I have mixed feelings about it. It's nice to let more people have access to a rare book. (In this case, there are only about 120 setsextant). But it's nothing like seeing the book. In fact, I find Pittsburgh's own presentation of the same images to be more useful.

And neither compare to the weekly visits I made to the Amherst College Library's Special Collections to see the next page. Of course, even over 4 years I didn't get a chance to see all 435 plates. Eight years of grad school should been enough to see the remainder but I don't think I knew that Michigan also owned a set and they didn't have it on view back then.

To read Birds of America with PictureIt, see:PictureIt Rare Book Reader(www.lib.umich.edu/news/pictureit-rare-book-reader)

To see the University of Pittsburgh presentation, see:Audubon's Birds of America(digital.library.pitt.edu/a/audubon/)