go to school here and did not have the opportunity to learn about it when many young people do: elementary school. Maps have always been fascinating to me and while the Sanborn Insurance Maps, housed in collaboration with the University of Colorado, were fascinating and very high resolution, they are primarily located at an academic library and that is outside the scope of this project. I love railroading and I love maps, so the Denver Public Library’s Maps collection and the railroad map I chose was a natural choice. As for the Seattle Public Library, I went to college in Washington and have both visited Seattle many times and have several good friends who live there to this day. The city itself and the greater Puget Sound area have a fascinating and lengthy history, dating back thousands of years before European-American settlement, and I wanted to know more. I am a photographer by training and have had a fascination with historical photography since childhood, when I was intrigued by the stereoscopic photo collection at my local public library in Montana. Therefore, the Seattle Historical Photograph Collection was a natural choice for me. Ultimately, I was comparing two types of digital images: Scanned maps and scanned photographic prints, but I would argue that one of them is created to convey concrete information (maps) and one of them is created to convey artistic and sometimes subjective information, even as it frequently documents important points in history (photography). Also, maps change over time as more information is acquired, much like photography changes over time as subjects change and photographic techniques and materials change and develop.

Public library collections are the heart and soul of digital collections in the United States and likely beyond. Two things set public library collections apart: Local interest that highlights the incredible diversity and rich culture of this country and, crucially, access. Many collections at academic libraries, while thorough and detailed, are not accessible to the general public. Having digital collections available at local libraries serves to enrich the knowledge of the community in which they are located, and, through aggregators like the DPLA, the knowledge of the entire country and potentially the world. While collections of primarily local interest may not seem on the surface to be valuable to a wider audience, learning about our rich and diverse cultural heritage is of tremendous value to any library patron and furthermore offers detailed research and learning opportunities that span that cultural heritage in ways not available before the advent of digital collections and online aggregators. In short, public library digital collections and their availability through outlets such as the DPLA and Google have the potential to increase our knowledge about our own country and the people, events, and places that have shaped that heritage in ways not truly possible until the last 25 or so years. Patrons used to searching Google for information may find searching aggregators challenging and frustrating, and may even find searching a given library’s digital collections via that library’s website frustrating, but solid user experience design principles and knowledgeable and helpful staff can help with that. I admit that, thinking and experimenting as a member of the public and not as an information professional, using aggregators was frustrating when what I really wanted to do was enter a question into Google, but aggregators and the digital collections they make widely accessible are presenting users with incredibly reliable and reputable information on a huge number of topics and are therefore necessary. Knowing where to search for individual collections and items, sometimes by name, is a huge task, and while aggregators do not “work” the way Google does, in users’ experience and opinion, they offer one-stop access to individual collections across the country and the world and a small amount of instruction on their functionality and search methods goes a long way. I can only hope that more public libraries, from the smallest local library to the largest urban library systems continue to make their collections available digitally.

References

Cleveland Public Library. (2015). Faces of Cleveland: Janet Banks [Video]. YouTube. Accessed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8swq8CqBWo

Cleveland Public Library. (2015). Faces of Cleveland: Ulysses Glenn and Eastside Daily News [Video]. YouTube. Accessed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ow5SR90G-Dc

Digital Public Library of America (DPLA). (2014). The Digital Public Library of America: An introduction [Video]. YouTube. Accessed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0ngLBa4ewM

Digital Public Library of America (DPLA). (2023). Frequently asked questions. https://dp.la/about/frequently-asked-questions

Digital Public Library of America (DPLA). (2023). Northwest Digital Heritage [Online digital aggregator collection]. Accessed at https://dp.la/search?partner=%22Northwest+Digital+Heritage%22

Digital Public Library of America (DPLA). (2023). Plains to Peaks Collective  [Online digital aggregator collection]. Accessed at https://dp.la/search?partner=%22Plains%20to%20Peaks%20Collective%22

Shaw, M. K. (2016). Chapter 3: Primary sources and digital collections. In Library Technology and Digital Resources: An Introduction for Support Staff, pp. 33-42. Rowman & Littlefield.

Smith, C. (2023). Introduction to public library collections [Online lecture and slides]. Kent State University. Accessed at https://kent.instructure.com/courses/54087/pages/watch-introduction-to-public-library-collections?module_item_id=2664614