Historic Pittsburgh
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Full-Text Maps Images Finding Aids Census Chronology HSWP Catalog .
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Selection Criteria

Selection Criteria

Various criteria are used to select materials for the Historic Pittsburgh Full-Text Collection. During the selection process, the copyright, informational value, physical description, condition, and artifactual value of each item are taken into consideration. Is the item in the public domain? Will the intellectual content of the item be of value to the research and scholarly study of the history of Pittsburgh and the surrounding Western Pennsylvania area? Will the physical characteristics and the condition of the item allow for high quality scanning and OCR processing? These and other questions must be answered for each item before a decision can be made to digitize a work.

As indicated in the Project Description, items that offer information thought to be, or to approximate, primary source materials are given priority over items considered to be interpretive history. Every effort is made to include materials that will have enduring value, and to apply the principle of bibliographic integrity to the digital editions. Only complete works will be included in the Historic Pittsburgh Full-Text Collection; articles from journals, and selected pages or chapters of books will not be considered for selection.


Interpreting Materials in Historical Context

Most of the items selected for the Historic Pittsburgh collection were published before the early 1920s. They reflect the attitudes and beliefs -- the historical context -- of the time in which they were produced. Certain materials in the collection may be offensive to some readers. The user should keep in mind the historical context of the material when searching for information. The user also should be aware of the possibility that there will be variations in spelling and meaning (for example, the use of native Americans in early published works generally refers to the caucasian people who settled in America, rather than the native American Indian tribes).

The selection of a particular item to be included in the Historic Pittsburgh collection does not represent an endorsement by the University of Pittsburgh or the Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania of the views expressed in the content of that item.

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Historic Pittsburgh is hosted by the University of Pittsburgh's Digital Research Library.