British Library treasures in full: Magna Carta

British Library treasures in full: Magna Carta

This online exhibition by the British Library is part of the "Treasures in Full" section on the Library's website, which provides digital versions of important British texts in their entirety. Also included in this group are Caxton's Chaucer, two copies of the Gutenberg Bible, and 93 copies of 21 quarto versions of the plays of Shakespeare.

Collection Principles: The purpose of the "Treasures in Full" exhibition seems to be to share with the public some of the most important and popular holdings of the British Library. Additionally, these works all share the characteristic of being rare; there are only four surviving copies of the original drafting of the Magna Carta in 1215. If the purpose of this online digital collection is to share these resources with the world, why, then, is the Treasures in Full homepage so difficult to get to from the British Library main page? I bookmarked the Magna Carta page when I first found it, which is lucky since I was unable to find it again from the BL homepage. From the BL homepage, you have to navigate to the Online Gallery page, then click on the "Showcases" link where you choose "Historical Texts" from the list of collections, then click on "Magna Carta," which takes you to a description of the Magna Carta with a single image of the document. If you look to the right you will see a link that says "Treasures in Full" under the heading "Tell Me More." This will take you to the "Treasures in Full" Magna Carta page. From there you can click on the "Other Treasures in Full" link to find the rest of the documents in this collection. If there is a more direct way to find the "Treasures in Full" homepage, I was not able to find it. The British Library does attend, however, to intellectual property issues. At the bottom of each page of the "Treasures in Full" exhibition are the links "Disclaimer," "Copyright," and "Privacy."

Object Characteristics: The "Treasures in Full" site for the Magna Carta allows you to manipulate the digital version of this single-page document by zooming. There is the capability to move to the next image once you have zoomed in, but you cannot actually pan. This is a bit frustrating, since, if you have zoomed in as far as possible, moving to the adjacent images causes you to lose your place. These capabilities are perfectly suitable for the purpose of this digital object, and absolutely spectacular for anyone who wants to examine the document in more detail but can't manage to make it the British Library. In fact, you can examine the document in greater detail in its digital manifestation than in its physical one. The more you zoom, the lower the quality of the digital image. 4x zoom is the limit, and at this point the image is already quite fuzzy. You probably wouldn't want to zoom in any further without a higher resolution digital image. Also provided is an English translation of the Latin text. The "Treasures in Full" homepage does not provide any information on how these documents were digitized, when they were digitized, or any other information related to the digital objects as objects in themselves. Neither was I able to find any information about this on the Online Gallery homepage or the British Library website main page.

Metadata: The only metadata related to the digital object is the statement underneath it that indicates that its copyright belongs to the British Library Board. If you click on the image to zoom in, you are given instructions on how to use the viewer with which the document is presented. On the "Treasures in Full" Magna Carta page no information is provided about the physical object. However, if you find the Magna Carta page under the "Historical Texts" link from the "Showcases" page of the Online Gallery, the image of the Magna Carta there is from BL Cotton MS Augustus II. 106. However, since the British Library has two copies of the Magna Carta, one cannot be sure if the digitial object in the "Treasures in Full" exhibition is also BL Cotton MS Augustus II. 106. As previously mentioned, information on copyright and terms of use are provided via the links at the foot of the pages.

Intended Audience: I think that the general public is the intended audience for this digital version of the Magna Carta. It's purpose seems to be to showcase one of the library's most important holdings, to share it with a community that is not limited to those who can physically visit the Library. This digital object is intended for the use of anyone and everyone, for those people who are looking for it particularly and for those who just happen to come accross it. This digital version of the Magna Carta is clearly not intended for intense scholarly use. For example, the poor resolution at high magnification suggests that the Library did not have paleographers in mind when they chose how to digitize the document. That does not mean, however, that this digital version of the Magna Carta is entirely useless to scholars. It does provide a way for anyone to have access to this important document in way that they cannot have access to the physical object.