Library System

Beginning July 4th, the fourth iteration of the annual World eBook Fair kicks-off. For one month, the World eBook Fair gives you free, full-text access to over 2 million PDF eBooks–short version: you can download as many eBooks as you want directly to your desktop for free.

For those of you who read on-the-go, some of these titles are compatible with mobile devices.

Major contributors this year include: Project Gutenberg, E-books About Everything, Internet Archive, and World Public Library amongst many others.

Go now, download, and read!

In our ongoing effort to improve the searching and browsing of the Virtual Motor City collection, we’ve just reloaded the collection’s metadata, updated with the latest additional information: descriptions of photographs, Library of Congress subject headings, and our brand new field, titles.

With the new title field, you’ll notice that some records contain two titles: Historical Title and Title.  You may ask, well, what’s the difference? Here’s our explanation.

There are two title fields, Historical Title and Title.  Historical Title is the name given to the photograph by the Detroit News Photographer who took the photo(s).  This field, while historically significant and interesting, is riddled with problems when it comes to searching because a lack of consistency.  The photographers did not use an authority list, so photographs that are similar, such as three pictures of cars, might be labeled totally different.  One might be simply “Autos” while another might be the model and brand, while another might be “Street Scenes.”  The NEW title field is original metadata added by a metadata librarian, that looks to give some consistency back to the titles and also add titles to records that never had one.  Once we’ve reached a significant number or records with this new field, users will have the ability to browse by title.

Copyists from the Detroit Music Project, taken on 8/4/1938. Photo courtesy Walter P. Reuther Archives

Interested in graphic design, fonts and typography? Unique Michigan histories? We’ve just added a new collection, WPA Music Manuscripts, a digitization and access project that digitized and cataloged detailed and ornate hand-copied music manuscripts produced by Michigan men and women under the WPA during the Great Depression.  The collection and accompanying resources highlight the people and work that were a part of the Music Copying Project, supported by the Federal Music Project and WPA.  The Federal Music Project employed men and women to copy music for WPA orchestras, bands, and choruses to perform.  The collection is currently housed at the Detroit Symphony Orchestra’s archives.

WPA Music Manuscripts is a collaboration between WSU Music Department, Art and Art History Department, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, and the Library System.