Each gallery page in the Early Las Vegas website is composed of images belonging to the University of Nevada, Las Vegas Special Collections Department or the Nevada State Museum and Historical Society. This website is graphics intensive -- please be patient whilel all images load.

It is highly recommended that the Early Las Vegas website be viewed in Internet Explorer 4.x or higher. Screen resolution should be set at 1024 x 768 and your screen maximized if possible. Disable any pop-up killer type devices you may have installed on your web browser.

With the exception of the extended version of the Hoover Dam gallery, each gallery page scrolls horizontally, as if viewing an actual museum gallery wall. Due to the varying sizes and resolutions of computer monitors, some users may also see vertical scroll bars. Setting screen resolution to 1024 x 768 and maximizing the screen size should eliminate vertical scroll bars. Using the left and right arrow keys on your keyboard is recommended to facilitate horizontal movement through the gallery pages. Some wheel mice will also scroll horizontally.

Clicking on any thumbnail image in a gallery page will connect to an enlargement of that image in a separate window. The gallery window will remain open at the place where you clicked. To exit the enlargement window, click on the X in the upper right corner. You may have as many windows open as you want.

Clicking on the Description tab (to the right of the Image tab) will connect to a respective full cataloging/metadata record for the image. The metadata record contains complete known information about the item, which can include information on its creator or photographer, a description of the contents and/or people in the item, the collection it came from, as well as historical background notes and its accession number within the UNLV Libraries Special Collections Department.

Clicking on a "Play Video" or "Listen to Audio Only" link will open the media in the RealOne player in a separate window. Clicking on a thumbnail for an audio or video clip will take you directly to the metadata page for it, from which you may also begin playing the media. To close separate windows, click on the X in the upper right corner.

Video and audio content is provided in Real Media™ format and is playable on the RealOne™ Player, available free from Real.com™ (click on the link in the upper right hand corner). Video and audio clips may also be played on RealPlayer 8.

Please refer to the Image Number within the metadata record if you wish to obtain prints of the original item from the UNLV Libraries Special Collections Department. For more information, please contact Peter Michel, Director of Special Collections at (702) 895-2234. Images from the Nevada State Museum and Historical Society are not available for reprint.

Links to the search engine for the Early Las Vegas website is available from the home page and at the beginning of each gallery. The Search/Browse function will appear in a separate window. Instructions for searching or browsing the collections are included there.

Searching Strategies

The search screen defaults to search all galleries (i.e., collections). This disables the "Browse Terms" function. To search an individual collection or other groups of collections, click on the "Select Collections" bar. Then select or deselect collections as desired, using the checkboxes to the right of gallery names, then click "OK." Searching one collection at a time enables the "Browse Terms" function to display a list of all subject headings used within the respective gallery and other lists of key terms used in the metadata. Clicking on the thumbnails brought up in the search results will connect to the full image and its metadata.

Please address comments or questions about the Early Las Vegas website to Digitization Projects Librarian Cory Lampert

Brad Eden, Head, UNLV Libraries Web and Digitization Services.

Special thanks goes to UNLV for its monetary support of the construction of this website through the PIA and NIA awards. Thanks to UNLV Public History graduate students Joe Thomson and Crystal Aubuchon-Mendoza for their expertise and work on content selection, and to Michael Yunkin working with Crystal on streaming video content. Thanks to Peter Michel, Su Kim Chung, and Kathy War of the UNLV Libraries Special Collections Department for their collaboration and assistance, and to the Bibliographic and Metadata Services (BMS) staff for their continued hard work and risk taking in the experimentation and new learning involved in the construction of this website. BMS staff member Annie Sattler worked as project coordinator on this website, and without her knowledge and hard work this website would not exist. BMS faculty member Kathy Rankin spent numerous hours on the construction of the metadata template. Many thanks to Glee Willis, Digital Projects Librarian, University of Nevada, Reno, and John Fox of the Systems Department at UNLV Libraries for their continued assistance and expertise with this project. Other BMS staff members whose hard work deserves acknowledgement include: Laralee Nelson, Marilyn Vent, Debbie Hunt, Kelly Robertson, Pat McCarty, Vicky Diaz, and Shari Drouin.