The Koran Goes Digital

The British Library, the national library of Great Britain, renown for its extensive collection of over 150 million items covering every age of written civilization in the world that have been collected over the last 250 years, has made the Koran available on a computer screen. The 700-year-old Koran, copied in gold ink by an Egyptian master calligrapher in 1304, has now been digitized, so that visitors to the National Library can browse through its computerized pages and appreciate its beauty. The browser uses touch screen technology known as "Turning the Pages" to provide readers the look and impression of actually turning pages in the work. The British Library plans to post images from the Koran on their Web Site at www.bl.uk and will also sell these on CD-ROMs.