Here is the latest email I received from Lester S. Levy Collection explaining their dilema with jpeg files. I understand their problem and I must say they are very responsive and willing to help. They seem to be a really great group of individuals who genuinely love their project.

Subject: Re: Lester S. Levy Collection
Date: Fri, 05 Jun 1998 08:42:17 -0700 (PDT)
From: Cynthia Requardt Cynthia.Requardt@jhu.edu
To: Frank McGrath frankmcg@tinet.ie

Mr. McGrath- Thank you for the kind words about the Levy Collection. It is indeed a treasure and we are glad that more people will be able to enjoy it now that it is online.

The quality of the images is an ongoing debate. We chose the resolution we did so that the images would load more quickly. Due to the state of networks currently, we were afraid users would be more frustrated by large files that took so long to load that we kept the files small.

Our long term plan is to load higher resolution images as the speed of networks increases but that will probably be some time.

We had always intended the online database to be a reference source not a substitute for the originals, We can provide photocopies wheneverthe online image is difficult to read. I have asked my colleague Joan Grattan to be in touch with you about copies.

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Cynthia Requardt Kurrelmeyer Curator of Special Collections
The Johns Hopkins University 3400 N. Charles St. Baltimore, Md. 21218
Tel: 410-516-5493 Fax: 410-516-7202 e-mail: Cynthia.Requardt@jhu.edu
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