Jessamyn West, Librarian.net – “Public.work is a search engine for public domain content.” The site claims to have over 100,000 public domain images. This in and of itself is not that special, but the interface is. It’s gorgeous, a fun and engaging discovery layer where every search becomes a URL that can be shared [example] and the page of images endlessly scrolls up, down, and even sideways. Of course, the endless scroll is a bit of a fiction because many niche searches have few results and thus you see images repeating almost immediately. As someone who has seen a lot of repositories of public domain images come and go, I realized I’ve become something of an expert in them. Here are some of my thoughts.1. This isn’t a search engine. A search engine directs you to the original content. A result on Public Work, once clicked, gives the viewer three options. A direct download link, a “View on Cosmos” link and a little info button with a small amount of metadata. That’s it. It’s only when you click through to Cosmos (“a Pinterest alternative for creatives” which is “creating a more mindful internet”) that I can view the source of the images. And even then, I get a deep-linked JPG and not a link to the item’s original page [example deep link]. It’s basically a search engine to content on Cosmos. Which is fine for what it is, but let’s be up front about it. 2. You have to trust them on the public domain assertion. As a result of this non-linking to the source material, at least some of the time, we have to take their word for it that these items are public domain. As someone who does searches in this space a lot, I do see many things that I know are PD including the W. E. B. Du Bois hand drawn infographics, the Haeckel aquatic life pictures, the August Sherman, Mathew Brady, and Lewis Hine portraits. And yet, despite seeing these familiar images, there is no way I can show them individually to YOU unless I “save them on Cosmos.” There’s no metadata that groups like with like, creator with their other creations. So I can share a URL for a search for infographics [example, you could lose yourself for DAYS there] but I can’t show you all of Du Bois’ infographics unless I create an account, go to another site, and then I’m not even sure what happens. Some of the citations for these images are just… personal Instagram accounts [example]…. I should be clear, I like the website public.work an awful lot. It’s a fun way to spend time. It helps me think about the sorts of things that make it into the public domain, and the things that don’t. It’s an interesting lesson about metadata and the things people are looking for from a website. But it’s also clearly an engine for Cosmos, a website with a manifesto (and an Insta account with 300K followers) but no obvious human beings behind it. Their privacy policy lacks a city and state, their job opening strongly implies they are in New York City and a look at Google Maps seems to indicate they have a “sister gallery” which is this one…”