Digitized Book of the Week
August 8, 2007 2:55 PM   Subscribe

Digitized Book of the Week. An eclectic collection of works digitized from the Library of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. They include books and serials from its collections that focus on Illinois history, literature, and natural resources; rural life and agriculture; railroad history and engineering; and works in translation. A project of MsMolly.
posted by Mitheral (5 comments total) 11 users marked this as a favorite
 
This stuff is awesome. Thank you.
posted by Haruspex at 3:49 PM on August 8, 2007


Thanks MsMolly, and also Mitheral for posting it here, because frankly I always forget that Projects page exists and so never look at it. Love this kind of stuff.
posted by Hal Mumkin at 3:55 PM on August 8, 2007


Super cool (The Prisoner's Hidden Life is a great read, so far...). I notice that these full-text scans are accessible through the uiuc online catalog too, which is cool.

I do wish that the filp-book view (which is very neat) provided an indication as to where you are in the book, and some citation info on the text-viewing page (when you're working with multiple documents, it's nice to have info on what you're reading constantly viewable).

I'm grateful to have a look at uiuc's digitization initiative; I do wish however that they'd put more energy into less glamorous efforts, such as making the main library and undergrad nicer places to work (or just build a new undergrad), re-establishing browsing areas in the undergrad or Illini Union, or having a person work the counter at the remote storage building. Plus, no one at UIUC has access to the encyclopedia Britannica (though the Library's website says that they're busy working to restore access for the 2006-2007 academic year).

In any case, thanks for posting this (and thanks also to Ms. Molly for the work she's done on this project).
posted by washburn at 5:45 PM on August 8, 2007


Hal Mumkin writes "frankly I always forget that Projects page exists and so never look at it. Love this kind of stuff."

Honestly so do I. I stumbled across the site elsewhere and then when searching for dupes came across MsMolly's project post.
posted by Mitheral at 6:29 PM on August 8, 2007


Glad you all like it. The blog is put together by Betsy Kruger, the head of the Digital Content Creation unit here at the library. There's some really cool stuff in the works, including a project that will provide digital access to some rare books that WorldCat shows are held only by the U of I library.

Last week I was working on a book called The Adamite, or, The Loves of Father Rock that was published in 1683 and details the escapades of a Jesuit priest who convinces a group of young nuns that the more naked they get the closer they are to spiritual innocence. Seriously. (Unfortunately, the page images for that one will probably have to be reshot, so I don't know when it will be available.)

Another student working on the project is also posting cool images that he finds while digitizing the American Railroad Journal.

Stuff like this gets me so excited about the things that will be available to audiences who might never have known about them otherwise!
posted by MsMolly at 1:55 PM on August 9, 2007


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