Explore history in the real world with Booksnake. View digitized items at life size in your space.
Just aim your iPhone or iPad at a flat surface, tap the screen to place your item, and move around to explore. Get in close to see fine details. Step back for an overview. Or walk around to see your item from all sides. As you move, Booksnake keeps the virtual item pinned in place—exactly where you want it.
Booksnake currently offers access to more than three million digitized items held by the Library of Congress, including historical maps, books, manuscripts, newspapers, and more. What will you discover?
Booksnake is designed and built by a multidisciplinary team at the University of Southern California: Sean Fraga, Christy Ye, Henry Huang, Zack Sai, Michael Hughes, and April Yao, with support form Peter Mancall, Amy Braden, Curtis Fletcher, Samir Ghosh, and Mats Borges.
Booksnake is a joint project of the Humanities in a Digital World program (USC Dornsife) and the Ahmanson Lab (USC Libraries). The Humanities in a Digital World program is funded by a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The National Endowment for the Humanities provided major financial support for Booksnakes development via Digital Humanities Advancement Grants.