I’d like to talk about what we have developed so far in the TILT project in collaboration with the British Library. Many museums and libraries have images of old books, typescripts and manuscripts for which they want to provide better access. However, all that is usually done is to present the user with a long list of lifeless book and page images, which fail to engage the user in any kind of meaningful interaction. As a first step to overcome this problem the page-images must be connected with the text of the books or manuscripts they relate to. The user needs to search a text, to find the corresponding page image, and to see where the searched-for text is on that image. The user will also need to read and comment on a text and to compare the transcription with the original document. These can easily be different if the original has been edited, if the spelling has been normalised, or if the transcription is simply inaccurate. A separate transcription can also greatly clarify what is written on the page, and for optimum readability on a variety of devices it should not follow the precise layout of the original.  (more…)