The World’s Library

An article in today’s Washington Post discusses the unveiling of a prototype of the World Digital Library (WDL), a bold effort spearheaded by the Library of Congress in partnership with UNESCO to “digitize the accumulated wisdom of humankind, catalog it, and offer it for free on the Internet in seven languages.” Modeled after the Library of Congress’s National Digital Library Program, the WDL will provide access to original documents, films, maps, manuscripts and other primary resources that can be searched through a variety of methods. This variety of search methods is intended to promote cross-cultural interaction and understanding, while making the site user-friendly and widely available will help to break down the digital divide between rich and poor countries. The financing and scope of the project will present challenges, but many see the WDL as a vehicle through which the growing control of the Internet by entrenched interests can be tempered. To see the WDL website, click here and for the website of the National Digital Library Program, click here.