Rare-Book Viewing Software
Unveiled at NLM
Software developed by the British Library specifically for viewing rare books made its American debut March 16 at the National Library of Medicine. The program, called “Turning the Pages,” displays high-resolution, digitized pages on a monitor and allows users to turn forward or back by touching the screen. Readers can also zoom in to magnify details or call up an audio description of the page. Library Director Donald A. B. Lindberg said, “The sensation of leafing through a rare volume is uncannily real.”
The first book chosen to be displayed in the U.S. was Elizabeth Blackwell’s 1739 volume Curious Herbal, a catalog of medicinal plants containing 500 color plates. The library intends to install the actual book, open but protected in a glass case, near the computer station.
Under the direction of Head of Creative Projects Clive Izard, the British Library has already scanned five other books, including the Lindisfarne Gospels, illuminated in the late 7th or 8th century. The National Library of Medicine will next display a digital version of Vesalius’s Humani corporis fabrica, the first modern anatomical text.
Posted March 26, 2001.
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