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Establishing a program that <br />digitizing hidden collections <br />libraries and then <br />creating a single <br />portal to access <br />them would give <br />these materials <br />new life, making <br />them available to <br />everyone from <br />schoolchildren to <br />researchers. <br />focuses on <br />in public <br />The most inter- <br />esting and histori- <br />cally valuable <br />items from public <br />libraries' extensive <br />collections photographs, genealogy <br />records, local newspapers, handwritten <br />letters and scrapbooks, and more would <br />be rediscovered. A rich digital archive could <br />put the treasures of the country's <br />extraordinary public library system into <br />every American's hands. <br />Public Libraries Digital <br />Collections <br />The American Library Association's (ALA) <br />most recent Public Library Funding <br />Technology Access Study survey shows that <br />only 35 percent of public libraries offer <br />special collections (such as letters and <br />documents) online. Because digitization <br />has been slower to come to public than <br />academic or special libraries, some public <br />institutions have found creative ways to <br />increase digital access to their collections, <br />applying for individual grants for specific <br />projects <br />libraries <br />Case Study: Popular Vulnerable <br />Heavy use drives the Independence <br />Public Library in Kansas to want to <br />increase access to marriage records <br />and other materials in vulnerable <br />formats, including manila folders, <br />historic books that are falling apart, and <br />floppy disks that are increasingly <br />difficult to use. "The information is used <br />constantly [and] it would be so <br />wonderful to be able to search the <br />data," wrote a library staff member, but <br />"1 am not sure what we need or how to <br />proceed." <br />NUMBER 1 JUNE <br />or joining forces with other public <br />in statewide consortia that have <br />begun digitization <br />projects. Two <br />successful examples, <br />Ohio Memory and <br />Digital Amherst, <br />benefit from these <br />consortia and stand to <br />gain even more <br />through linking their <br />content to a larger <br />system of digitized <br />materials. <br />tion, nearly 800 <br />The Defiance Public <br />Library in Ohio hosts <br />the Bronson Collec- <br />prints created by an <br />amateur photographer in the early 20th <br />century. These rare prints document scenes <br />from life in Defiance parades, street <br />scenes, fires and floods, political campaigns, <br />and more and they provide an invaluable <br />glimpse of everyday life in the Midwest a <br />century ago. Through a Library Services <br />and Technology Act (LSTA) grant, the library <br />digitized these photographs; through a <br />project called Ohio Memory, anyone can <br />discover and use the materials online. <br />Digitized historic photographs from the <br />Bronson Collection appear in a "then and <br />now" section about swimming pools on the <br />City of Defiance's website, for example, <br />and spring up in articles on Bowling Green <br />State University's archival collections on <br />subjects ranging from a 1913 flood to <br />campaign stops by Theodore Roosevelt and <br />William Howard Taft. <br />Digitizing Hidden Collections in Public Libraries I 3 <br />