Are all your collections digitized?
No! Many of our collections as well as large newspapers like the Newark News aren’t digitized. Learn about our physical collections: New Jersey Information Center (njreference@npl.org), NJ Hispanic Research and Information Center (njhric@npl.org), Special Collections (specialcollections@npl.org), African American Room, and Roth Room.
Can I publish a photo?
You can download items from our collection and use them as you’d like (see downloading instructions below).
If you want a high resolution scan for publication of a photo from the Charles F. Cummings NJ Division collections there is a fee schedule which you can find at npl.org/copies. You can send us the forms at this link to njreference@npl.org and then call 973-733-7775 with a credit card to pay the fees or mail them to Charles F. Cummings NJ Information Center 5 Washington St Newark NJ 07102.
For photos from other departments please contact that department as above.
How do I search for an item?
There is a search bar on the left side of the archive. Be sure to choose “TEXT CONTENTS” if you want to search the full text of the items.
See below for information on advanced search.
How do I download an item?
When you scroll down on an item you will see download links on the right side:
If you don’t see a format you want, click “SHOW ALL”. There will always be a .JPG available.
To download one page of a multi-page item click “SHOW ALL” and you will see a .ZIP file. Click “VIEW CONTENTS” and you’ll be able to download each page.
Can I contribute to the digital archive?
Yes! If you have family photos to contribute to our Community Contributed Collection or if you can identify unidentified people in the collection, please contact njreference@npl.org. To contribute other materials to our digital collection, please email the project manager at specialcollections@npl.org .
How can I do an advanced search?
You can do an advanced search here. If you specify the collection field as newarkpubliclibrary this will search all our material. You can also specify a specific collection but you need to use the last part of the URL of the collection, which you can find here.
For example, the URL of the Bill May Collection is https://archive.org/details/williamwmay so when using advanced search you would use williamwmay in the collection field.
If a collection URL has the word series like this https://archive.org/search.php?query=series%3A%22Essex+County+Slave+Records%22 you need to use the field “series” instead of collection. So to search the Essex County Slave Records you would specify the series field as “Essex County Slave Records.
Example:
Search all collections:
Search Essex County Slave Records:
