The British Library (BL) has introduced a new service that offers access to thousands of unique and unusual images from its holdings of illuminated manuscripts, archive photographs, maps, and engravings. Images Online (http://www.bl.uk/imagesonline) enables users to search thousands of items from Library collections and currently contains around 8,000 images, ranging from medieval depictions of witchcraft to Lewis Carroll's original drawings for Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. The Library hopes to have 17,000 images online by year's end.
While many of these have come from the Picture Library's existing collection of transparencies, some 2,500 are newly digitized images from manuscripts, maps, Asia Pacific and Africa collections, music, and philately. Developed in collaboration with image management company iBase, Images Online offers users a sophisticated search facility--including keyword or shelfmark searches and browsing by subject--and the option to buy and download small image files. A link to the Picture Library allows users to order larger files.
High-resolution versions of images are available for purchase. Small JPEG files (5MB uncompressed) can be paid for by credit card on the site and downloaded instantly. Large TIFF files (30MB) on CD-ROM can be ordered by sending an email to imagesonline@bl.uk. Some images are also available as transparencies. Low-resolution images found on these pages may be freely downloaded for personal use by individuals and by schools.
The British Library is the United Kingdom's national library and one of the largest libraries in the world. Its collections include manuscripts, rare books and maps from every continent, spanning nearly 3,000 years.
Posted May 07, 2003