Dan Brown has just donated $337,000 to Amsterdam’s Ritman Library, where he researched some of his best-selling novels, to help preserve its ancient works. The funding will assist in the digitization efforts of ancient texts and manuscripts.
The comprehensive digitization project will be carried out by Picturae, a company specializing in making Dutch cultural heritage digitally accessible. It is expected that the core collection of The Ritman Library will become available online in the spring of 2017.
The Ritman Library’s collection comprises some 25,000 works: 4,600 manuscripts and printed books before 1900, 20,000 books printed after 1900 and a very unique archival collections. The collection is regarded as world heritage, being one of the finest private collections of rare books in the world.
Director Esther Ritman: “It has always been our dream to connect this treasure house with the community and make it Hermetically Open to all. Thanks to Dan Brown we can digitize our core collection. I am thrilled to see this dream becoming a reality.”
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
