The Complete Archive of National Geographic Magazine on Six DVD's
Every now and then a fee-based product comes around that we believe deserves your attention. The following is one of them.
Chris Pendleton on the Bing Blog reminds us that a major digitization project, every issue ever published of National Geographic from 1887-2008, is now available (it was officially released yesterday according to this media announcement) on 6 DVD's or an external hard drive. That's right, all of the writing, the legendary imagery, the supplement , even the advertisements are included. For many topics, Nat Geo magazine is a resource that documents people, places, and events, on a global scale. In other words, for all of the reasons just mentioned and many others, makes the magazine an important part of the historical record.
By the way, the reason it was mentioned on the Bing Blog is because Bing is providing some the technology that powers the digitized version this recently released collection.
Nat Geo uses Bing Maps in their Geobrowse functionality which allows you to browse a map anywhere in the world to find locations where relevant articles are referenced using geographic metadata.
Yes, we still love paper and those massive collections of past issues of the print version of National Geographic Magazine many people own (where are yours)? They're also important.
That said, we also hear and read that for today's student, it's all about digital access. Yes, of course, that's rather sad. However, a digitized archive of this size and scope can truly demonstrate the power of digital info technology for people of all ages and turn 120 years of content into important research and learning resources.
Another digitized archive of the magazine was released seven years abut this 120 year collection is the most complete version ever published with more content, more search options, saving/sharing tools, interactive maps, and more. One thing we noticed right of the bat is the that the new version is available for both PC and Mac. The "112 year version" was PC only.
+ All Issues from October, 1888-December, 2008 are included
+ Six DVD's include more than 200,000 pages; 300 wall map supplements, more than 8,400 articles; more than 250,000 photographs
+ All images scanned in high-resolution
+ Flip one page at a time, zoom, print
+ Geobrowse
A new Geobrowse function powered by Bing Maps that allows users with Internet access to search nearly 5,000 locations on a globe that are featured in the magazine's archive of articles and maps.
+ Search by keyword, date, contributor, and topic; refine by date or content type
+ Browse by month or year
+ Create personalized reading lists; share these lists with other users in the Nat Geo community
+ Pre-loaded "favorite article lists" compiled by experts
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