Cassiopaean Sandbox > Books

World Digital Library

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Gertrudes:
_http://www.wdl.org/en/

This is a digital library containing copies of otherwise hard, if not impossible to find original manuscripts, maps, photographs, and others. The first manuscript I came across was from Galileo, then I found a letter from Christopher Columbus (in Latin, though...) which made me curious to search the site further.  On the up side you actually get to read the original,  (I think that everything is scanned), depending on the work you may even see annotations and drawings made by the author. The down side of it is that since you are seeing the original everything is written in its own original language.

I had a look around and the library seems to contain a few interesting works, several of which are centuries old. Even though some of them are in Latin, Arabic, and all kinds of different languages you do get a short summary in English, this helps to give the interested reader the opportunity to search for a translation elsewhere.

Here is a description from the World Digital Library (WDL) taken from the site:


--- Quote from: _http://www.wdl.org/en/site/ ---The WDL makes it possible to discover, study, and enjoy cultural treasures from around the world on one site, in a variety of ways. These cultural treasures include, but are not limited to, manuscripts, maps, rare books, musical scores, recordings, films, prints, photographs, and architectural drawings.

Items on the WDL may easily be browsed by place, time, topic, type of item, and contributing institution, or can be located by an open-ended search, in several languages. Special features include interactive geographic clusters, a timeline, advanced image-viewing and interpretive capabilities. Item-level descriptions and interviews with curators about featured items provide additional information.

Navigation tools and content descriptions are provided in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish. Many more languages are represented in the actual books, manuscripts, maps, photographs, and other primary materials, which are provided in their original languages.

The WDL was developed by a team at the U.S. Library of Congress, with contributions by partner institutions in many countries; the support of the United Nations Education, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO); and the financial support of a number of companies and private foundations.

--- End quote ---

bngenoh:
Awesome thanks for bringing it to my attention Gertrudes, the power of open networking, cooperation and collaboration, is limitless. The format of the site is good considering the information contained.

Now I am going to look for Atlantis in those maps.  :lol:

Gertrudes:

--- Quote from: bngenoh on May 17, 2012, 01:09:11 AM ---Awesome thanks for bringing it to my attention Gertrudes, the power of open networking, cooperation and collaboration, is limitless. The format of the site is good considering the information contained.

Now I am going to look for Atlantis in those maps.  :lol:

--- End quote ---

You're welcome, hope you find what you're looking for  ;)

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