About

The USC Digital Library (USCDL) helps fulfill the mission of the USC Libraries to actively support the discovery, creation, and preservation of knowledge and develop collections and services that support and encourage the academic endeavors of faculty, students, and staff.

The USC Libraries makes these materials available for reference and research purposes. Spanning a wide range of visual media, the USC Digital Library archives digital images of drawings, illuminated manuscripts, maps, photographs, posters, prints, rare illustrated books, as well as audio and video recordings. Encompassing the subject strengths of the vast collections of the libraries at the University of Southern California, these materials represent the applied sciences, fine and decorative arts, history, performing arts, and social sciences. A portion of the images contained in the USC Digital Library come from the collections of collaborating institutions which, like USC, have valuable archival collections that are of interest to a wide range of people.

Questions

If you do not find the answer you are looking for, please contact us.

Collections

The list of digitized collections includes material from historical societies, other libraries, newspapers, as well as material from the USC Libraries.

Particular emphasis has been placed on materials related to Los Angeles and the Southern California Region, the Western United States and the Pacific Rim. The collections in the USC Digital Library represent a small fraction of the USC Libraries’ overall visual holdings.

Copyright, Access, & Use

The USC Digital Library includes information about copyright and use of USCDL materials in the descriptive information for each item in our collections. We make every effort to ensure that the information is accurate and clear.

Materials in USCDL collections may be protected by the U.S. Copyright Law (Title 17, U.S.C.), or by the Copyright Laws of other countries. In order to keep access to USC Digital Library collections free and open for everyone, we request that all USCDL visitors respect the copyright, licensing, use & ordering information made available alongside of each item in our collections.

Responsibility and liability for any use of USCDL materials rests exclusively with the user of the materials. Transmission or reproduction of materials protected by copyright beyond that allowed by fair use requires the written permission of the copyright owners.

USCDL visitors must request permission to commercially use works protected by copyright. When available, contact information is made available in the “Rights” “Repository email” and “Repository Access” fields in the metadata.