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Visual History Reviews 673 Franklin's Second Expedition to the Shores ofthe Polar Sea, London, 1828, vol. 2 [CD-ROM]. Dartmouth, NS: CD-Academia Book Company 1999. $59.95 Back's Narrative ofan Expedition in H.M.S. Terror, London, 1838, vol. 4 [CD-ROM]. Dartmouth, NS: CD-Academia Book Company 1999. $39.95 These two volumes are part of a continuing series of republications of books on Arctic exploration issued in CD-ROM format. The others to date are Franklin's journey to the Shores ofthe Polar Sea (1823), Back's Narrative of the Arctic Land Expedition to the Mouth of the Great Fish River (1836), and Lyon's The Private journal ofCaptain G.F. Lyon, H.M.S. Hecla, during the Recent Voyage ofDiscovery under Captain Parry (1825). Unlike the usual reviews in this journal, this one will not assess the merits ofthese volumes as history. It will be taken as given that these are important books in the history ofArctic exploration and the history ofthe Canadian North. Rather, this review will deal with the format in which they have been reissued. These books are classics ofwhat might be called the 'Franklin period,' the years between 1819, when John (later Sir John) Franklin first came to the Canadian North, and the late 1850s, when the search for his last expedition began to peter out. This was the high point ofBritish involvement in the region (later exploration was dominated by Scandinavians), and these books were originally published to satisfy the interest and curiosity ofa large and eager public. Such a reissue is worthwhile, for these books are virtually impossible to obtain except at huge expense from rare book dealers. Where they exist in libraries, they are usually in the rare book collections, where they must be handled with cotton gloves. Shoving them into a photocopying machine to take copies of the maps (some of which are unwieldy and delicate) and illustrations is out of the question. Thus, on practical grounds alone, these reissues are valuable. The reproduction ofthe books contained in the CDs is excellent. First, there is a scanned version ofthe original pages. Then, a reworked text, which is a page-for-page copy of the original, but in a much more readable font, which is, moreover, searchable. Finally, and this is perhaps the best feature, the illustrations have been scanned at both low and high resolutions. The low-resolution version loads quickly and is satisfactory for viewing. The high-resolution version can be zoomed for detail, and the images can be printed. Having said this, however, there are three difficulties with these CDs. The least important one is that the price listed above applies only to individual copies. Libraries must pay nearly three times as much: the Franklin volume is $112 for libraries and some may well baulk at this 674 The Canadian Historical Review price. The second problem is that the book is all there is on the CD. Surely it would have been possible to collect some secondary material on Franklin's life and career to put the volume into context. Movies issued on DVD disks quite often have interviews with the director, outtakes, and other material. Could this not have been done here? Some additional material in text form would not have taken up much space. This comment leads to the third difficulty - that this material already exists, in two different forms, issued by the Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproductions. Here I must declare a conflict ofinterest, since I am the president ofthe Board of Directors of this organization. The CIHM has issued all ofthese volumes on microfiche. Although most ofthe buyers are university libraries, anyone may purchase an individual volume quite cheaply. Of course, this is microfiche, which is no fun to read, and is for serious researchers only. More recently, however, the CIHM has included both these volumes in its Early Canadiana Online series on the Web. Both have been scanned from originals, and both are fully searchable, as well as being free. This competition puts the volumes under review at a disadvantage, since the only material they contain that the CIHM versions do not is the maps and illustrations in printable...

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