RESEARCH General Education

LIBRARY TECHNOLOGY
Equipment allows patrons to examine rare materials safely

Andrea Lynn, Humanities & Social Sciences Editor
(217) 333-2177; a-lynn@uiuc.edu

4/1/03

Photo by Bill Wiegand Beth Sandore, associate university librarian for information technology planning and policy, says the IBM gift will allow the display of high-resolution images of rare materials.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — The problem has long vexed librarians: How do you give scholars and other patrons free reign to use old, precious and rare materials without taking the chance that they will damage them through use or, worse yet, carelessness?

Thanks to an equipment gift from IBM, some of the librarians at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign won’t have to worry about that dilemma.

That is because IBM, through its Shared University Research program, has just given the University Library four pieces of high-tech equipment that will allow it to provide safe access to rare and fragile materials that are being endangered through normal use.

The two high-resolution T221 monitors and two IBM Intellistations (workstations) will allow the Library’s Digital Imaging and Media Technology Initiative (DIMTI) staff to display high-resolution images of rare materials so that on-site users can view and use those images.

"Until now, the Library has lacked the equipment to display digital images at a quality high enough to meet the needs of scholars who need to view and evaluate details that may be critical to their work," said Beth Sandore, associate university librarian for information technology planning and policy.

According to Sandore, the new monitors can display color images at what she called an "astounding quality" of 9.2 million pixels on a 22.2-inch screen, "affording viewing quality comparable to the original document." In comparison, a reasonably good 20-inch monitor displays up to 2 million pixels. What is more, "with this new equipment, patrons can view and study collections that the Library has digitized without risking undue wear and tear on fragile source materials."

The Library’s preeminent collection of 67 rare German "emblem" books – containing some 10,000 emblems – will be the first materials to be "saved" by the equipment gift.

Emblem books are mind-boggling, brain-teasing illustrated books that were produced in Europe from the 16th to the 18th centuries. Mottoes or short verses accompany the illustrations, but the "secret" messages that emblem books carry are deeply and cleverly embedded and must be decoded through the reader’s keen knowledge of the Bible, classics and philosophy.

The German emblem books – all bound and extremely rare – measure about 4 inches by 5 inches, although some are as small as 2 inches by 4. Many are "extremely delicate," Sandore said, "making it difficult for scholars to examine them without exposing them to the potential for further damage."

The Library owns more than 650 original emblem books in all, which makes it one of the largest such collections in the world. Its oldest emblem book dates to 1540.
Other campus collections could benefit from the new equipment, both in terms of preservation and access, including rare maps, aerial photography, oversized materials and various print collections.