THE GLOBAL VISUAL LIBRARY - 1960

“An electronic program for monitoring global change.” [1]

A reservoir of interactive, multimedia data, the Global Visual Library held the GeoSphere Project’s Earth information. It was intended for projection onto the GeoSphere Globe, and to this end, Van Sant and his team spent years “developing interior and exterior projection, fiber optics and variable light sources to deliver to the globe surface the many visualizations of the Global Visual Library as well as live seismic activity, near-real-time weather, ocean and atmospheric conditions, global trade and traffic, military activity and the many issues of public policy and topical news.” [1] Unfortunately, their innovations never quite worked, so viewers accessed the Global Visual Library via Earth Situation Room computer terminals.

Organized in a geographic information system, the Global Visual Library ‘s animated visualizations were enhanced by integrated video segments, and the data could be overlaid in multiple ways to see their relationships to each other. Thus letting users “understand the differences, and respond to them.” [2] The presentations were “independent of language or level of literacy” [3].