An online library is an internet resource that complies and catalogues information on printed works as well as digital works.  Some online libraries may have eBooks and e-texts accessible with the site, increasing convenience to the researcher.  Most academic institutions will have online libraries as resources to students to help them navigate their usual labyrinthine physical libraries catalogued by the Library of Congress classification system.  Some free however, online libraries do exist, so long as the works in question have entered the public domain or have expressed consent to distribute content on behalf of the author or publisher.

Most major public libraries maintain online catalogues and information related to their physical library locations.  Depending on the size and scope of the organization, the website may also include information on special events and access to historical databases related to the municipalities’ history.  Although these resources are usually free for library cardholders, some of the larger library systems, such as the New York Public Library will allow access to the general public.  The University of Pennsylvania aggregated free eBooks from around the internet and has created a reference database that allows readers to view and find those eBooks.

Perhaps the greatest online library in terms of scope and organization is the Open Library at openlibrary.org.  Open library is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization that is an initiative of archive.org as well as public funding from the California State Library and private funding from the Kahle/Austin Foundation.  As this website is open source, users may edit and submit content, making the library a collective project.  The Open Library hosts 1,000,000 free eBook titles that may be read at any time as well as a lending library where only one eBook is available and it must be returned in two weeks so that another reader may enjoy it.  Users may also create and share reading lists or explore specific subjects as the books have been categorized for easy reference.  Lastly, open library seeks to create the world’s largest catalogue, with every book ever published represented by a page on its website.

The Internet Public Library is a collection of library science professionals that have formed a consortium with the intention of providing easier access to library resources and educational projects.  For instance, the iPL has created a “Presidents of the United States” collection to assemble biographical information, notable events and trivia on each US president as well as their cabinet.  There are also research and writing guides for visitors as well as a database of newspapers and resources categorized by subject as aids to students and researchers.  

 

 

Introduction

 

 

The Library of Congress, during its evolution as the depository for knowledge on several academic and cultural subjects, amassed a sizable collection of photographs and other visual material.  These materials have since been catalogued and categorized for ease use.  Additionally, digital resources exist for the convenient access of some materials.

 

 

Where should I start looking for photos in the Library of Congress?

 

 

The best place to begin is The Prints and Photographs Online at loc.gov/pictures.  The Library of Congress has worked to digitize many of its photos for public viewing.  Other non-digitized works are catalogue for easy reference and retrieval.  The Prints and Photographs Online Catalogue maintains an easy search function as well as featured collections on the first page. 

 

 

How do I search the Prints and Photographs Online Catalogue?

 

 

The simple search function is all that is needed to find photo materials at the Library of Congress

 

 

To start, go to loc.gov/pictures

 

 

• Enter the keyword in the “search all” box, or the purposes of this example,  the South Andean beasts of burden, “alpaca”
• You will see either results noting the date, size and classification.  You may also sort the results by the availability of the original photograph or print, from images available only at the LoC, images available everywhere and items that have not been digitized.
• Clicking on the first time “Four alpacas by a wall, Peru” will bring up detailed information which in this case, tells us the picture in question is a Peruvian postcard created in 1939 belonging to a miscellaneous collection.  
• There are other options on the page to obtain additional copies and access to the original document.

 

 

How do I obtain copies of LoC material?

 

 

The Library of Congress does not own the rights to most of the materials in the library.  The LoC advisees that individuals seeking to use materials from the collection to abides by standards of “fair use” and to take note of any and all information in the catalogue record.

 

 

How do I gain access to original photos or prints?

 

 

The LoC requires individuals to check if the item they want to access is digitized.  Without a compelling reason, the Library will deny access to the original if a digital copy exists.  This is a cautionary measure to prevent unnecessary damage to the original works.  If there is not a digital copy, one must check the call number which will indicate if there are copies or other records of the original, such as microfilm.  Lastly, if no surrogate, copy or digitized form exists, one must fill out a call slip, in person, at the Prints and Photographs Reading Room.  The staff will either retrieve the material or schedule an appointment for the retrieval of the original item.

 

 

Source: https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/93509256/

 

The Hamilton Public Library system serves the 500,000 residents of Hamilton, Ontario with 24 branches.  It maintains substantial online resources including 30 databases.  The main library was founded with a grant from Andrew Carnegie in 1913 and has since moved its present location in 1980.

Library cards are free for all individuals that live, work or study in Hamilton.  There are three tiers of cards for children, teenagers and adults.  Adults are required to have either a driver’s license or two forms of ID.  There are also non-resident cards from a $40 annual fee.

The Hamilton Public Library provides a digital catalogue that library cardholders can download eBooks and audio.  These digital resources come formatted for mobile devices and popular eBook readers.  Additionally, the HPL operates bookmobiles with dedicated hours and popular reading material.

Where is the Central Branch of the Hamilton Public Library?

The central branch is located at 55 York Boulevard, Hamilton, Ontario.  Its hours are as follows:

Sunday   CLOSED

Monday – Thursday   9:00am – 9:00pm

Friday   9:00am – 6:00pm

Saturday           9:00am – 5:00pm

The central branch has undergone renovations to turn the first floor into a Community Living Room with 50 public computers, self checkout stations and individual/group work areas.

