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Letters written by George Washington, Henry David Thoreau's pencil-drawn map of Walden Pond and Mark Twain's manuscript of ''A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court'' are among the items from the New York Public Library's American collections that will soon be digitized and made available to the public online, the library announced on Thursday. The library, aided by a $500,000 grant from the Polonsky Foundation, has already begun digitizing the Thomas Addis Emmet Collection, which covers the early years of the United States and includes a copy of the Declaration of Independence written in Thomas Jefferson's hand and manuscript minutes of the Annapolis Convention, the 1786 meeting at which delegates unanimously called for a constitutional convention. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Here an app, there an app, everywhere an apt app. Now the New York Public Library is creating iPad apps that bring its research collections into ''the palms of the public's hand,'' as library officials put it in a statement. Biblion: The Boundless Library is the name for a series of apps available on Apple's tablet computer that highlight different elements in the library's collection. It was developed by the library and the design firm Potion. The first edition showcases the library's holdings about the 1939-40 New York World's Fair, which are among those most consulted by researchers. Users will be able to turn over, zoom in on and roam through hundreds of items. At the end of this week the library is putting out an app that lets the public play Find That Future, from the game designer Jane McGonigal. This summer, look for an app enabling people to reserve books. The first app is available free at Apple's iTunes store and nypl.org. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]