Public Library Geographical Photo Archive (PLGPA)

A Look Back At Your Neighborhood

Los Angeles County is one of the nation's largest counties with 4,084 square miles, and has the largest population of any county in the nation - nearly 10 million residents who account for approximately 27 percent of California's population. As a subdivision of the state, the County is charged with providing numerous services that affect the lives of all residents, including law enforcement, tax collection, public health protection, public social services, elections and flood control and other municipal services. There are approximately 140 unincorporated communities, with the largest number located in the northern part of the County. The County includes 88 cities that were incorporated between 1850-1991.

The County of Los Angeles (County) Public Library (Library) collects historical images of areas, residents and other artifacts, those images are tied to a specific locations across the County. The Library acquired a Software as a Service (SaaS) solution to host, categorize and publish its archives. This solution offers web publishing tools to easily create pages showcasing digital collections, additionally, it offers a global categorization making digital more discoverable to people around the world. 

With the massive footprint and population of this jurisdiction, the County’s digital archive is anticipated to increase exponentially. With the current publishing layout of a single page and digital collections grouped by area names listed alphabetically, user experience will be affected as it will be difficult to find collections that are of the user’s interest. To address this issue, the Library is partnering with California State University - Los Angeles, College of Engineering, Computer Science, and Technology to implement the Public Library Geographical Photo Archive (PLGPA), a mobile-friendly web application to showcase its collections with an interactive map to enrich user experience on both stationary and hand-held digital devices.

Liaisons:
Kelly Riddle, Digital Projects Coordinator, County of Los Angeles Public Library
Binh Le, County of Los Angeles Public Library