Computers in Libraries 07, Wednesday

John Van Oudenaren, Sr. Advisor, World Digital Library, Library of Congress, “The world digital library initiative.”

This is not a mass book scanning, but a representational “significant original materials representing all the major cultures from across the globe…”

It is in large part a content acquisition project. This project works with other national libraries such as Brazil, Russia, and Bibliotheca Alexandrina, with UNESCO, and with the technology community (Google, Yahoo, Apple, and others.)

LOC proposed the WDL in June 2005. WDL prototype is to be unveiled at UNESCO General Conference in October 2007. Goal is to complete the WDL plan and fully launch in September 2008. LOC has spent the time between 2005 and 2007 raising funds and getting agreements with partner institutions.

Three pillars of the project: content acquisition, construction of sustainable network for production and distribution of content, and the web site: www.worlddigitallibrary.org

One objective is to increase the non-English items, especially archival ones, on the internet.

“Key Objective: Present cultural content in a way that appeals to (and thus will be used by) the new generation of Internet users, both in the United States and internationally.”

The WDL will be multilingual: English, Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian, Spanish, Portuguese. The scans will be in the original language, but will have translation features too.

They plan to have some audio and video, educational content, some social networking features (didn't say which ones), and adjustments for developing-country conditions (low bandwidth and mobile devices.)