Visual sources in rare science books: Importance of their digitization

The significance of digitalization of visual sources in rare science books for potential research and studies is emphasized. The consistent information growth in the modern world evokes the problem of selecting sources. Often, the significant fraction of these sources is outside the purview of researchers, which results in information entropy. This is particularly true for the rare scientific books and their visual components. Until recently, the visual sources, i. e. films, photos, posters, postcards, etc., remained outside the scope of scientific research. The author argues that visual information as presented in rare science books can be an important source of information for science owing to its accuracy, image clarity, reliability, and information value. Involvement of the RAS Library for Natural Sciences in the library collection digitalization programs is discussed. The examples are provided to demonstrate the scientific and information value of visual sources in rare science books. The conclusions are made on the importance of digitalization of visual sources in the DL of rare books. This approach enables to expand library information foundation for specialized scientific research in various fields of science as well as for educational programs, which would be of practical significance in perspective.