Saturday, March 24, 2007

Globe Discovers BPL Maps Site

Well it's been five months since the site was unveiled, but the Boston Globe finally has a write-up of the BPL's digital maps portal. At least the better-late-than-never report includes some interesting comments on the digitization process and the (excellent) online viewer at the site:

"To achieve that level of resolution, the maps and atlases are laid out on a sort of reverse air-hockey table that sucks air instead of blowing it, pulling the documents flat, said Thomas Blake, director of the library's digital imaging lab. Technicians then focus a digital camera 10-times more powerful than most consumer models and capture an 88 megapixel image."

If you haven't had a chance to stop by and check out the site, I do highly recommend it.