Data For Exploration Data packages Free to Use and Reuse Data Package

Free to Use and Reuse Data Package

This dataset contains metadata records and images for 2,610 curated selections featured in the Library of Congress' Free to Use and Reuse Sets as well as links to images for the full digital objects represented in the sets. This dataset includes only those items which are accessible via the Library of Congress' API.

A woman wearing a red bandana, holding a hand drill, and drilling into a metal panel — Operating a hand drill at Vultee-Nashville, woman is working on a "Vengeance" dive bomber, Tennessee

About this dataset

This dataset was created as part of an LC Labs experiment in collaboration with AVP to explore ways of combining items from multiple collections, across media types, with different forms of existing metadata into a single, cohesive dataset. Although the Free to Use and Reuse Sets were originally created on specific themes, the comprehensive dataset will not only allow users to rearrange and reimagine the contents according to themes and priorities of their own, but to also consider the ways in which organizational schemes can tell us about the priorities of the people and institutions that created them.

View source collection

Metadata	Metadata formats	Data files
2,610 records	.csv, .json	2,610 .jpg images

Data package documentation

Included in this data package is comprehensive documentation of source data or collection provenance, the contents of the data package, and how the data package was created. Here are some particular sections of interest as well as a link to the full documentation:

View the documentation

Dataset at a glance

How to access and use this data package

There are two main options for accessing and using this data package: (1) Directly downloading files from this page and (2) using Python for more advanced usage.

Direct downloads

The following list outlines the contents of this data package. Many of the individual files inside the data package are linked directly on this page which you can download and immediately use. Zipped files are available for bulk download of the entire or parts of the data package.

Download everything	free-to-use.zip (1,013.1 MB) - Full data package which includes metadata files and 2,610 image files, zipped
Sample the data	sample-data.zip (40.3 MB) - 100 randomly selected items from the 2,610 item set and their corresponding image files have been provided as sample data. Included with this are a metadata.csv, metadata.json, and manifest.json. sample-data/metadata.json (417.1 KB) - A JSON file containing the metadata for the 100 sample items sample-data/metadata.csv (319.0 KB) - A CSV transformation of the sample JSON metadata sample-data/manifest.html - For downloading individual images, this is a simple page that lists each image's file id, item id, MD5 hash (base64), file size, and URL sample-data/manifest.json (15.8 KB) - A JSON file listing each image file id, their item id, MD5 hash (base64), file size, and URL
Download the documentation	README.html - An overview of the source data or collection provenance, the contents of the data package, and how the data package was created. README.md (42.6 KB) - README as a Markdown text file README.pdf (36.2 KB) - README as a PDF file
Download the metadata	metadata.json (15 MB) - A JSON file containing the metadata for all 2,610 items metadata.jsonl (10.6 MB) - A JSON lines version of the JSON data, with one record per line, useful for processing large files metadata.csv (9.4 MB) - A CSV transformation of the original JSON metadata README.html#dataset-field-descriptions - Metadata field descriptions
Download the images	data.zip (1008.1 MB) - All 2,610 image files, zipped manifest.html - For downloading individual images, this is a simple page that lists each image's file id, item id, MD5 hash (base64), file size, and URL manifest.txt (343.5 KB) - A text file listing each image file id, their item id, MD5 hash (base64), file size, and URL manifest.json (376.6 KB) - A JSON file listing each image file id, their item id, MD5 hash (base64), file size, and URL

Using Python

While direct downloads are more convenient for most activities, users with familiarity with writing Python can perform more advanced and complex tasks programmatically.

For your convenience we developed a number of Jupyter Notebooks to help get you started.

View the Python notebook for this data package

Bulk downloads using Python

For bulk downloads, refer to this Python script for downloading files in bulk . Sample commands for this data package:

Download all images in this package


                        python bulk_download.py --package "https://data.labs.loc.gov/free-to-use/"
                        --out "output/free-to-use/"

Dataset details

Source collection	Free to Use and Reuse collection Free to Use and Reuse is a collection of themed sets curated by Library staff. Themes are intentionally varied, to illustrate the depth and breadth of the Library's collections. Themes have included skyscrapers, natural disasters, birds, shoes, games and more. These sets are just a small sample of the Library's digital collections that are free to use and reuse. The Library believes that this content is either in the public domain, has no known copyright, or has been cleared by the copyright owner for public use. The digital collections comprise millions of items including books, newspapers, manuscripts, prints and photos, maps, musical scores, films, sound recordings and more. A new set is usually added every month.
Rights statement	The Free to Use and Reuse Sets are curated selections from the Library's digital collections that are either in the public domain, have no known copyright, or have been cleared by the copyright owner for public use. For more information, see https://www.loc.gov/free-to-use/ .
Date created	2023-05-05
Date updated	2024-03-22
Creators & contributors	Creator: AVP Contributors: LC Labs Prints and Photographs Division
Cite this dataset	Chicago citation style: Library Of Congress. Free to Use and Reuse Data Package. [Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress, 2023] Software, E-Resource. https://data.labs.loc.gov/free-to-use/. APA citation style: Library Of Congress. (2023) Free to Use and Reuse Data Package. [Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress] [Software, E-Resource] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://data.labs.loc.gov/free-to-use/. MLA citation style: Library Of Congress. Free to Use and Reuse Data Package. [Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress, 2023] Software, E-Resource. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, </data.labs.loc.gov/free-to-use/>.
Curatorial questions	For curatorial questions about the content of the collection or technical questions about the dataset formats and composition, please contact the Prints and Photographs Division via the Library's Ask a Librarian service at https://ask.loc.gov/prints-photographs .
Access questions	For questions and technical issues about download and access, please submit a ticket on Github or email the LC Labs Team at [email protected] .