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Photographs on the Web
Photographs abound on the Web. Never has the general public had such broad access to the photographic record, from historical images to news photos to microscopic "beershots." (From an article in the NY Times by Pamela O'Connell, 05/23/02) Going back to the first daguerreotypes, there are nearly nine million historical photographs on the Web, according to David Mattison of the British Columbia Archives in Victoria. (He defines historical as at least 25 years old.) Historical photographs were among the first artifacts to be digitized for display online. Mr. Math- son explains this and more in a recent link-filled article that will take you on a visual surf through history (www.infotoday.com/searcher/may02/mattison.htm). Among the sites he highlights are Unesco's photo bank at http://upo.unesco.org/photobank.asp (no www), with more than 10,000 images from the world over, and PictureAustralia www.pictureaustralia.org), with hundreds of thousands of photos of "Australiana." In Mr. Mattison's opinion, one site deserves special attention: the "American Memory" project of the Library of Congress, which can be reached at http://memory.loc.gov (again, no www). It features more than five million digitized documents, photographs and other items from American history. (Mr. Mattison advises that the best way to navigate the site is by using the Collection Finder and Photos & Prints links.) Go to the "infotoday," which ironically has not a single photo, and learn how to find any conceivable type of photo. You have to scroll through many pages to view it all. Near the bottom, there's a search engine comparison chart.
Thanks to Charlie McNally for showing us this article and to Bill Shapiro for paraphrasing it.
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9/4/02 1010