Life library is treasure trove for photo buffs

As a kid, one of the highlights of my week was the arrival of Life magazine. Its photos were like rocket fuel for my imagination and a whisk for my emotions. So you can understand what a thrill it was to hear Google's announcement today that it had cut a deal with Time Inc. to post Life's entire photo library--some 10 million images--online in a searchable database. Not only were there some great moments captured in the magazine--Martin Luther King speaking from a podium, Bobby Kennedy sprawled on the floor after his assasination--but it also served as a stage for great photographers like Alfred Eisenstaedt, Gjon Mili, Nina Leen and Margaret Bourke-White.

"We're excited to announce the availability of never-before-seen images from the Life photo archive," Software Engineer Paco Galanes wrote in the Official Google Blog. "This effort to bring offline images online was inspired by our mission to organize all the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful."

Amazingly, some 97 percent of Life's library has never been seen by the public before.

"Only a very small percentage of these images have ever been published," Galanes observed. "The rest have been sitting in dusty archives in the form of negatives, slides, glass plates, etchings, and prints. We're digitizing them so that everyone can easily experience these fascinating moments in time."

Initially, only 20 percent of the library has been uploaded to the Google site, but more photos will be added incrementally over the coming months. If you're looking for some real eye candy, go with all due haste to the Life Photo Archive Hosted by Google.