Point: An NYPL Digital Publication

Part magazine, part digital exhibition, Point gives readers a taste of NYPL’s unparalleled collections by showcasing photos, prints, maps, multimedia and more within a gorgeously designed iBook. Each free edition also contains a guide that invites you to learn more using related Library resources. Point is currently available as an iBook, viewable in iBooks 2 on an iPad running iOS5. It will soon be released in PDF and ePub formats.

Read about current and past editions of Point, which are available for FREE download from iBooks, here:

Point Volume 1, Edition 4: Frankenstein, Making a Modern Monster

How is life created; what does it mean to be human; and is there such a thing as inherent good or evil? This edition of The New York Public Library’s Point tackles these eternal themes in relationship to Mary Shelley's classic novel Frankenstein with an essay by transmedia scholar Henry Jenkins, plus more than 70 images and dramatic audio readings drawn from The Carl H. Pzforzheimer Collection of Shelley and His Circle at The New York Public Library as well as Oxford University’s Bodleian Libraries. Published October 22, 2012.

Point Volume 1, Edition 3: John Cage's Prepared Piano

Born the son of an inventor, American composer John Cage (1912–1992) died the father of musical invention. NYPL Point: John Cage’s Prepared Piano examines his innovative and radical technique of “preparing” a single piano to make it sound like a percussion ensemble. The book contains exclusive images from NYPL’s John Cage Music Manuscript Collection (held at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center), videos, intervews, and much more. And, through a call-out contained within the book, we invite you to contribute your own videos showing how you play Cage’s works to NYPL’s ever-growing online resource John Cage Unbound: A Living Archive. John Cage believed that anybody can feel and play music—and that all sounds are good. Published September 5, 2012.

Point Volume 1, Edition 2: E.L. Trouvelot's Astronomical Drawings

Étienne Léopold Trouvelot (1827–1895), an artist as well as amateur entomologist and astronomer, produced thousands of scientific illustrations over his lifetime. This edition of Point pairs 15 vibrantly colored prints by Trouvelot, held in NYPL's Rare Book Division, with modern day NASA photographs of the actual celestial bodies and phenomena Trouvelot depicted. In exclusive videos, NYPL librarians share their insights about how his prints—works of art in their own right—are surprisingly accurate. Published August 27, 2012.

Point Volume 1, Edition 1: Kenn Duncan's Male Photography

The works of Kenn Duncan, a former dancer and photographer whose images are now held by The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, provide a window into the vibrant performing arts scene of the 1970s as well as New York City and its myriad characters. In this, the first edition of Point, we provide a sampling of men that Duncan photographed: Broadway stars as well as film actors. Can you spot the young Ian McKellen and Harvey Fierstein? Published July 9, 2012.