To date almost 67,000 historic photographs, documents, and rare books have been digitized from the Library's own collections. However, this only scratches the surface – there are more than 3,000,000 images in the photograph collection alone. Specialized staff and equipment are needed to reach the goal of adding another 100,000 images annually.

With support from the I.N. and Susanna H. Van Nuys Foundation, the Library Foundation purchased a bound volume digitizer, designed to be used with rare books and other materials that cannot lie flat on a scanner. This equipment has been used to digitize images for a variety of projects, including digitizing family seals from LAPL's extensive genealogy collection for patrons.

A major priority for LAPL's digitization staff during the past year has been the scanning of the Joseph J. Casey Collection of Fashion Plates, 1770-1880, a collection of mounted, hand-colored fashion plates that have been extracted from various fashion journals.

The photo database is the largest and one of the most popular of the Library's online collections. Last fiscal year the collection was accessed over three million times. A grant from the John Randolph Haynes and Dora Haynes Foundation partially supports the professional archiving of the 2.2 million Herald Examiner newspaper photographs that will result in the digitization of many of these striking images for future research projects.

Contributions to the New Technologies Fund help the Foundation to support digitization projects. Thanks to the generosity of The John Randolph Haynes and Dora Haynes Foundation and Photo Friends of LAPL for their support of digitization projects.

To learn more about funding opportunities for digitization projects, please contact Dawn Coppin, Director of Foundation Relations, at (213) 228-7502.

Support for the Library Foundation of Los Angeles is support for the Los Angeles Public Library. Every dollar counts. Your gift to the Library Foundation helps the Los Angeles Public Library grow stronger.