The NY Public Library Will Send You an Emoji-Inspired Image From its Archives

facebooktwitterreddit

The majority of internet bots are designed to be funny or annoying (OK, occasionally they’re fun or helpful), but it’s a rare thing to find one that’s illuminating—particularly about the past. Leave it to the folks at the New York Public Library to make it happen. They’ve created NYPL Emoji Bot, which sends you a photo from the NYPL’s digital collections when you tweet the account an emoji.

The image replies are meant to mimic the emoji, and they're remarkably on-point. Here are a few recent examples:

The bot was created by digital producer Lauren Lampasone and software architect Leonard Richardson, Technical.ly Bklyn reports. With 692,875 digitized images to choose from, we’re going to need a lot more emojis to make it through the entire archive.

[h/t Technical.ly Bklyn]

Banner image: @NYPLEmoji // Twitter 

Know of something you think we should cover? Email us at tips@mentalfloss.com.