The World Digital Library:
Progress to Date and Prospects for the Future
Infopolitiika Foorum VI
Tallinn, Estonia | September 16, 2010
John Van Oudenaren
Director, World Digital Library
The Library of Congress
www.wdl.org
World Digital Library
www.wdl.org
World Digital Library: Mission and Objectives
Mission:
Digitize and make freely available over the Internet
primary source materials that tell the stories and highlight
the achievements of all countries
Objectives:
• Promote international and intercultural
understanding and awareness
• Expand multilingual and culturally diverse content
on the Internet
• Provide resources to educators and contribute to
scholarly research
• Build knowledge and capacity in the developing
world; help narrow the digital divide
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World Digital Library
www.wdl.org
Key Features of the WDL Site
• Multilingualism
Interface in seven languages
Content in more than forty languages
• High quality content of cultural and historical
importance
• Consistent, high-quality metadata to allow searching
and browsing across cultures and time periods
• Item-level descriptions, curator videos to enhance user
understanding of the content
• Speed and performance
• Web 2.0 features
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World Digital Library
www.wdl.org
User Statistics
(since public launch on April 21, 2009)
• Total visitors: more than 11,000,000
• Total page views: more than 76,500,000
• Links from other Web sites: 1,700,816
• 90% of users are from outside of the United States;
WDL has been visited by users from every country in
the world
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World Digital Library
www.wdl.org
User Statistics
(since public launch on April 21, 2009)
Countries of highest usage: Spain, United States,
Mexico, Brazil, China, Argentina, France, the Russian
Federation, Portugal, Colombia
Cities of highest usage: Madrid, Buenos Aires, São
Paulo, Barcelona, Mexico City, Lisbon, Moscow,
Paris, Bogotá, Caracas
Most frequently used interfaces: Spanish, English,
Portuguese, Chinese, French, Arabic
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World Digital Library
www.wdl.org
World Digital Library Partners as of September 2010
100 partners from 62 countries
Africa
Central and South Asia
• National Library and Archives of
Ethiopia
• Mamma Haidara
Commemorative Library, Mali
• University of Pretoria Library,
South Africa
• National Library of Uganda
• Allama Iqbal Library, University
of Kashmir, India
• Anna Centenary Library, India
• National Academic Library of
the Republic of Kazakhstan
• National Library of the Kyrgyz
Republic
• National Library of Kazakhstan
• Government College
University of Lahore, Pakistan
East Asia
• National Library of China
• National Central Library
• National Diet Library, Japan
• National Library of Korea
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World Digital Library
www.wdl.org
World Digital Library Partners (continued)
Europe
• Austrian National Library
• National Library of Belarus
• Plantin Moretus Museum,
Belgium
• Irish College in Paris
• Central Library of the
Bulgarian Academy of
Sciences
• National Library of Bulgaria
• The Royal Library, Denmark
• National Library of Estonia
• National Library of Finland
• National Library of France
• Bavarian State Library,
Germany
• Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin
• Ministry for Cultural Heritage
and Activities, Italy
• National Library of Latvia
• Vilnius University Library,
Lithuania
• National Library of Moldova
• Royal Netherlands Institute
of Southeast Asian and
Caribbean Studies
• National Library of Portugal
• National Library of the
Netherlands
• National Library of Romania
• Romanian Academy Library
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World Digital Library
www.wdl.org
World Digital Library Partners (continued)
Europe, continued
• The British Library
• National Library of Russia
• National Library of Wales
• Russian State Library
• Wellcome Library, United Kingdom
• Boris Yeltsin Presidential
Library, Russia
• National Library of Serbia
• University Library in
Bratislava, Slovakia
• National Library of Spain
• National Library of Sweden
• National University of Kyiv
Mohyla Academy, Ukraine
• V. I. Vernadsky National
Library of Ukraine
• Vasyl Stefanyk Lviv Scientific
Library of Ukraine
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World Digital Library
www.wdl.org
World Digital Library Partners (continued)
Latin America and Caribbean
• National Library of Argentina
• National Library of Brazil
• National Library of Chile
• National Library of Guyana
• National Archives of Haiti
• National Library of Cuba “Jose
Marti”
• Archivo General de la Nación
de México
• Center for the Study of the
History of México (CARSO)
• National Council for Culture
and the Arts (CONACULTA)
• National Institute of
Anthropology and History
(INAH), México
• Universidad Autonoma de
Nuevo León, México
• Fundación Nueva Era,
Nicaragua
• National Library of Perú
• National Archives of St. Kitts
and Nevis
• National Archives of St. Vincent
