Why Do the Pages Need to Turn?

Many museums and libraries provide images of pages from selected rare books online for scholarly review and the enjoyment of casual visitors. A page can be studied, sometimes enlarged, and you can often click a link to a static image of the next page. A child on a field trip or an online visitor, however, who can leaf through the pages of a rare manuscript or handle a historic document is quickly engaged, drawn into the book, and even transported back in time. Turning the pages provides context and context provides room for thought, imagination, and understanding. No one would argue that something would be lost by displaying the disembodied parts of a sculpture, even though all the pieces are there to be studied and admired. Sometimes a rare book in its original format is just as important. That's why many of the same institutions that provide images of rare books online display the originals behind glass in their collections. They recognize the intrinsic value of the book, itself.

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