We are pleased to announce the Special Collections Image Bank. This project emerged as a collaborative effort among U-M Library's Digital Production Library Service and the Special Collections Library in order to create a rich repository of public domain digitized images scanned for individual patron research requests or for outreach and learning initiatives led by our colleagues.
Fully dowloadable Galileo Manuscript with attending metdata.
The Image Bank enables researchers to discover primary source materials and to perform meaningful inspection digitally, while protecting sometimes fragile and rare items. Each record contains a high-resolution image with corresponding descriptions to provide context and access.
This level of detail allows researchers to intimately connect with Special Collections Library’s primary source materials online, thereby enhancing scholarship opportunities at a global scale. "Access to high-resolution scans of public domain materials borne from patron use or library programming will allow future scholars to discover and perform close inspection of rare and sometimes fragile items in new scholarship endeavors online." says Pablo Alvarez, Outreach and Instruction Librarian responsible for promoting the use of manuscripts and early printed books (up to 1700 CE).
The collaborative group wishes to extend thanks to our Lead Copyright Officer, intrepid graduate students from the U-M School of Information, and library administration for supporting this endeavor - without whom none of this would be possible.
Here's to new discoveries!