Open Forum

Dear Forum -- 

We are looking into buying a touchscreen kiosk for use in future exhibitions. While we envision it for a variety of media uses, one thought in particular is to use it for digitizing books so that visitors can virtually see more than just the page or two displayed. I have seen the turning the pages software developed by the British Library, but we are looking for a less expensive solution since we would not need it for every exhibition.

Does anyone have tips or recommendations of page-turning software that has worked well for your institution? Alternatively, I was thinking we could try to code something in HTML5 and incorporate it into a webpage that we'd point the touchscreen to. Has anyone done something like this before and had success? I'm open to other thoughts on digitizing books, too!

Thank you,

Margaret

margaret.walker@vanderbilt.edu 

Dear Forum -- 

We are looking into buying a touchscreen kiosk for use in future exhibitions. While we envision it for a variety of media uses, one thought in particular is to use it for digitizing books so that visitors can virtually see more than just the page or two displayed. I have seen the turning the pages software developed by the British Library, but we are looking for a less expensive solution since we would not need it for every exhibition.

Does anyone have tips or recommendations of page-turning software that has worked well for your institution? Alternatively, I was thinking we could try to code something in HTML5 and incorporate it into a webpage that we'd point the touchscreen to. Has anyone done something like this before and had success? I'm open to other thoughts on digitizing books, too!

Thank you,

Margaret

margaret.walker@vanderbilt.edu 

Dear Forum -- 

We are looking into buying a touchscreen kiosk for use in future exhibitions. While we envision it for a variety of media uses, one thought in particular is to use it for digitizing books so that visitors can virtually see more than just the page or two displayed. I have seen the turning the pages software developed by the British Library, but we are looking for a less expensive solution since we would not need it for every exhibition.

Does anyone have tips or recommendations of page-turning software that has worked well for your institution? Alternatively, I was thinking we could try to code something in HTML5 and incorporate it into a webpage that we'd point the touchscreen to. Has anyone done something like this before and had success? I'm open to other thoughts on digitizing books, too!

Thank you,

Margaret

margaret.walker@vanderbilt.edu 

We have been experimenting with Turn.js for an upcoming exhibition featuring Native American ledger book art. You can download version 3 for free here: Turn.js: The page flip effect in HTML5

Turn.js is a JavaScript library that you can use to turn HTML5 elements into flippable pages, and it works on touchscreen devices as well as on desktop. You just touch the corner of the page and it pops up a little dog-eared corner that you can drag to the next page. With some basic web/front end development skills (HTML5/CSS/jQuery), it is pretty easy to implement but will require some coding. When you download it, there are several helpful examples included in the zip file. Also, while you're designing the kiosk, it might help to do some visitor testing to make sure that people know that the corners are touchable, but other than than, it should be pretty easy to get up and running! Note, version 4 of this software requires a license. However, the features included in version 3 should be enough to create the necessary effect, and that version is free. Hope this helps.

Dear Forum -- 

We are looking into buying a touchscreen kiosk for use in future exhibitions. While we envision it for a variety of media uses, one thought in particular is to use it for digitizing books so that visitors can virtually see more than just the page or two displayed. I have seen the turning the pages software developed by the British Library, but we are looking for a less expensive solution since we would not need it for every exhibition.

Does anyone have tips or recommendations of page-turning software that has worked well for your institution? Alternatively, I was thinking we could try to code something in HTML5 and incorporate it into a webpage that we'd point the touchscreen to. Has anyone done something like this before and had success? I'm open to other thoughts on digitizing books, too!

Thank you,

Margaret

margaret.walker@vanderbilt.edu