The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, like all of the research libraries of the New York Public Library system, provides the public with information about its collections via a Web site. For those who can’t visit the Schomburg in person, digital collections are also made available.
One can find general information about the center and its history here; and each of the five divisions has its own site with further information. The five divisions are: Art and artifacts; General research and reference; Manuscripts, archives and rare books;Moving image and Recorded sound division; and Photographs and prints division. Each division’s Web page offers data about the collections and how to access items in the library catalog, as well as hours and policies for visitors. Collection strengths and special features are briefly noted.
The center’s schedule of exhibitions,programs, and performances is also posted at the site. For those near the NYC area, the center hosts numerous poetry readings and other programs. A listing of past programs available on video is also made available; these videos are held in the Moving image and recorded sound division.
For remote users, the digital collections are the highlight of the site. Two areas will be of particular interest: the Digital Schomburg and the Online Exhibitions.
There are currently two collections in the Digital Schomburg: “African American women writers of the 19th century” and “Images of African Americans from the 19th century”.
The African American women writers collection includes 52 works published by black women who lived in the nineteenth century. Some works date into the early 1900s. The collection is searchable by keyword or by browsing categories (author and genre listings). Available in full‐text online are poems by Phyllis Wheatley and others, a few essays, and stories by Alice Dunbar‐Nelson and others. A large portion of the collection includes biographical and autobiographical writings, mostly slave narratives.
The “Images” collection includes hundreds of photographs and images of other visual arts, such as engravings, paintings, and illustrations. The notes mention that this is the first in a series, although there is no information about when the future installments will be available. Users may search by key word or browse categories, such as Civil War,portraits, religion, labor, family, or other topics. Images load fairly quickly; and the quality is excellent. Notes accompany each item, and there is a link to request copies of the images through the NYPL’s rights and permissions office.
The online exhibitions currently include “Harlem 1900‐1940: An African American Community” and “The Schomburg Legacy: Documenting the Global Black Experience for the 21st Century.”
The Harlem exhibit provides photographs and textual materials which portray the people of culture of this time period in Harlem. This Web page was developed by Cultural Heritage Initiatives for Community Outreach (CHICO) at the School of Information, University of Michigan and is maintained on University of Michigan servers. Additional information includes a section with lesson plan ideas for teachers to use the exhibit materials in the classroom. Along with the photographs, a timeline of events is available for historical context. The site also provides access to a database called WAM: Writers, Artists, and Musicians of the Harlem Renaissance. One potential problem for researchers is that it is not clear whether CHICO or the Schomburg developed or maintains the timeline material or the WAM database. Information culled from these resources could be difficult to cite.
The Schomburg legacy exhibit commemorates the 70th anniversary of the center and celebrates the life of founder Arturo Alfonso Schomburg. Unfortunately, there was little available in this exhibit. A note dated 1997 informs readers that the site is under construction; and many of the links were stale.
The Center also provides a section of “Selected Internet sources”, but these are limited. A note dated 30 April 1998 indicates that the area is under construction. For Africa and other areas of the world, one finds country‐specific links and subject‐related links. The country‐specific links are merely links to the CIA World Factbook; but the subject‐related links are better. The latter category includes links to many pages hosted at universities, which offer information about people and culture, history, politics, and other research library collections.
The issue of updating the site is a real concern. Dates of creation and subsequent updates are not included; and, like the Internet sources section and the Schomburg legacy exhibit, there are other sections that have been under construction for some time.
Apart from these problems and limitations, the site is well‐designed and informative. The Digital Schomburg Collections are particularly well done. Anyone seeking women’s writings from the nineteenth century will be well‐served, and the “Images of Harlem” collection will prove useful for a variety of scholars, as well as anyone interested in African‐American history or photography.
