A trip down to Oxford awaits David and Iain at the end of May. They will be attending two meetings during the visit. The first is with representatives from Oxford University and the second may prove to be very exciting indeed.

It is with a company from Virginia named Visionary Technology in Library Solutions (VTLS) who are currently working with both Google and the University of Oxford libraries. VTLS are supplying the University of Oxford with software for the use of Fedora in a library context and in turn the Oxford library is being given a virtual makeover with the help of books digitised by Google. The partnership between Oxford and Google is of such considerable significance that Google now have offices based on the Oxford University campus.

The advent of World Book Day on March 1st of this year provided the perfect opportunity for VTLS, Oxford and Google to provide an example of the kind of work they have been carrying out. To celebrate the day the Bodleian Library displayed original letters as well as manuscripts and special illustrated editions of the classic children’s book ‘The Wind in the Willows’. However for those that couldn’t physically visit the manuscripts it was and is still possible to explore the classic story through Google Book Search where the first 1908 edition and other in-print versions have been digitised and are available to look at online.

This partnership also opens up significant possibilities for the work that the Spoken Word is involved in. Our user licence agreement with the BBC would mean that the manuscripts of work could be supplemented with rich audio and video resources. In the case of ‘The Wind in the Willows’ a user could read the manuscript and then watch or listen to various BBC adaptations ensuring that the following of the adventures of Mr Toad, Ratty and Mole become all the more vivid for future generations.

Photo Courtesy of: ConnieG