It is only well after I left college that I figured out the fun of finding reasons to 'research' things. The treasure hunt of digging for something not easily found online. I'm not creative (or curious) enough for this to come up often but am delighted when I get the chance to explore the depths of a library's offerings.
It's also rewarding to chase down a tight run of connections. This week's has been Dicken's Fair -> a musical about "The Naming of Uranus" -> reading about historical lady mathematicians -> visiting the Suzzallo library -> getting to use the Micro Print machine!
I'm perhaps known amongst some friends for my love of pushing the printing limits in making mini books. Imagine my awe and delight at getting to hold a micro print page! Now THIS would make a tiny book!
100 pages per sheet and absolutely not legible with the naked eye! Pages were brought into focus (on the digital screen) by panning the tray about. Not only easy to use, it made reading more fun! The book I wanted was actually missing the first sheet- thankfully there was a scanned copy I could read on a library machine -- interesting to see the aged pages in the 'digital' version, but I much preferred reading the micro print (even though it too was delivered to me 'digitally' at the end)
If I'd brought my Moment macro lens I could have taken some sweet photos (and read on my phone!) -- my new Pixel 8's macro mode just barely makes the text legible.
The initial bio on Mary Somerville I read mentioned that her writing was accessible and after reading a chunk of it for 20 minutes I heartily agree. Initially published in 1834, I'm sure there's a couple copies floating around out there (the library does have a physical copy, but it's at the off-site auxiliary and requires planning/advanced notice to get ahold of) -- makes me happy to now have a title to keep an eye out for in those rare bookshops/the collectables field.
