World Digital Library: More than Google Books and Europeana
April 20, 2009
On April 21, 2009, the World Digital Library becomes officially available. You can access the site here. The objectives of the WDL are:
- 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.
You can run a key word query or narrow by place, time, topic, or type of item.
According to Australia’s The Age here,
Bringing together priceless material, from ancient Chinese or Persian calligraphy to early Latin American photography, it is the world’s third major digital library, after Google Book Search and the EU’s new project, Europeana. Drawing on content from libraries and archives worldwide, it aims to reduce the rich-poor digital divide, expand “non-Western” content on the web, promote better understanding between cultures and provide a global teaching resource.
What is the future of the many virtual library initiatives? What about the neighborhood library? What about federating the catalogs of Google Books, Europeana, and the World Digital Library. I don’t want to run three separate queries. Do you?
Stephen Arnold, April 20, 2009
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