A few years ago I ran out of shelf space. It was critical mass crisis: what could possibly be discarded from my photo-and-art-book library? I had to make room along the tallest shelves, a 5.5-foot run of which was filled with issues of Aperture magazine. I bit the bullet. I still feel the pain.

But now the loss has been remedied through the recently released online Aperture Archive. Available by subscription, the archive presents all 220 back issues, plus the current issue, as a searchable digital replica that preserves the magazine's design. Embedded metadata enables searches of over 15,000 photographs by photographer, genre, keyword and more.

So I logged in; the current issue, no 221: Performance, opened. Navigation is clear, with the choice of scrolling along page by page; using the archive index by clicking on its icon on the scroll index; by clicking on titles in the Table of Contents; or by clicking thumbnails on the scroll index. 

When scrolling along, each spread emerges from a ribbon of pages, with edges clearly defined, thereby presenting the magazine as designed. It's easy to jump from article to article. My only quibble is that when enlarging the text, which will be important when the archive is accessed on a small device, navigation is jumpy and slow.

All back issues are accessible through a link on the toolbar menu, arranged by decades. You could open the first article published in Aperture on the work of Paul Strand, issue no. 2/1953. Or you might want to see one of the first issues of the magazine devoted entirely to works in color, mainly by William Eggleston; issue no. 96/1984. 

I opened an issue I had edited in 1998 on contemporary Czech and Slovak photography. The mystery and allure of post-Soviet visual culture of this region became concrete as each spread of images resolved on my screen. It takes a bit longer for images from earlier volumes to resolve but that is understandable considering that every page is a scanned image rather than a digital original.

Then came the big test: a search for all articles and notes about or by Robert Adams. All I can say is: try this yourself. My search resulted in thumbnails of dozens of articles on this pre-eminent American photographer published in Aperture since 1975. I clicked an interview by Joshua Chang on the occasion of the release of a new edition of Adams's Summer Nights Walking, in issue no. 197/Winter 2009. It opened, along with the entire issue, so the feature can be seen in context. Searches can be further refined by keywords relating to article type and other criteria, like any good library catalogue.

While I'll never discard the issues of Aperture that escaped my cleanup [now at 3 running feet], it's likely that I would search Aperture Archive before going to my shelves; it's faster and easier.

Aperture Archive is available by subscription, with several options, including monthly and yearly rates. Info

At Aperture Foundation, you can try out the archive on computers set up in the bookstore.  A great time to do this would be on Saturday, December 12, when Aperture hosts its annual Holiday Book Bazaar, with books of many publishers, and photographers on hand all afternoon to talk about and sign their books. Info

In addition, the 2015 Paris Photo-Aperture Foundation PhotoBook Awards Shortlist exhibition goes on view Saturday, as well as the 2015 Portfolio Prize winner Drew Nikonowicz's exhibition. 

Aperture Gallery and Bookstore, 547 West 27th Street, 4th Floor, NY, NY.

CORRECTION to yesterday's post: Saint Marks Bookshop is not contemplating a move; Book Culture has three Manhattan locations; the only indie bookstore in Queens is the Astoria Bookshop, on 31st Street. All updates included in the Archive, courtesy DART subscribers. Thank you!

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