Reading an Item

There are many ways to dive into the JCB's rich collection

You are welcome to come to Providence and become a reader in the JCB's W. Duncan MacMillan Reading Room. The Reading Room is typically open Monday through Thursday, 10 am to 12:45 pm and 2 pm to 4:45 pm; and Friday, 10 am to 12:45 pm.

But we know not everyone can make the trek to Providence, or needs a research reservation to answer their questions.

Americana provides many tools to let you read online, such as zoom, image adjustments, thumbnail view, a bibliographic overview, and more.

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Image Viewer

If an item you are interested in is digitized, you'll be able to read it using the embedded image viewer. Our image viewer, a version of Mirador, is designed to provide you with many options to customize your reading experience.

You can zoom in and out, adjust the image settings like contrast and brightness, and rotate the image if that helps you read things like marginalia or labels.

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Zooming

To zoom in or out:

Using a computer: Click on the area you want to zoom in on, or hold Shift and click on the image to zoom out. You can also use your mouse scroll wheel.

Using a mobile device: Pinch the image using two fingers.

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Adjusting the Image

You don't need to download an image to adjust it to your needs. The fourth button from the top in the left-hand menu will open up Mirador's options for adjusting the image.

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Image Adjustment Menu

The background will turn black to help you focusing on the adjustments, and a small menu will be expanded, with a number of options:

Rotate Left: Rotate the image 90 degrees to the left.

Rotate Right: Rotate the image 90 degrees to the right.

Flip: Invert the image horizontally.

Brightness: Manually adjust the brightness of the image. This tool is very helpful in combination with contrast to improve faded text.

Contrast: Allows you to manually adjust the contrast of the image. This tool is particularly useful for improving the visibility of faded prints and text.

Color Temperature: Adjusts how 'warm' (yellowish) or 'cold' (bluish) qualities of an image. Adjusting this can help distinguish manuscript marks from printed text.

Grayscale: The greyscale button can be used to convert the image to black and white, removing all color.

Invert: This button polarizes the colors of the image. Use it to discover hidden details and marks in the document that you are reading.

Return: Turn the adjustments back to the original.

Close: Close the Adjust Image Menu.

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Skimming Through a Book

The default view for a print or single image is a folio, or single sheet, symbolized by a single rectangle in the lower right. The default view of a book is of an opening (symbolized by two connected rectangles). If you want to quickly leaf the pages of a book, click on the thumbnail view button on the lower right corner of the image, which looks like a grid of four.

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Thumbnail View

This will display the pages of a book as a gallery of small images, which loads faster and allows you to easily identify chapters, maps, images and other parts of the text. If you double click any of the thumbnails, the viewer will open the corresponding page.

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