Salt and pepper shakers bearing Martha and George Washington’s likenesses. A letter by leading abolitionists Frederick Douglass and John Brown inviting Brown’s family to visit them at Douglass’ home. A costume design by Vincente Minnelli, an Oscar-winning director most remembered for marrying Judy Garland and fathering Liza Minnelli.
Cleveland Public Library (CPL) has been chosen to take over, expand and improve a national catalog of more than 50 million letters, images, books and other materials in some 6,000 libraries, museums and similar institutions around the country. The catalog’s items can’t be borrowed, but most of its images can be downloaded, and most of their copyrights have expired.
“We are going to take this project and elevate it to another level,” says Felton Thomas Jr., who leads CPL. “This is an important step forward in preserving America’s history.”
John S. Bracken, executive director of the Digital Public Library of America, says, “The archive needs — and deserves — a home beyond our small nonprofit. Cleveland Public Library is the right partner to grow the archive while maintaining its accessibility for generations to come.”
CPL was chosen over several other applicants. DPLA publicist Jenn Bane explains, “CPL has a proven track record in steering large projects.”
CPL once developed a local precursor of the Internet. Now it hosts the Ohio Center for the Book, the Ohio Library for the Blind, the CLEVNET inter-library catalog, the world’s leading chess collection and much more.
Thomas chaired the DPLA before his term expired in January. Created in 2013, the catalog gets more than 2 million views per year. About half its images have been posted on Wikimedia Commons, getting more than 10 billion views there.
The upgrade has been funded for $3.5 million by the Mellon, MacArthur, Sloan and Ford Foundations. A nationwide steering committee will help Cleveland plan it. The plan’s details will be announced in Chicago at the yearly conference of the American Library Association in June. Cleveland will start running the catalog in July.
For many of the catalogue’s volumes, only the covers appear. Thomas will encourage participating institutions to digitize the contents.
Among other changes, the collection may adopt a new name, and staff may be hired or transferred to run it. Thomas also hopes to popularize it, partly through traveling exhibits. He wants it to serve not just professional researchers but amateurs, who might, for instance, find materials about their forebears around the country. “This should be about the general public.”
Keep our local journalism accessible to all
Reader support is crucial as we continue to shed light on underreported neighborhoods in Cleveland. Will you become a monthly member to help us continue to produce news by, for, and with the community?
P.S. Did you like this story? Take our reader survey!
