Do you prefer the feel of an iPad or of an old book in your hand? (Photo on right, of Charles' Dickens own copy of A Christmas Carol, by Jen Carlson/Gothamist)
Taking a page out of their "Find the Future"-themed centennial celebration exhibition this year, the New York Public Library unveiled today their first-ever iPad app, called Biblion: The Boundless Library. For those who can't get up to The Stacks in person, it's a nifty little way to peruse history from your lap.
The app focuses on the popular New York World's Fair 1939-40 collection, allowing users to scroll and zoom through "thousands of photos, internal documents and personal stories" from the exhibit. As part of the library's 100th birthday celebrations, they also plan to release a second app later this week, a "Find the Future" game, and designs for a third app later this summer are in the works. It's a little disconcerting to see the city's grandest testament to print go digital in such a flashy way, though the NYPL is not the first institution of its type to make the mobile move. No word yet on any of the Library's other collections that might make it into app form, though this could be the start of a beautiful relationship between tech nerds and bibliophiles.
The app is totally free—check out a video of how it works, and download the app here.
