UK: Cambridge Digital Library Looks to Turn Traditional Library ‘Inside Out’

From the BBC:

It was proclaimed as a “digital library for the world”, with scholars, students and bookworms being able to access some of the rarest and most significant pieces of literature ever written.

A year on, thousands of books and manuscripts held by the University of Cambridge have been uploaded to the Cambridge Digital Library, and many more are expected to be digitised in the next couple of years.
But it is a mammoth project – how do you put 600-year’s worth of the written word on the internet?
The answer is with a team of about 30 people, an 80-megapixel camera, a high-performance scanner and a lot of dedication.
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A further 100,000 digitised images are expected to be uploaded next year. But despite the project taking potentially years to complete, Mr Young believes it will “undoubtedly” be worth the effort.
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“Over the next year we’re going to be developing means of people annotating the content or easily sharing it via social media.
“If they want to have a go at adding a transcription or translation for other languages we will be turning that on as well.

Read the Complete Article
Direct to Cambridge Digital Library
See Also: New Online: Cambridge University Library Digitizes Collection of Significant Religious Manuscripts (December 12, 2012)
See Also: Cambridge Digital Library Launches (Free) with 4000 Pages of Material by Sir Issac Newton (December 11, 2011)

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