IT and science: Rare globe collection will be digitize in USA

A sneak preview of 3D Imaging at the Osher Map Library and Smith Center for Cartographic Education moving forward into the future of digitizing cultural heritage, OML’s Digital Imaging Center is engaged in an innovative project to three-dimensionally image the library’s rare globe collection, the second-largest of its kind in a U.S. public institution. Generous grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Friends of the Osher Map Library support the conservation, and subsequent 3D imaging, of the collection's most threatened or valuable items. Digitization will make it possible for students and members of the public to manipulate and examine the rare globes online, preventing potential handling damage to these delicate objects. A digital undertaking such as this is no small task, considering that full-rounded 3D imaging by cultural institutions is still at its infant stage.

The commercial company, Ortery, provided the equipment and software used to three-dimensionally image the globes.

This particular digital view constitutes a 'before' documentation of an un-conserved globe, the 1792 Globo Celeste by Giovanni Maria Cassini.