Lynette Seelmeyer
Denver Public Library
Link to Denver Public Library homepage
Maps
Link to access point for the Maps digital collection
Link to contrasting Seattle Public Library Seattle Historical Photographs collection page
Embedded Files
Section 1: Introduction to the Denver Public Library Maps digital collection
The digital collections at the Denver Public Library, including the digitized items from the Maps collection, exist to preserve and make available photographs, maps, broadsides, architectural drawings, and other documents specifically from the Western History and Genealogy Department and the Blair-Caldwell African-American Research Library through the Denver Public Library holdings, all with the goal of preserving and chronicling the events that shaped the settlement, growth, and development of the Western United States, the people who drove these changes, and the places where change occurred. Topics included in the wider digital collections at Denver Public Library include Native Americans, pioneers, railroading, mining, maps in several genres, cities and towns in Colorado including Denver itself, the Rocky Mountain News broadsheet newspaper, Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show, the United States Army 10th Mountain Division ski troops and more. New items are digitized and added to the digital collection as items are added to the physical and digital collections to support the overall mission of historical preservation and making digital items available to the public.
According to the Denver Public Library history page, digitization began in earnest shortly before the opening of the Michael Graves addition to the Burnham Hoyt building in downtown Denver in 1995 with the full digitization effort occurring between 1995 and 2015. New items that meet the collection criteria, which is documenting and preserving the people, events, and places that shaped the Western United States and specifically Colorado, are continually added to the digital collections through the present day and this effort will continue into the future.
Denver Public Library states that they strive to make their digital collections as available to the public as possible, including downloads, and this access is provided by the library under licensing agreements indicated by the user and agreed by the library. Commercial use and download of digital items must be specifically arranged with the library and is subject to a fee per item. The Digital Collections page at the Denver Public Library website is easily accessed from the homepage through multiple paths and is also searchable directly from the library's homepage or through the Digital Collections page, either via the search bar or by clicking through to specific collections. Furthermore, many of the items in Denver Public Library's digital collections are available through the Digital Public Library of America and are easily searched through Google.
The images in the Maps digital collection at Denver Public Library are high-resolution .JPG digital files with very good clarity until zoomed in to the tightest level, where some minor digital artifacts and ghosting are visible. Digital scans are of the entire item and are properly exposed, with excellent contrast and color quality. Artifacts from the analog item representations such as paper folds and tears, paper discoloration, errant marks, and even mounting adhesive are visible in the digital scan. Metadata is mostly complete for each item in the collection with notable exceptions including no field for any permanent digital identifier and no field for digital scanning technology used. Items are identified by call number, title, publisher, date published, and so on and a statement on rights and use is included for each item. The direct link to each item is an OCLC.org content DM identifier.
Section 2: Two major representative items from the Maps collection
The Rand-McNally New Railroad Statistical Commercial Map of Colorado, 1910
This digitized 1910 Rand-McNally Railroad Statistical Commercial Map of Colorado .JPG file is a representation of a printed map in the library's collection and includes not only railroad routes through Colorado, but also congressional districts, photos of Colorado landmarks, statistics about the state, and a railroad timetable, all updated for the 1910 edition of the map.
This map is important because it shows the rapid development of railroading in Colorado, why the railroad is used, and where it can be accessed and gives thorough statistical information about Colorado itself that could be used not only by the railroad companies themselves, but also by the people in the state and people wishing to move to the state. It also shows political districts only 34 years after Colorado became a state.
The item is a strong representation of the map collection as a whole because it is a map, but more importantly and relating to the entire digital collection at the Denver Public Library, it is a highly detailed map showing a specific point in Colorado history and the changes that were happening at that time around settlement, travel and transportation, access, business and industry development, and politics.
The Rand-McNally New Statistical Commercial Map of Colorado, 1910 digital file may be found here. It is accessible through the Denver Public Library main page, the Denver Public Library Digital Collections page, the Digital Public Library of America as part of the Plains to Peaks Collective, and is findable through a Google search on the map itself or on "Colorado historical maps public library digital collection," which brings up the Denver Public Library in the results.
Clason's Industrial Map of Colorado, 1905
This digitized 1905 Clason's Industrial Map of Colorado .JPG file is a representation of a printed map in the library's collection and includes information on the topography and natural resources of Colorado 29 years after Colorado achieved statehood. The map includes detailed statistics on the various resources in the state and how industry may continue to develop in the state (with the tagline "watch her grow!" presumably to entice investment in the state).
The item is a strong representation of the map collection as a whole because it is a highly detailed map of industries in Colorado at the end of the time considered to be the "Western Frontier." Its importance in relation to the entire digital collection at the Denver Public Library is that it shows a specific point in Colorado history and the changes that were happening at that time around business and industry development. Furthermore, it could be seen as a potential precursor to the Rand-McNally Railroad Statistical Commercial Map of Colorado, 1910, shown above.
The Clason's Industrial Map of Colorado, 1905 digital file may be found here. It is accessible through the Denver Public Library main page, the Denver Public Library Digital Collections page, the Digital Public Library of America as part of the Plains to Peaks Collective, and is findable through a Google search on the map itself or on "Colorado historical maps public library digital collection," which brings up the Denver Public Library in the search results.
Section 3: Why was this collection selected and how it might be used by the general public?
This collection was selected specifically to explore history local to me, here in Colorado. Railroading in particular is of high interest for me and for my family, so searching for and finding historical maps related to this topic was a priority for this project. Colorado is my adopted state and even though I have lived here for years, I am not fully versed in its history, given that I did not attend school here, either K-12 or university. Speaking personally, I love living in Colorado, so I want to learn much more about its history. The Denver Public Library was chosen specifically because I have been aware for several years of their mission to make their items as accessible as possible to the public, so it did not surprise me to discover that the library began digitization very early after technology was becoming available for that and that they have continued that effort and embrace new and developing technologies for that effort as time passes.
Section 4: How easy or difficult it is to find the Maps collection using DPLA and Google? What does this tell us about the library’s collection policy for the digital collection? What does this tell us about the accessibility of the collection for the general public?
The collection itself was relatively easy to find in both the DPLA and Google. In DPLA, a search on "historical Colorado maps" brings up a list of items that can be narrowed by contributing institution, in this case the Denver Public Library. In one step, all the items indexed from the library in DPLA are available and any of them may be selected to view. Choosing "view original item" takes the user directly to the item itself in the Denver Public Library Digital Collections. Unfortunately, the Denver Public Library Digital Collections and the collection name "Maps" do not show up in the collection list, so narrowing by institution is the easiest and fastest method on DPLA. On Google, a search on "Colorado historical maps public library digital collection" brings up a list of results that includes the Denver Public Library page, from which their digital collections are easily accessed and searched by topic in no more than two steps: Either choosing Digital Collections in the search bar drop-down menu and searching on "maps" or going straight to the digital collections page and clicking on "Maps" which is a topic area and takes the user directly to a faceted search page and not a list of map collections.
The ease of finding the collections in Google and the collection and items in DPLA underlines Denver Public Library's stated commitment to making their digital collections as available to the public as possible. The library's own history page states that digitization efforts began shortly before the renovated downtown branch opened in 1995 and continue to this day, embracing new technology, so the ease with which a user can find these collections speaks to that initiative and commitment.
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