As part of its Summer 2020 Small Talk Series, the Council of the Friends of the Princeton University Library held an online event with William Noel, John T. Maltsberger III '55 Associate University Librarian for Special Collections, who discusses the role of the digital image in the transformation of the cultural heritage landscape.

The digital image is not a surrogate for the original book. It is a primary resource in its own right, responsive to questions, subject to powerful manipulations, and open to deployment in contexts of which the physical book could only dream – if only it could think. The digital image also opens the world of rare books to an audience of millions.

In this talk, Noel discusses some of the potential of the digital image to transform the world of cultural heritage. He will also reassure that unique and material aspects of rare books will always remain at the heart of any Special Collections endeavor.