The World Digital Library Initiative

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The World Digital Library Initiative

• UNESCO Open Forum
• IFLA World Library and Information Congress
• Seoul, Korea
• August 20, 2006

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The World Digital Library LC Digital Initiatives
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The LIBRARY of CONGRESS

• American Memory (1994 )
• 135 collections of digital primary sources
• Over 10 million digitized items
• Global Gateway (2000 2005)
• Bilateral projects with six countries
• Bilingual presentations
• Over 1 million digitized items relating to
  international themes
• World Digital Library (2005 )
• Builds on American Memory and Global Gateway
• Focus on major world cultures
• Proposed by Dr. Billington to U.S. National
  Commission to UNESCO June 2005

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The World Digital Library Vision and Objectives
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The LIBRARY of CONGRESS

• Selection and digitization of core cultural
  collections from countries and cultures around
  the world
• Focus on unique or rare historical and cultural
  materials that help to define a particular
  culture
• Books are not excluded, but this is not a mass
  book digitization project
• Projected benefits
• Education
• International understanding
• Language exposure and learning
• Scholarly research

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The World Digital Library Planning and
Implementation
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The LIBRARY of CONGRESS

• Development of a Plan
• Consultation with UNESCO, IFLA, national and
  other major libraries
• Digitization Projects with Selected Partners
• Egypt
• Brazil
• Russia
• Other
• Development of a Prototype Site

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The World Digital Library Key Issues
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The LIBRARY of CONGRESS

• Architecture
• Standards
• Global network
• Multilingualism
• Selection
• - Partners
• - Role for scholars

• Governance
• - Manage site/network
• - Oversee updates, improvements, additions
• Funding
• Creation
• Maintenance

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World Digital Library UNESCOs Work in
Promoting Universal Access to Human Knowledge
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The LIBRARY of CONGRESS

• Increase the volume of high-level digital content
  on the Internet, especially from countries and
  institutions currently not active in the digital
  game
• - WDL
• - National/regional sites
• Focus on multilingualism
• - Content
• - Presentation
• Facilitate cross-national, cross-cultural
  searching and comparison
• Involve scholars and educators from around the
  world in the project, especially in the creation
  of higher added-value components