World Digital Library
The World Digital Library will make available on the Internet, free of charge and in multilingual format, significant primary materials from cultures around the world, including manuscripts, maps, rare books, musical scores, recordings, films, prints, photographs, architectural drawings, and other significant cultural materials. The objectives of the World Digital Library are to promote international and inter-cultural understanding and awareness, provide resources to educators, expand non-English and non-Western content on the Internet, and to contribute to scholarly research.
World Digital Library Prototype
At the UNESCO General Conference in Paris on October 17, 2007 the Library of Congress, the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, the National Library of Brazil, the National Library and Archives of Egypt, the National Library of Russia, and the Russian State Library presented a prototype of the future World Digital Library. The prototype features books, manuscripts, maps, films, prints and photographs, and sound recordings contributed by the partner institutions. It functions in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish, and includes content in additional languages. Other features include search and browse by place, time, topic, type of item, and contributing institution; a “Memory of” section devoted to in-depth exploration of the culture and history of individual countries; and videos by curators that explain why particular primary source documents are important and what they tell us about a culture.
Watch Prototype Video
Latest News and Events
- Library of Congress, National Archives Form World Digital Library Partnership
14-07-2008 (Library of Congress) - Library of Congress, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology Form World Digital Library Partnership (Arabic version)
14-04-2008 (Library of Congress and KAUST) - Le prototype d'une Bibliothèque numérique mondiale présenté à l'Unesco (French)
17-10-2007 (Lemonde.fr) - Checking Out Tomorrow's Library
17-10-2007 (Washington Post) - U.S. Library of Congress Introduces Plans for World Digital Collection
17-10-2007 (International Herald Tribune) - Library of Congress Advances 2 Digital Projects Abroad
17-10-2007 (New York Times) - Voices from the past heard online as world's digital archive nears fruition
19-10-2007 (The Independent - UK)