The Library of Congress is also home to the US Copyright Office and has been since 1870.  Copyrights offer limited property rights the creators of original creative and scientific works in order to give them ample time to benefit from their work before it becomes public knowledge and subject to modification and open usage by the general public.  Facts, ideas, systems and methods of operation are not covered by copyright law.  Failure to properly attribute non-copyright works to their authors however, is considered plagiarism.  

Works registered at the copyright office automatically enter the Library of Congress.  The 1870 law that housed the copyright office under the Library of Congress also required two of every work be deposited into the library to create a record of American inventions and innovation.

How does the copyright office administer copyrights?

Although a copyright is created automatically at the completion of any work, it is still important to register at the copyright office.  Registration creates a record for the purposes of determining how long a copyright will last and also provides an official record in the event of litigation or other legal action involving the rights to the copyrighted work.  Additionally it ensures protection by U.S. Customs ad Border Protection against copies and other copyright violations from reaching the common market.

– One may register for some copyrights though the electronic Copyright Office for a lower filing fee and the ability to submit some works electronically.  There are additional provisions for filing electronically despite the need to submit hard copies of published works, as mandated by law.

– One may print out Form CO, fill it out and mail it along with a check or money order.  As they are processed by bar code, each form is unique and not reusable.

– For forms TX, VA, PA, SR and SE (literary works, visual arts works, performing arts works, sound recordings, single serials) one must request these forms from the copyright office.

What are the Library of Congress’s exceptions to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act?

In 2010 the Library of Congress affirmed exceptions that reinforced the right of educational institutions to bypass protection on copyrighted materials for educational purposes.  This now extends to all fields and disciplines whereas previous exceptions only applied to film and media classes.  

Source: US Legal Code Title 17 Chapter 1 Section 102, https://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ1.pdf

Google Books are part of the Google Books Library Project that aims to provide digital information and in some cases entire digital versions of books formerly in print.  This is through a partnership with several libraries and attempts to create a universal digital card catalogue.

Whether entire books, snippets or basic information appear about a book depend on the status of that work’s copyright.  Older books that are out of copyright project are digitized in full and available for viewing and downloading.  Books entered into the system are searchable and a “snippet” view will show the sentences around the term if the entire book is still under copyright.  Links are available to buy or borrow the book from various vendors and libraries.

Google has several library partners from academic and government institutions in the US, Europe and Japan.  These institutions have various levels of participation on the project but generally a partnership gives Google access to the libraries’ collection of books.  Google uses a high speed camera to capture all the pages in the book and then process the information using text recognition software.  Entries with bibliographic and subject information are created and achieved.

Google maintains an electronic form for authors and publishers for authors planning to submit their works to Google Books.

Google has maintained a “partnership” program with a number of authors and publishers to allow books to be digitized and entered into the Google Books Library Project.  Despite this partnership, concern of Google’s practices resulted in a copyright infringement class action lawsuit brought by many of the program’s partners as well as the Author’s Guild, Association of American publishers and several individuals.  Publishers were unhappy that Google had scanned their works and although not providing full access, nonetheless saved the completed works in its database.  This led to fears that Google could someday profit from these complete scanned works by offering subscriptions to access the database.  There are additional concerns about use privacy and accusations that Google had not done enough to protect users of Google Books services.

Google has countered these claims by insisting that the Google Books Project is intend to create awareness about books still under copyright and link potential readers with books that match topics that interest them.  Google Books already has ads that would direct readers to vendors where they can buy the book they are previewing.  Additionally, Google stresses the fact that only snippets and bibliographic information is displayed which is admissible under “fair use” provisions of US copyright law.  Google also claims no profit from providing this resource.

The terms of settlement remain resolved at the time of this article’s writing.  To keep up to date on the development please visit Google Book’s legal page at https://books.google.com/googlebooks/agreement/.

Source: https://books.google.com/googlebooks/agreement/

The precursor to the modern Austin Public Library started in 1926 by the efforts of Grace Delano Clark with 500 volumes and 1,800 square feet of space.  Since then, the system has expanded to twenty branches including a Central Branch in 1979 and another proposed Central Library to open in 2014.  There are 483,099 card holders and 1,465,765 items.

The Austin Public Library offers bilingual information and special equipment for individuals with disabilities.  Like many other libraries they maintain collections of multimedia and provided free computers and wireless internet.  Faulk Central Branch, as well as many other branches offer key community services such as small business advice and computer training and New Immigrants Centers.  Services provided at the Immigrants Center included English conversational practice space, legal and employment assistant and information on the processes to become a US citizen.

One may access the Library catalogue and a number of research databases at the Austin Public Library website.

If you live in Austin, you may dial 311 to get in contact with the library or dial (512)-974-2000 for individuals not living in Austin.  

Important links:

Main website – https://www.ci.austin.tx.us/library/

Calendar of Events – https://www.ci.austin.tx.us/library/calendar.htm

Locations and Hours: https://www.ci.austin.tx.us/library/map.htm

The Nashville Public Library system has served the citizens of Nashville, Tennessee for a number of decades with the first public library being Howard Library, established in 1898 and loaned book to individuals that paid $2 for a “reader’s card.”  The most famous Nashville public library was the Carnegie library, established at the turn of the century with funding from steel magnate Andrew Carnegie.

