J. Blunt Presentation: World Digital Library

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WDL The World Digital Library

• Presentation
• by
• Johnnie R. Blunt
• LIS 7850 Digital Libraries
• 30 January 2011

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INTRODUCTION

• Launched in April 2009, the World Digital Library
  (WDL) is a free access online repository it is
  a collaboration of the United Nations
  Educational, Scientific, and Cultural
  Organization (UNESCO), the Library of Congress
  and over 100 partners in the Americas, Europe,
  Africa, Australia and Asia.
• The goal of the library is "to tell the stories
  and highlight the achievements of all countries
  and cultures, thereby promoting cross-cultural
  awareness and understanding". The concept of WDL
  was first introduced by Librarian of Congress
  James H. Billington in a speech to the U.S.
  National Commission for UNESCO in June 2005.
• http//www.wdl.org/en/

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LIBRARY OBJECTIVES

• The principal objectives of the WDL are to
• Promote international and intercultural
  understanding.
• Expand the volume and variety of cultural content
  on the Internet.
• Provide resources for educators, scholars, and
  general audiences.
• Build capacity in partner institutions to narrow
  the digital divide within and between countries.

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AUDIENCE

• To reach its audience, WDL features 7 major
  world languages
• Arabic
• Chinese
• English
• Spanish
• French
• Portuguese
• Russian

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DESIGN and USABILITY

• WDL is very user-friendly. It's uncluttered
  design and simple navigational tools effectively
  guide users through the website. WDLs logo
  returns users to the home page. A drop-down box
  allows users to easily switch between languages.
  A common navigation bar that is displayed on the
  top of all pages facilitates usability. Users can
  easily browse content according to
• PLACE of origin
• TIME artifact was created
• TOPIC or theme of the artifact
• TYPE OF ITEM of original artifact
• INSTITUTION that owns the artifact
•  
• The homepage has an interactive time-line slide
  bar. Users can limit items displayed to certain
  time periods. For example, if users only want to
  see artifacts created between 1800 and 1900, they
  can move the bars to highlight those periods.
  Users can click on a thumbnail that leads to a
  description page with another thumbnail and a
  link to open the file page. Navigating the image
  is easy. Users have pan in and pan out by using
  the plus/ minus signs on the menu or by using the
  roller on the top of their mouse. Clicking on a
  TIF or jpeg file link leads to a static image.

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HOME PAGE
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INTERACTIVE TIMELINE
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RETRIEVAL PERFORMANCE

• WDL has excellent retrieval performance. Pages
  took no more than 3 or 4 seconds to display,
  including pages with large graphics or video
  media. This short retrieval time is very
  important. Users most likely will not return to
  the site if they have to wait long periods for
  pages to load.

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CONTENT

• WDL content is divided into the following broad
  (Dewey Decimal Classification) topics
• Philosophy and Psychology
• Religion
• Social Sciences
• Language
• Natural Sciences and Mathematics
• Technology
• Fine and Decorative Arts
• Literature and Rhetoric
• History and Geography
•  
• A prominent search bar helps users to look for
  sub-topics. For instance, a search for "slavery"
  yields several artifacts related to that
  sub-topic.
•  
• The Library has digitized selections of books,
  journals, manuscripts, maps, motion pictures,
  photographs, and sound recordings. Formats
  include, jpeg, tiff, and Adobe Flash for sound
  recordings and videos.

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BROWSE BY TOPIC
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SAMPLE DOCUMENT
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ZOOM-OUT
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ZOOM-IN
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METADATA

• WDL uses descriptive metadata (perhaps Dublin
  Core or EAD) that is translated in the seven
  languages previously mentioned.
•  
• Title Arrival of Emigrants i.e. Immigrants,
  Ellis Island
•  
• Creator
• Bitzer, G. W. (1872-1944)
• Date Created
• April 27, 1906
• Publication Information
• American Mutoscope and Biograph Company, United
  States
• Place
• North America gt United States of America gt New
  York
• Time
• 1900 AD - 1949 AD
• Topic
• Social sciences gt Social sciences, sociology
  anthropology gt Factors affecting social behavior
• Social sciences gt Political science gt
  International migration colonization
• Additional Subjects
• Actuality Docks and ports Ellis Island
  Immigration Station (New York and New Jersey)
  Emigration and immigration Harbors Islands
  Ports of entry

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COPYRIGHT and SUPPORTING SCHOLARSHIP

• Copyright is held by contributing institutions.
  WDL notes that researchers have the obligation to
  contact these institutions to use WDL content.
  The site has links to the various contributing
  institutions.
• Because WDL has links to each works contributing
  institution, it contains no bibliography or
  footnotes. Supporting scholarship is up to the
  discretion of each contributing institution.

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DISCUSSION

• Overall, WDL is an excellent digital library. It
  contains a variety of high quality images, video,
  and sound files that will appeal to its targeted
  audience. Navigation is relatively intuitive.
  Users only have to spend a few moments playing
  with navigation tools to comfortable browse the
  site.
• However, WDL's design is static it was last
  updated in May 2009--almost two years ago. In
  cyberspace, two years is equivalent to two
  decades. I guess this can be expected when a
  digital library consist of over 100 contributing
  institutions from many in countries where access
  to digital conversion labs is difficult.
• Moreover, WDL seems very Euro-centric. Although
  it contains content from various international
  cultures, this content is interpreted through a
  Euro-American interpretive lens. Some visitors
  may not like the exclusion of African or Eastern
  Indian languages. Perhaps an expansion of user
  language will be part of a future update.
• http//www.wdl.org/en/