Yay! Music to a book lover’s ears:
Scholars and others interested in flipping through some of the Library of Congress‘ most fragile books will be able to tap the knowledge without damaging the artifacts.
Librarian of Congress James H. Billington said Wednesday the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation awarded a $2 million grant to the world’s largest library for a program to digitize thousands of works with a major focus on “brittle books.”
The project supplements other efforts at the Library of Congress along with private companies such as Google Inc. and Microsoft Corp. Those massive book digitization projects, however, have typically shied away from materials in vulnerable conditions.