Turning the Pages

I don't have time to really look into this ... but someone else here
might.

CSM 4/29/04:

"Checking out that DiVinci book"

"Like museums, libraries are sometimes put in the ironic position of
having to keep their holdings away from the public, in order to preserve
them for the public. As contradictory as the policy may seem, libraries
can't just sign out a Leonardo Codex to anyone with a borrower's card,
and thanks to the Web, they don't have to. Like museums, libraries can
now place accurate and  interactive facsimiles of their collection
online for worldwide and unrestricted access - and Turning the Pages
represents the current  state of this particular lending feature.

Originally created in 1998 by the British Library (the national library
of the United Kingdom), Turning the Pages' technology was first
installed into onsite kiosks to make some of the world's most  valuable
books accessible to library visitors. Now that the concept has been
adapted to the Internet, that availability is global. The Web  variant
offers a selection of 10 historic volumes. These include a notebook of
Leonardo da Vinci's, the Lindisfarne Gospels, Sultan Baybars' Qur'an,
the Diamond Sutra (the world's earliest dated printed document), and
George III's personal copy of Elizabeth Blackwell's "A Curious Herbal" -
an 18th century botanical reference. Two more releases are planned for
later this year."

Full text:

http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0429/p25s01-stin.html

Direct link:

http://www.bl.uk/collections/treasures/digitisation.html

JMM / LMC

John M. McMahon
Classics
Le Moyne College