Why put this on a CD‐ROM, and who will buy it and use it? These questions seem especially relevant when comparing this product with the equivalent printed book (Barker, 1988) which does the job rather well already. The electronic version may be cheaper, but is it really just a gimmick? It all depends on the intended use of the programme: it is sold as a single‐user product, but it is easy to imagine a particular use in an educational setting, specifically middle and senior school contexts. That is not to say that it will not be appreciated by many individual users also in a range of settings, particularly among those already heavily attuned to seeking and finding their information on a screen. And such a product does make a beginning to the commercial exploitation of electronic access featuring elsewhere in the Library itself and in its other virtual manifestations. A “beginning” since the pattern of most of the contents (although not all ‐ there are one or two surprises) will be anticipated by and familiar to many of our readers at least. That familiarity leads to a slight sense of disappointment at the obviousness of the selection, but a disappointment not shared by those purchasers who will expect the most famous treasures (the Lindisfarne Gospels, Gutenberg Bible, Magna Carta and the rest) to be included (and would quite justifiably be annoyed if they were not).
The main menu arranges the hundred items by category: sacred texts, Western illuminated manuscripts, Oriental illuminated manuscripts, English literary manuscripts, printing and bookbinding, historical documents, music manuscripts, maps and views, sound recordings, and newspapers and stamps. A further menu at each category then takes the user to specific items. The obvious inclusions have been indicated but, to be fair, the selection is very broad and serves to demonstrate the enormous range and richness of the British Library’s collections in different media and formats. Among these riches presented here are a manuscript of Chaucer and autographs of Pope, Emily Brontë, Jane Austen and Wilfred Owen; a Chinese globe, Duke’s plan of New York, a view of Benares, the Matthew Paris map and a Saxton county map. And among the obvious are some items less so in just about every category: a German propaganda broadsheet imitating copy of the Evening Standard and announcing heavy British defeats, and an issue of The Sun commemorating Queen Victoria’s coronation in a splendour its modern namesake would find it difficult to match. The music section ranges from Sumer is I‐cumen In, through the great classical composers to Elgar and the Beatles. And there is room for the poignant: Lady Jane Grey’s prayer book with an autograph inscription by her. The only subject lacking, and the omission is a serious one unless there are plans for a further separate programme, is science and technology.
Each item is represented by a single image. This generally appears well on the screen, but a zoom facility is useful in every case and essential in quite a few (certainly if one wants to try and read any text); the maps generally reveal the poorest degree of legibility. To support the images there are short texts in pop‐up boxes; these are useful for brief background information but the amount of detail they give is very limited. Sound bites are also provided, again giving commentary on the images or performance of excerpts of historical and musical items.
There is plenty there to play with; and images can also be saved and printed for further study (copyright restrictions are indicated with the package). It is all great fun to browse in and I can imagine many “general” users finding this a very attractive and worthwhile item both for interest and study. The power of modern technology, and one increasingly commonly available in the home as well as the classroom, has again been harnessed to open the British Library’s virtual door that bit wider. This is an excellent taster, one hopes, for further programmes either ranging both more widely and deeper into the collections, or taking a more detailed approach to particular items included here (not forgetting other information technologies since the Lindisfarne Gospels (Backhouse, 1995) are already the subject of a book and British Library video). The programme is very user‐friendly and attractive and, published at a very reasonable price, it deserves to sell widely to personal customers and to some institutional libraries and other educational bodies.
