San Francisco Public Library (SFPL) Launches New Platform For DigitalSF Digital Archive, Access to Online Resource is Free to Public

From SF Gate:

The San Francisco Public Library announced this week that it has launched a new platform [powered by TIND) for its digital archive featuring more than 80,000 pieces of historical items that are free to access for the public.

The archive, called DigitalSF, includes historical photographs dating back to before the city was founded, as well as documents, manuscripts, maps, publications, and oral histories.

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More via SFPL:

Featuring items from before San Francisco even existed as a city, SFPL’s digital archive continues to grow, with new collections added every month. On the new platform, rich, large and diverse collections are available to anyone in the world to explore, no library card required. The collections showcase the City’s unique cultural heritage and local history found nowhere else, highlighting the vital role that libraries play in preserving community stories. Examples of treasures in the digital archives include Harvey Milk’s handwritten speeches, African American oral histories and photos of San Francisco from the 19th century.

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In addition to the tens of thousands of photographs digitized from prints, negatives and color slides in SFPL’s San Francisco Historical Photograph Collection, DigitalSF also holds digitized government documents from SFPL’s Government Information Center, materials from the Hormel LGBTQIA Center’s archives, and photos, fliers, documents and clippings from SFPL’s Branch Libraries’ “vertical files”—historical subject file folders that were kept locally at the branches for day-to-day use.

Since the launch of the new DigitalSF platform, collections that have been added include:

• San Francisco Bay Times, 1978-2011: A local LGBTQIA+ newspaper that is still running. 
• The Spokesman, 1965-1969: A San Francisco Black newspaper documenting life in Bayview/Hunters Point.
• Hunters Point Beacon, 1943-1945: A rare San Francisco semi-monthly newspaper documenting World War II shipyard work and life in Hunters Point.
• City ordinances going back to 1862 and the City charter from 1853.
• James E. Gordon Color Slide Collection of San Francisco Murals: 285 digitized color slides documenting San Francisco murals from1976-1984, featuring murals in North Beach, South of Market, the Fillmore, Haight-Ashbury and Castro/Eureka Valley.
• Robert Dawson Photographs of San Francisco Public Library: Then & Now series of SFPL’s branches and Main Library (1994 and 2022). 

All materials on DigitalSF can be viewed and downloaded for research and fair use. With the new and improved user experience, people can now create a free account to save items, searches and citations. DigitalSF offers more than 37,000 images in the public domain; users can download these images free of charge without copyright permissions. The site also provides links to order high-quality reproductions or obtain permissions to publish. 

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Direct to DigitalSF

Filed under: Archives and Special Collections, Digital Collections, Digital Preservation, Libraries, Maps, News, Patrons and Users, Public Libraries