The main library is located at:

615 Church Street

Nashville, TN 37219

This is the only location on Fridays.  This location also provides hearing impaired services Tuesday to Friday 9 – 2 or by appointment.

The Nashville Public Library website maintains listings of all of its locations and hours of operations. This information is also available in downloadable .pdf format at: https://www.library.nashville.org/locations/loc_all.asp

The NPL maintains a listing of databases and resources for residents to discover their genealogy and local history.  For a nominal fee, residents can receive copies of original documents from the metropolitan such as marriage and birth certificates.  There are additional special collections showcasing the history of Nashville on the central libraries’ second floor.  Like most libraries, the Nashville libraries hold programming from young children and plan oral history projects to commemorate important events.

The New York Public Library is one the world’s most important public library systems providing service to three boroughs of New York City.  The library has over ten million holdings including the original manuscript of the Declaration of Independence and the Gutenberg Bible.  Today there are 87 libraries in Manhattan, The Bronx and Staten Island with all but 10 being branch libraries.  The remaining libraries are central libraries, research libraries and library for the blind and deaf.  Branch libraries operate with public funding from the city of New York and the main and research libraries tend to have private philanthropic benefactors.

The modern New York Public Library system grew out of two large but financially insolvent private libraries donated for public use and a trust of 2.4 million dollars left for the establishment of a library by former New York Governor Samuel Tilden.   The Astor and Lenox libraries were merged their assets with assets from the Tilden foundation and oversaw the construction of the current main branch of the New York Public Library, with its iconic Library Lion statues on Fifth Avenue between 40th and 42nd streets.  An additional grant from Andrew Carnegie saw the establishments of several branch libraries.

Any person that lives, works, attends school or pays property taxes in New York may receive a library card free of charge.  Proof of identity is required to apply for a library card or pick up a card applied for on the New York Public Library website.  Valid government ID for adults includes driver’s licenses and permits.  Young adults may present school IDs or report cards.  There is an additional list of accepted identifications at https://www.nypl.org/help/library-card/terms-conditions but the applicant must have two of these forms of identification.  Children under 11 years must be accompanied by an adult.  There are temporary and limited exceptions for non-New York residents that wish to utilize library services.  Most on-site library resources do not require the user to have a library card.

It is important to note that library cards expire every three years and must be renewed by presenting acceptable forms of identification.  There is a $1.00 fee to replace lost or stolen cards and there will be fines for overdue materials.  To access the New York Public Libraries’ research buildings, one must acquire a special card, known as an Access Card to enter and use any of the four NYPL research libraries.

The NYPL offers premium research services that help individuals locate materials related to their needs.  The library also has the ability to reproduce materials and grant permissions to publish some materials in the collection with fees depending on whether the file must be scanned and the re-rights right granted to the individual to use public domain or rights-controlled works.

Hours and locations will vary so for information on branch libraries please visit: https://www.nypl.org/locations

The Library of Congress Authorities is a service that helps to standardize library catalogues by providing an authority on the proper forms of names, titles and subjects.  The Library of Congress Authorities is a service primarily designed for librarians, although it is open to the public and can be a valuable resource in learning more about an author’s alias or corporate name change.  There are 265.000 subject authority records and 5.3 million name authority records reflecting the sheer number of data managed by the Library of Congress.

The Authorities are updated daily Monday through Saturday to reflect the Library of Congress’s ever-expanding collection.  The records are organized by MARC 21 authority that comprises a series of codes and designations to identify the content.  There is established protocol for headings and the nature of the content.  The Library of Congress Authorities and the Library of Congress Catalog are not linked, although the information gleaned from the Authorities may help the researcher find relevant information in the catalogue.

The Authorities website, authorities.loc.gov has a search function, but it’s important to note that this is not a typical search function.  Keywords cannot be used.  The authorities assume you already know the name or title of the desired work or author.  

As a result, there are four search options:

• Subject Authorities Headings

• Name Authority Headings

• Title Authority Headings

• Name/Title Authority Headings

If one would like to search the authorities, click on the “Search Authorities” and the center and top of the Library of Congress Authorities website welcome page.

For this example, we will find the standardized, Library of Congress authority on William Shakespeare as it should be entered into a library catalogue.

1. To find an author, the name must be entered last name first.  Typing “William Shakespeare” will show you results about the William Shakespeare Company of Kalamazoo, Michigan. 

2. Enter the search text, in this case “Shakespeare, William” into the box.  Remember that this search does not support “keywords” so typing “William Shakespeare works” will not be helpful.

a. Omit all punctuation include apostrophes from names

3. From the list of results, select Shakespeare, William – 1564 – 1616 as this is the Shakespeare we want.  Clicking on the record will show all variants for this author’s name, from the name that the author used toward the end of his life “William Shakspeare” to the Chinese equivalent of the author’s name “Sha-shih-pi-ya.”

Sources: https://www.loc.gov/marc/authority/adintro.html