Instructions for CITY 2000 Alumni

CITY2000 alumni should use UIC's new digital content management system, UIC Library Digital Collections. As Special Collections and University Archives staff have been working on the CITY2000 content, the Digital Programs and Services (DPS) staff has been simultaneously working on getting this up and running, providing a new dynamic way of searching and viewing our digital materials.

The digital archive in UIC Digital Collections contains between 35,000-50,000 still images digitally scanned by the library, since the photochemical originals were donated to the UIC Library. The UIC Library made contact scans of all the film entering the collection. High-resolution scans were made of selections from most, not all, of the 2805 projects assigned and shot in the year 2000. The archive also contains scans made by CITY2000 staff that year.

The audio-visual tapes generated during the year are currently undergoing digital reformatting with the support of a Save America’s Treasures National Park Service grant. We expect the AV assets will begin appearing in the digital collection in the third quarter of 2025, with a planned completion date of September 2026.

Each film sleeve, audio, and video tape received barcoded asset tags when the collection was processed. The collection is arranged by the project numbers assigned by CITY2000 staff with the project number included in the title of an object. The still photography projects will contain all the contact scans made in addition to all of the high-resolution scans made by the library. The scans made by CITY2000 and housed in their Merlin storage server are included with each project but are not currently associated with their corresponding barcode tag.

You may visually browse the online collection by project title. At the top of the collection page, there is a box that you can use to search within the collection for specific topics. There are also filter options available on the left-hand side to filter by the photographer (labelled generally as Creator), Geographic Location (generally Chicago neighborhoods), Subject--Name and Topics. In addition, while the default view you see on the collection page is a list, there are other options for browsing content. The “Map” view will let you browse a map with images tagged by location and the “Gallery” view lets you see a larger version of the thumbnail for a project without additional details other than the title. The asset file identifiers are comprised of the collection code, project number, barcode (from the asset tag) and frame number. Example: CITY01_0546_38198100086550_01a

To provide an image to the Comer Foundation or to link to any image in the collection, copy and paste the permalink provided. If you plan to share images on social media, please add a citation referring users back to the CITY2000 collection. Low-resolution images can be downloaded directly from the page. To request high-resolution images or ask questions, see the below instructions.

To request high-resolution material:

  • Alumni looking for 1-3 high resolution images: Either click on the shopping cart icon in the lower left corner of the image viewer or click on “Order a reproduction” under the Quick Links menu, below the image viewer on the right side. Either link will take you to our Patron Request Order Form, which will be pre-populated with the image’s information. You will NOT have to pay for reproductions of your own work.
  • Alumni with general questions or wanting more than a few individual high-resolution files: Use the Contact Us form. Please include as much information as possible.
  • Interested in material not yet available?: Use the Contact Us form. Not everything will be immediately available on the website in January, but we may be able to access images that aren’t yet available online quickly.