Realistic books: A bizarre homage to an obsolete medium?

Abstract

For many readers, handling a physical book is an enjoyably exquisite part of the information seeking process. Many physical characteristics of a book-its size, heft, the patina of use on its pages and so on-communicate ambient qualities of the document it represents. In contrast, the experience of accessing and exploring digital library documents is often dull. The emphasis is utilitarian; technophile rather than bibliophile. We have extended the page-turning algorithm we reported at last year's JCDL into a scaleable, systematic approach that allows users to view and interact with realistic visualizations of any textual-based document in a Greenstone collection. Here, we further motivate the approach, illustrate the system in use, discuss the system architecture and present a user evaluation Our work leads us to believe that far from being a whimsical gimmick, physical book models can usefully complement conventional document viewers and increase the perceived value of a digital library system.