For Immediate Release: November 27, 2006

Historic Images of Oakland Posted to
Online Archive of California

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(Oakland, CA)— Rare early maps, local birds'-eye views, and fascinating historic photographs of Oakland and the nearby cities of Emeryville and Piedmont dating from 1842 to 1967 are among the images recently made available online to the public. The images, including rare pictorial albums, portraits, and manuscript materials from the Peralta family, are the first of more than 250 items selected for digitization from the collections of the Oakland Public Library for the Online Archive of California, hosted by the California Digital Library, based in Oakland.

Staff at the Oakland History Room selected and researched items for inclusion in the archive as part of the 2005-2006 Local History Digital Resources Project, a statewide initiative to help expand the Online Archive of California. The project was underwritten by the California State Library using Library Services and Technology Act funds to cover the costs of digitization, software, supplies and some staff support required to complete it. Oakland Public Library received $6000 to cover its part of the expenses.

Besides making digital versions of the items available over the Internet, high-quality digital reproductions of the items were produced for preservation in the University of California's electronic depository. This will assure access to the contents long after the natural forces of decay have devastated the originals, some of which consist of newsprint and other highly transient materials.

In addition, the project makes complete descriptions of each item available for the first time. In most cases, accurate identification of the images and documents included in the project had never been achieved, and in some cases, the existence of the materials was unknown to most scholars. Global access is now available to the objects via the Internet at the following link: http://www.oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/kt5b69q5bc. Searches by keyword are possible. More items will be coming online within the next several months.

For more information, please call (510) 238-3222, or see the Library's Web site: www.oaklandlibrary.org. The Oakland Public Library is a department of the City of Oakland.

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