36 ms·

I'd rather have a thousand text files which are platform portable.

wzdd 15y ago
> I'd rather have a thousand text files Then you are certainly not the target audience. "The books have been scanned in high resolution and color so you can see the engraved illustrations, the beauty of the embossed covers, along with maps and even the texture of the paper the books were printed on." A better quip would involve PNG files.
- chrisjsmith 15y ago
  Text files and PNG files then for the images then. What people don't realise is that the content is important and the format is not.
  - rubyrescue 15y ago
    many would disagree with that - the medium certainly effects and at the least contextualizes a message... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_medium_is_the_message http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_medium_is_the_message
    - wzdd 15y ago
      I'd suggest two things are of value in this app: firstly, the the "format" of these particular editions, and, secondly, their curation as an app. If you want to read "Excursions in Madeira and Porto Santo", by T. Edward Bowdich, Esq. (one of the books), then archive.org has an excellent copy, here: http://www.archive.org/details/excursionsinmade01bowd http://www.archive.org/details/excursionsinmade01bowd However, you probably would never read such a book. You may, however, browse through the version included with the British Library app. The BL version is a very nice edition, with colour plates. More importantly, the BL version is presented as part of a collection of interesting old books, which means that a lot more people will be reading about Mr. Bowdich, Esq.'s adventures this weekend than would normally be doing so. The presentation of the books is of general interest. By contrast, the actual text content of the book is of very specialised interest, and the (decontextualised) pictures not much less so. Format is very important.
    - chrisjsmith 15y ago
      The problem is that there are now a pile more mediums to deliver the message on depending on how much you can afford to pay out. The information should be uniformly available to all, which I believe is the point of the British Library. However, having been there a number of times, it's a pain in the arse to use the BL anyway and copying anything for reference (like you used to do down your local library) is virtually impossible now. So it's literally sit and copy the work out.
  - oscardelben 15y ago
    format is important in order to make sense of content. I'm sure right now they have a huge database with lots of scanned images, and an app like this helps to make sense of it. If I'd have a big zip file containing all those books, it would be difficult to browse through them. They said they're planning to add support for other devices, so you may still get what you want one day.
  - mikecane 15y ago
    Text files take away the writer's intent. "To Sherlock Holmes, she is always be the woman." That is a rare instance of Conan Doyle using italics. And he meant it.
- vixen99 15y ago
  Put another way, why has the UK taxpayer-funded BL made its initial offering only for Apple customers?
  - smcl 15y ago
    Probably the same reason the UK license-fee-funded BBC initially supported iPlayer on Windows only - it's the most popular tablet platform (or so I believe). The Kindle\Android flavours are apparently on their way, let's give them a chance eh.
    - chrisjsmith 15y ago
      However there are totally open formats which you could use on all platforms... I'm not sure the popularity of the iPad is actually as high as everyone thinks. I think that's the Apple marketing reality distortion field. I see WAY more Kindles and Android phones than I see iPhones and iPads on trains in and out of London where I live.
      - Retric 15y ago
        The iPad is by far the most popular tablet and still makes up over 50% of the market. The iPhone is a vary popular phone, but there are far more options for phones out there than tablets.
        chrisjsmith 15y ago
        Incorrect. It makes up 50% of the SALES of an unclearly defined MARKET and term TABLET.
        Terretta 15y ago
        Forget 50%. iPad has 53 TIMES the online usage of the nearest competitor: http://mashable.com/2011/06/02/ipad-web-usage/ http://mashable.com/2011/06/02/ipad-web-usage/ Your certainty that reality is otherwise seems to be in want of a citation.

wzdd 15y ago

> I'd rather have a thousand text files Then you are certainly not the target audience. "The books have been scanned in high resolution and color so you can see the engraved illustrations, the beauty of the embossed covers, along with maps and even the texture of the paper the books were printed on." A better quip would involve PNG files.

chrisjsmith 15y ago
Text files and PNG files then for the images then. What people don't realise is that the content is important and the format is not.
- rubyrescue 15y ago
  many would disagree with that - the medium certainly effects and at the least contextualizes a message... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_medium_is_the_message http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_medium_is_the_message
  - wzdd 15y ago
    I'd suggest two things are of value in this app: firstly, the the "format" of these particular editions, and, secondly, their curation as an app. If you want to read "Excursions in Madeira and Porto Santo", by T. Edward Bowdich, Esq. (one of the books), then archive.org has an excellent copy, here: http://www.archive.org/details/excursionsinmade01bowd http://www.archive.org/details/excursionsinmade01bowd However, you probably would never read such a book. You may, however, browse through the version included with the British Library app. The BL version is a very nice edition, with colour plates. More importantly, the BL version is presented as part of a collection of interesting old books, which means that a lot more people will be reading about Mr. Bowdich, Esq.'s adventures this weekend than would normally be doing so. The presentation of the books is of general interest. By contrast, the actual text content of the book is of very specialised interest, and the (decontextualised) pictures not much less so. Format is very important.
  - chrisjsmith 15y ago
    The problem is that there are now a pile more mediums to deliver the message on depending on how much you can afford to pay out. The information should be uniformly available to all, which I believe is the point of the British Library. However, having been there a number of times, it's a pain in the arse to use the BL anyway and copying anything for reference (like you used to do down your local library) is virtually impossible now. So it's literally sit and copy the work out.
- oscardelben 15y ago
  format is important in order to make sense of content. I'm sure right now they have a huge database with lots of scanned images, and an app like this helps to make sense of it. If I'd have a big zip file containing all those books, it would be difficult to browse through them. They said they're planning to add support for other devices, so you may still get what you want one day.
- mikecane 15y ago
  Text files take away the writer's intent. "To Sherlock Holmes, she is always be the woman." That is a rare instance of Conan Doyle using italics. And he meant it.
vixen99 15y ago
Put another way, why has the UK taxpayer-funded BL made its initial offering only for Apple customers?
- smcl 15y ago
  Probably the same reason the UK license-fee-funded BBC initially supported iPlayer on Windows only - it's the most popular tablet platform (or so I believe). The Kindle\Android flavours are apparently on their way, let's give them a chance eh.
  - chrisjsmith 15y ago
    However there are totally open formats which you could use on all platforms... I'm not sure the popularity of the iPad is actually as high as everyone thinks. I think that's the Apple marketing reality distortion field. I see WAY more Kindles and Android phones than I see iPhones and iPads on trains in and out of London where I live.
    - Retric 15y ago
      The iPad is by far the most popular tablet and still makes up over 50% of the market. The iPhone is a vary popular phone, but there are far more options for phones out there than tablets.
      - chrisjsmith 15y ago
        Incorrect. It makes up 50% of the SALES of an unclearly defined MARKET and term TABLET.
        Terretta 15y ago
        Forget 50%. iPad has 53 TIMES the online usage of the nearest competitor: http://mashable.com/2011/06/02/ipad-web-usage/ http://mashable.com/2011/06/02/ipad-web-usage/ Your certainty that reality is otherwise seems to be in want of a citation.