A light adventure via the Internet Public Library

January 8, 2007
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ANN ARBOR—Now you can visit more than 200 lighthouses from the coasts of the Great Lakes to the southern U.S. Atlantic and Ireland and never leave home. The University of Michigan’s Internet Public Library (IPL), a project based at the University’s School of Information, offers a photographic journey of the lighthouses.

Featuring photographs and a brief description of each light prepared by Don and Diana Carter of Michigan’s White Lake Township, the IPL provides the option of browsing by name or location and the opportunity to read the journals prepared by the Carters as they traveled around the world visiting and photographing lighthouses.

As one of the IPL’s Exhibit Hall offerings, “Lighthouses: A Photographic Journey” joins other exhibitions that include “The Art of the Fake: Egyptian Forgeries from the Kelsey Museum of Archeology,” “Trains Across America” and the “Museum of African American History in Detroit.” Future exhibitions will include “Genesis,” a historical photographic portrait of African Americans, and “Grammy Mirk,” a unique look at family history.

The Internet Public Library is partially supported by a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The library began as a graduate student project in 1995 and is now staffed by professional librarians with assistance from students and volunteer librarians from around the Internet. The library maintains a collection of network-based ready reference works, responds to reference queries, creates resources for children and young adults, evaluates and categorizes resources on the Internet, and provides space for exhibitions.

The IPL’s Exhibit Hall can be accessed at http://www.ipl.org/exhibit/.

Trains Across AmericaAndrew W. Mellon Foundationhttp://www.ipl.org/exhibit/