and the Grenadines
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World Digital Library
www.wdl.org
World Digital Library Partners (continued)
North Africa and Middle East
• National Library of Armenia
• National Library of Azerbaijan
• Ministry of Education, Kingdom
of Bahrain
• Bibliotheca Alexandrina, Egypt
• National Library and Archives
of Egypt
• Saint Mark Coptic Library,
Egypt
• National Parliamentary Library
of Georgia
• Iraqi National Library and
Archives
• National Library of Israel
• Holy Spirit University of Kaslik,
Lebanon
• Near East School of Theology,
Lebanon
• Oriental Library, University of
St. Joseph, Lebanon
•Tetouan-Asmir Association,
Morocco
• Qatar Foundation
• King Abdullah University of
Science and Technology,
Saudi Arabia
• Greek-Catholic Archdiocese of
Aleppo, Syria
• Syriac Orthodox Archdiocese of
Aleppo, Syria
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World Digital Library
www.wdl.org
World Digital Library Partners (continued)
North America
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Brown University Library
George A. Smathers
Libraries, University of
Florida
Hill Museum & Manuscript
Archive
John Carter Brown Library
Library of Congress
National Archives and
Records Administration
Smithsonian Institution
State Library and Archives
of Florida
• Tulane University,
Howard-Tilton Memorial
Library
• University of South Carolina
Library
• University of WisconsinMilwaukee Libraries
• Walters Art Museum
• Yale University Library
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World Digital Library
www.wdl.org
World Digital Library Partners (continued)
Oceania and the Pacific
• National Library of New
Zealand
• State Library of South
Australia
Southeast Asia
• National Library of Laos
International Organizations
• Columbus Memorial Library,
Organization of American
States (OAS)
• International Federation of
Library Institutions and
Organizations (IFLA)
• United Nations Educational,
Scientific, and Cultural
Organization (UNESCO)
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World Digital Library
www.wdl.org
The WDL Governance Structure
• WDL launched as a Library of Congress-UNESCO partnership
• WDL Charter provides for:
Annual partner meeting
Executive Council
Standing Committees for:
Technical Architecture
Content Selection
Translation and Language
Regional and Subject Sub-committees
Arabic Scientific Manuscripts
Chinese Language Content
Meso-American Codices
•
Library of Congress serves as Project Manager (2010-2015)
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World Digital Library
www.wdl.org
Capacity Building
By providing training, equipment, and technical support to partner
institutions in countries such as Egypt, Iraq, and Uganda, the
WDL is bridging the global digital divide and ensuring that rare
and unique cultural treasures previously accessible only to a tiny
minority of researchers are now available for worldwide use.
Content digitized at WDLsupported digitization centers and
now accessible on the WDL
includes the oldest magazines and
journals published in Iraq,
thousand-year-old scientific
manuscripts from Egypt, and rare
photographs from Brazil.
Newly trained staff at the National
Library and Archives of Egypt
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World Digital Library
www.wdl.org
Financial Supporters
• Google, Inc., $3 million for the initial development of the WDL
prototype
• Qatar Foundation, $3 million in general support
• Carnegie Corporation of New York, $2 million to support the
inclusion of cultural institutions from sub-Saharan Africa and
Eurasia in the WDL
• King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Saudi Arabia,
$1 million to digitize and display on the WDL scientific manuscripts
from the Arab and Islamic worlds
• Microsoft, Inc., $1 million in general support
• Additional support from the Lawrence and Mary Anne Tucker
Foundation, the James Madison Council of the Library of Congress
and other donors.
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World Digital Library
www.wdl.org
Next Steps – Future Work
• Increase content while maintaining quality
• Increase partners (to include institutions
from all UNESCO member countries)
• Develop tools to scale up the creation,
processing, and ingest of content
• Develop new site features
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World Digital Library
www.wdl.org
National Library of Estonia
Contributions
• Old Geographical Maps from the NLE Cartography Collection
The selections include maps of Livonia and the Nordic countries
drawn by eminent Dutch, Flemish, French, German, Polish, and
Swedish cartographers depicting Livonia and relevant territorial
changes from the second half of the 16th century to the second
half of the 18th century, including the Livonian War (1558-1583),
Polish-Swedish Wars (1600-1629), and the Great Northern War
(1700-1721).
• Old City Maps from the NLE Cartography Collection
The selections include the earliest map of Tallinn in the National
Library of Estonia’s map collection and the earliest map of Tartu.
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