Are you a DP.LA user? If not, you should be. I find it to be “better than Google” for finding digitized resources owned by libraries, archives, and other similar institutions. In essence, it is like having online card catalogs from hundreds of institutions that you can search for digitized collections and items all at once.
From DP.LA: “The Digital Public Library of America amplifies the value of libraries and cultural organizations as Americans’ most trusted sources of shared knowledge. We do this by collaborating with partners to accelerate innovative tools and ideas that empower and equip libraries to make information more accessible. We work with a national network of partners to make millions of materials from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions across the country available to all in a one-stop discovery experience.”
For genealogy research, it has pertinent genealogical categories and you can search multiple sites all at once.
Here is a list of their largest partners, with the number of items available in their collections that can be accessed by DP.LA (sorted by size):
(Updated November 2023)
- National Archives and Records Administration (17,840,275 Items)
- Smithsonian Institution (7,550,609 Items)
- HathiTrust (3,033,985 Items)
- The Portal to Texas History (1,951,500 Items)
- California Digital Library (2,090,523 Items)
- Mountain West Digital Library (1,216,743 Items)
- Michigan Service Hub (1,132,092 Items)
- Digital Commonwealth (1,023,755 Items)
- Digital Library of Georgia (997,301 Items)
- Minnesota Digital Library (926,349 Items)
- The New York Public Library (794,920 Items)
- Plains to Peaks Collective (885,210 Items)
- North Carolina Digital Heritage Center (702,099 Items)
- Internet Archive (706,063 Items)
- PA Digital (701,282 Items)
- North Carolina Digital Heritage Center (93,941 Items)
- Recollection Wisconsin (675,963 Items)
- Heartland Hub (650,853 Items)
- Missouri Hub (629,425 Items)
- OKHub (715,793 Items)
- Illinois Digital Heritage Hub (541,301 Items)
- Indiana Memory (646,606 Items)
- Empire State Digital Network (443,200 Items)
- Ohio Digital Network (399,155 Items)
- Biodiversity Heritage Library (288,133 Items)
- NJ/DE Digital Collective (328,645 Items)
- Sunshine State Digital Network (281,887 Items)
- South Carolina Digital Library (281,828 Items)
- United States Government Publishing Office (291,120 Items)
- Northwest Digital Heritage (317,591 Items)
- Digital Library of Tennessee (172,846 Items)
- University of Washington (141,840 Items)
- Kentucky Digital Library (141,608 Items)
- Connecticut Digital Archive (120,909 Items)
- David Rumsey (125,750 Items)
- Digital Maryland (126,963 Items)
- Artstor (108,681 Items)
- Big Sky Country Digital Network (59,573 Items)
- J. Paul Getty Trust (99,618 Items)
- Harvard Library (92,066 Items)
- Digital Virginias (96,702 Items)
- Vermont Green Mountain Digital Archive (97,202 Items)
- Digital Maine (63,492 Items)
- Orbis Cascade Alliance (61,404 Items)
- Texas Digital Library (93,839 Items)
- District Digital (57,753 Items)
- Community Webs (4,901 Items)
- Library of Congress (4,463 Items)
If you are interested in family history research, check out these categories (or choose your own):
- Family photographs
- Family Bibles
- Correspondence, from the Civil War for example.
- Local maps
- Yearbooks
- Military records including photographs and service records
- Oral histories
- Family History and Genealogy books
From DP.LA: “To find even more historical materials to help develop context, browse by topic. As you discover useful materials, create personalized lists of items to come back to later without having to repeat your search. “
Searching DP.LA is easy. I use the standard search tools that I use in Google searching. You can narrow the results by selecting on the left-hand side of the results page one or more of the following: Type, Subject, Date, Location, Language, Collection, Contributing Institution, or Partner. One technique that I often use is to search broadly, and then enter a minus sign (-) in front of a keyword, eliminating results from specific states, or specific collections.
There are many more collections available, many from hundreds of local public libraries.
Good Luck and Happy Hunting!
