October 23, 2004

• This is wonderful, but I do wish they would reconsider using flash. I was trying to look at the sketchbook of Northumberland, and couldn't even get it to open. The first page wouldn't "turn." (I will try again with a different browser). One thing about flash is that it's harder, if not impossible, to save the images. But I really don't think the BL should be worried about it. If they made sure their copyright was somewhere on the image, it wouldn't be reproduced for profit, and anyone using just for fun wouldn't care. (My current desktop is a c.1575 map of Cambridgeshire, digitised by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, as noted on the bottom.) These images are also really important for academic use - I would love to comb through whatever the BL has digitised of landscape in the East Anglian Fens for my research, but the system just isn't set up that way (ie a searchable database). It's not as good as seeing the original, of course, but I'm in the US right now, and can't just run down to the BL to look at maps or drawings. Or texts for that matter, though most are now on Early English Books online. But the BL seems more interested in creating gallery like displays. Those are are very important, of course, for public outreach. I just wish the projects were in tandem. (And less time was spent going through the trouble of making pages "turn" and instead just more digitalisation accomplished.)
• You probably realise this, jb, but to turn the pages you have to drag, not just click. This is so that you can experience a realistic 'page-turning' animation rather than just moving to the next page - which rather reinforces the point you make (and of course you're right - the value of the BL derives from its content, not its Flash skills!)
• No, Plegmund, I didn't realise. That might explain why it didn't work in any of three browsers. (It also goes to prove that education cannot grant common sense :) [having now gotten it to work] I am disapointed - I was hoping that the sketchbook would be an exact digitazation of the original. But they've just stuck in selected drawings with a bit of text, seemingly aimed at grade school age. The drawings are small, and have little detail. I should write to the BL and make suggestions about their site.