The British Library hopes that its competition will result in valuable items being shared online with an international audience of millions.

British Library's chief executive Lynne Brindley recently unveiled Turning the Pages 2.0 - a 3D system that allows people to explore digitised versions of the world's greatest books and manuscripts.

The new competition challenges public libraries in Northern Ireland, England, Scotland and Wales to uncover the items in their collections that most deserve to be converted into Turning the Pages 2.0 'virtual texts' and shared with the world via the British Library website at www.bl.uk.

Ms Brindley said: "For the past decade we have created Turning the Pages' versions of our greatest treasures, from Mozart's musical diary to Lewis Carroll's manuscript of Alice's Adventures.

"Turning the Pages 2.0 enables an even richer user experience and speeds up the process of creating a virtual text.

"To help fulfil our role as a truly national library, we have launched a competition, in collaboration with the Society of Chief Librarians and Scottish library authorities, which is open to public libraries across the United Kingdom.

"The prize will be Turning the Pages 2.0 production and hosting packages worth £10,000 each for four public libraries in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, to give them the opportunity to make Turning the Pages' versions one of their own treasures available online.

"In this way we hope to make treasures of local, national and international significance available to be enjoyed by the widest range of people."

Belfast Central Library is one of the Northern Ireland libraries taking part in the competition.

Chief Librarian Katherine McCloskey believes that the city's library holds a collection of rare and unique resources that deserve to be transformed into 'virtual texts'.

She said: "Since the library opened in 1888, librarians in Belfast Central Library have collected items of global significance as well as those which can be classified as regional treasures. We have a remarkable Natural History collection, including fine illustrated books, most in colour and finished by hand."

The library has books published in 1645 and also holds a collection of the works of Marcus Ward and Company, the world renowned Belfast printer and publisher.

"Although at present we haven't decided which items we'll be putting forward, there can be no doubt that we have a wonderful collection of scarce and exceptional resources to choose from," she added.

For more information, go to www.bl.uk/librarycompetition .

The closing date for entries is June 29.