World digital library moves ahead.

• Author: Swartz, Nikki
• Position: UP FRONT: News, Trends & Analysis

The Library of Congress and UNESCO plan to move ahead with the World Library project, which is currently in testing phase and will not be available to the public until later this year or early 2009.

Librarian of Congress James H. Billington and UNESCO Assistant Director for Communication and Information Abdul Waheed Khan recently signed an agreement at UNESCO headquarters in Paris pledging cooperative efforts to build the website, www.worlddigitallibrary.org.

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Started two years ago with a $3 million grant from Google and technical assistance from Apple, the World Digital Library will digitize special and rare materials from libraries and other cultural institutions around the world and make them available for free on the Internet. These materials will include manuscripts, maps, books, musical scores, sound recordings, films, prints, and photographs. Some of the treasures offered will be an elaborate 17th-century map of the world that shows California as a separate island, a 1903 Thomas Edison film of immigrants arriving at Ellis Island, and a 17th-century Arabic manuscript on geometry basics.

The project aims to promote international and intercultural understanding, increase the quantity and diversity of cultural materials online, and contribute to education and scholarship. "The vision is simply that this is a means for promoting far better intercultural understanding in the world," Billington told The New York Times.

Under the agreement, the Library of Congress and UNESCO will cooperate in convening working groups of experts and other stakeholders to develop guidelines and technical specifications for the project, enlist new partners, and secure the necessary support for the project from private and public sources. A key aspect of the project is to bridge the digital divide in developing nations so all countries and regions of the world can participate and be represented in the World Digital Library.

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