UpFront with NGS: Public Domain

25 January 2016

NYPL Releases More than 180,000 Digitized Items to the Public Domain to be Used for FREE

Last week the New York Public Library (NYPL) announced ...

... that out-of-copyright materials in NYPL Digital Collections are now available as high-resolution downloads. No permission required, no hoops to jump through: just go forth and reuse!

The release of more than 180,000 digitized items represents both a simplification and an enhancement of digital access to a trove of unique and rare materials: a removal of administration fees and processes from public domain content, and also improvements to interfaces — popular and technical — to the digital assets themselves...

Read the full announcement and details on what is included here.

Recognize that the collection is worldwide in scope. I searched on North Carolina and over 800 items were found. I will definitely be looking more closely at this collection since I was previously unfamiliar with many of the materials listed.

I also searched on Salem and Peabody Massachusetts – two communities where my immigrant ancestors lived. When I resume my personal research, I will revisit this collection to see if I can find images of the churches, organizations, etc., that they were associated with.

Did you find a really neat image or document connected to your family history?

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Unless indicated otherwise or clearly an NGS Public Relations piece, Upfront with NGS posts are written by Diane L Richard, editor, Upfront with NGS.

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10 April 2015

Public Domain Documents and Access -- An Opinion Piece by Dick Eastman on his blog

The title of a recent blog post by Dick Eastman (Eastman’s Online Genealogy Newsletter aka EOGN) certainly got my attention ...

I Have a Complaint Concerning Many Genealogists

He then provides this warning ...

Warning: This article contains personal opinions.

This is an almost exact duplicate of an article I posted several years ago. The topic has come up again lately so I decided to publish it again for the benefit of those who did not read or do not remember the original article. I have changed a few words to make sure it covers recent comments.

The focus of his blog post is a discussion about the belief by many that public information should be free and not the private property of some company. You can read his entire post by clicking here.

I suggest you read his post and the posted comments (132 when I last checked a couple of days ago). Whether you agree or not with the premise of his post, I found his analogy relevant and his perspective an interesting read. It makes us think about public domain documents and what free access really means as we pursue the hunt for our ancestors.

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NGS does not imply endorsement of any outside advertiser or other vendors appearing in this blog. Any opinions expressed by guest authors are their own and do not necessarily reflect the view of NGS.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Think your friends, colleagues, or fellow genealogy researchers would find this blog post interesting? If so, please let them know that anyone can read past UpFront with NGS posts or subscribe!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Suggestions for topics for future UpFront with NGS posts are always welcome. Please send any suggested topics to UpfrontNGS@mosaicrpm.com

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Unless indicated otherwise or clearly an NGS Public Relations piece, Upfront with NGS posts are written by Diane L Richard, editor, Upfront with NGS.

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Want to learn more about interacting with the blog, please read Hyperlinks, Subscribing and Comments -- How to Interact with Upfront with NGS Blog posts!

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