Polk Detroit City Directory 1928-29 - Getting It Back Online

[kathy2trips]

Those of you who have used this valuable historical resource from the University of Michigan Digital Library over the last several years may have noticed that quite suddenly, it is no longer available online.

Even when registering with a user name and password, the library will deny online access to this particular publication. When inquiring, I got an email reply stating: "As the rights are unclear, it is available for in-library use only."

So, I contacted the InfoGroup out of Omaha, NB who purchased R.L. Polk about 15 years ago. My contact there told me that the rights and permissions expire after 75 years, so there are no legal obstacles to once again, posting it online.

For us amateur historians, architectural buffs and family tree researchers, it is important that this resource remain free online as a public service as it was previously.

The 1928-29 directory is a pre-Depression, pre-Expressway look at Detroit when most of our ancestors had already arrived here. One example of how this directory has been helpful can be seen in this old thread regarding a second-empire house, House Next to Senate Antiques Torn Down: [[http://www.detroityes.com/mb/showthr...City+Directory)

If you can find great-grandma's old house in the directory, you won't have to wade through the scads of pages in the 1940 Census, which has just been made available online through the government. It's not searchable by name, only address. So, you could just look up the name in the Polk, find the address, and plug that in the census search. Instant success!

I've asked the InfoGroup to contact the library directly to assure them there would be no legal problems to re-posting the directory online. However, a word from you, members of DetroitYes, would go a long way in showing the U of M what an important resource this is to us.

Kindly email them and ask that the R.L. Polk Detroit City Directory 1928-29 be restored to its former status free online:

Digital Library Production Service
300 Hatcher North
University of Michigan
Ann Arbor MI 48109-1205
Ph: 734-647-8000
Fax: 734-647-6897
Email: dlps-support@umich.edu

Thank you SO MUCH for all your help! Hopefully, we can get the directory back online again soon.