From the AP:
The Providence Public Library (PPL) has added thousands of photographs chronicling Rhode Island’s history to its digital library, making them available to the public for free.
The Rhode Island photograph collection features more than 6,500 photographs of people, places and events from across the state from the mid-19th century through the 20th century.
From the PPL:
The Rhode Island Photograph Collection features more than 6,500 photographs of people, places and events from across the state from the mid-19th century through the 20th century. The photographs document life from Woonsocket to Westerly and all points in between. The collection reflects nearly a century of photograph donations from a wide variety of donors.
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“The Rhode Island Photograph Collection has always been one of our most highly utilized resources in our Rhode Island Collection. Now that the collection is fully digitized and searchable online, researchers are able to find what they need much more easily. It’s exciting to see photographs shared on social media and used for a wide variety of interests. People worry that digitizing will mean that nobody has a reason to come to the library, but in fact, I’m seeing more researchers use the collection than ever before,” says Kate Wells, PPL’s Rhode Island Collection Librarian.
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ProvLibDigital.org is Rhode Island’s latest growing searchable digital repository offering the public free access to thousands of historical and significant resources. The recent addition of more than 6,500 images of the Rhode Island Photograph Collection nearly doubles what was previously available in the digital library. This site creates one searchable database for researchers to search across several of our individual special collections by keyword, date, geographic area and more. We encourage the images to be shared and used as the public wishes!
“Bringing PPL’s amazing special collections to people digitally, when historically users had to come to the physical collections, is a major step forward and one of our key goals. These resources will become an integral part of our users’ library experience,” said Library Executive Director Jack Martin.
Direct to ProvLibDigital.Org
ProvLibDigital.Org first launched in September 2015 and is powered by technology from Digital Ark.
See Also: More Digital Collections From the Providence Public Library
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