Toronto Public Library announced in early August it has redesigned the “look and feel” of its Digital Archive that features items from the library’s special collections. Popular subjects to browse include architecture, war and conflicts, people, Toronto, science fiction, postcards, and maps.
Hires Rootbeer, 1901. Source: Toronto Public Library, Osborne Collection of Early Children’s Books.
Website visitors will agree the new design is visually striking and it promotes browsing of the collections in more intuitive ways than on the previous design. As on the old site, recently digitized items are prominently displayed at the top of the home page.
A fun collection to look at is the Osborne Collection of Early Children’s Books of more than 3,700 books, with 155 from before 1800, 2,837 from the 1800s, and 710 from 1900 to 1920.
The books provide a glimpse of what some of our ancestors may have read when they were children. They are available in PDF and can be easily downloaded.
Genealogists will be pleased to learn that the content in the Digital Archive may be downloaded, shared and reproduced in print or electronic format for personal, educational, and research use.
