digital archives

June 7, 2012June 7, 2012

Historic Stryker Archive at NYPL

An important photography archive at the New York Public Library has recently been re-discovered, partially digitized, and cataloged. The archive includes over 41,000 prints from Farm Security Administration photographers, which were collected and sent to the NYPL by FSA founder Roy Stryker. It includes some prints previously unknown, and many that are not included in the Library of Congress Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Photograph Collection.

The New York Public Library has not only digitized more than 1,000 images that do not appear in the Library of Congress online catalog, it has also made them available today on a special NYPL site. It also has another site containing the records — but no images — for all 41,000 FSA photos in their collection.

Via the Lens blog at the New York Times.

April 19, 2012March 22, 2023

What Is a Community-Based Archives Anyway?

Michelle Caswell of the South Asian American Digital Archive provides a helpful description of community-based archives:

We continue to see SAADA as part of a growing movement of independent grassroots efforts emerging from within communities to collect, preserve, and make accessible records documenting their own histories outside of mainstream archival institutions. These community-based archives serve as an alternative venue for communities to make collective decisions about what is of enduring value to them, to shape collective memory of their own pasts, and to control the means through which stories about their past are constructed.

February 16, 2012March 22, 2023

Cranach Digital Archive

The Cranach Digital Archive (cda) is an interdisciplinary collaborative research resource, providing access to art historical, technical and conservation information on paintings by Lucas Cranach (c.1472 – 1553) and his workshop. The repository presently provides information on more than 400 paintings including c.5000 images and documents from 19 partner institutions.

The metadata is extensive, with especially detailed provenance information. Images for most works include high-resolution overall views, reverse views, infrared images, UV images, detail images, and photomicrographs.

July 19, 2011March 22, 2023

South Asian American Digital Archive Featured on Asia Pacific Forum

Samip Mallick, President of the Board of Directors of the South Asian American Digital Archive (SAADA) and Director of the Ranganathan Center for Digital Information was recently interviewed on WBAI New York’s Asia Pacific Forum. SAADA is a resource that is free and available to the public. Mallick discussed the archive’s efforts to document and preserve the history of South Asian Americans, the vision behind the archive, and some stories behind the collections. An MP3 of the interview is available.

June 15, 2011June 15, 2011

SCI-Arc to Create Comprehensive Digital Lecture Archive

The Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc) has received two major grants from the NEA and Getty Foundation that will be used to create the SCI-Arc Digital Lecture Archive.

This free web archive will contain more than 1,000 hours of key architectural and design lectures and symposia from 1974 to the present that will be accessible online, via phone applications, e-readers, and other new media channels… The SCI-Arc Digital Lecture Archive will provide access to never before seen footage of some of the most influential leaders in architecture and design, including Frank O. Gehry, Zaha Hadid, David Hockney, Rem Koolhaas, John Lautner, Thom Mayne, Eric Owen Moss, Kazuyo Sejima, and many more… Scheduled to be launched in 2012—coinciding with SCI-Arc’s 40th anniversary—the SCI-Arc Digital Lecture Archive will feature a sophisticated search engine that will allow access to both entire lectures as well as specific segments of each lecture, placing the school’s significant archive at one’s fingertips.

Via Archinet.