This is a list of just a few of the digital image collections available for review online. These collections focus primarily on photographic materials -- prints, negatives, and contact sheets -- although other materials may also be included. A quick Google search will rapidly reveal dozens of other online collections, should more be needed for comparison or review.

Other digital collections, such as the Polar Bear Expedition collection or the scrapbooks digitized at Simmons College, may be useful for reference if a large amount of non-photographic material is going to be part of the envisioned collection. The World War One Poetry Archive, linked below, also contains a number of non-photographic materials including text documents, drawings, and maps. The inclusion of non-photographic items into an online collection does not have to be a major disruption in what metadata scheme, or schemes, is chosen since the metadata will, ideally, be flexible enough to include any necessary forms of material.

It is important to note that the quality of metadata varies widely from project to project. Google's LIFE Photography archive, for example, has skeletal metadata with hardly any preservation or technical information available to the public browser. The Purdue University e-Archives project, on the other hand, has rich metadata associated with every object and visible to any browser. Some projects, such as the Freedom House Collection, include a history of the project which may provide useful information as to which metadata standards were chosen, why, and how they were applied.

Since a wide variety of cataloging standards have been applied to these collections and the user can easily see how effective or ineffective the metadata will be at providing accurate and helpful preservation information for the future.