Online Library Collections

Last night I viewed an episode of PBS's The History Detectives. Each week citizens present objects that may have some great historical significance. A researcher is chosen to authenticate or dismiss the stories behind the objects. The hosts of this program rely extensively on libraries in order to research the artifacts they are presented with. As a footnote to last nights episode, a story was presented about the digitization of historic maps and documents in the collection of the New York public library.

As a college student in New York City, I was able to experience some of the images, document and other various paper items in the New York public library's collection. I atteneded a show at the main branch which consisted of vintage restaurant menus. I also took great advantage of the NYPL picture collection. Many of these items were starting to show their age, becoming stained and tattered from extensive use.

I have never viewed the types of documents in the online collection that were discussed in the story. While watching I remembered that I had, in fact, used the online picture collection when I was unable to make the jouney to the branch that houses the physical picture collection. At that time I understood this as a convenience for library users in similar situations. It occurred to me only when viewing this program that digitization is not only a means of making these documents more widely available. It is a means of preserving these physical objects. On the History Detectives program, the researches frequently don cotton gloves to protect the documents from oils in human skin. The once bound pages they turn are now loose sheets. The folds in the maps become perforations. The online library collection is like a digital glove to preserve important, yet vulnerable objects in the physical collection.

I love the library!