www.wdl.org
World Digital Library Partner Meeting
Washington, DC
December 5, 2012
Project Update
John Van Oudenaren
Director, WDL
Agenda
Progress in key areas in the past year
• Content
• Partner Recruitment
• Capacity Building
• Usage and User Engagement
• Technical Development
Longer-Term Priorities
Sustainability and resource issues
Discussion and questions
Content
• Stage one Business Plan targets met
• Quality has been maintained
• Progress in high-priority areas
• But:
–The time may be right for a thorough review of
2009 Content Selection Guidelines
Partner Recruitment
Current status: 165 partners in 77 countries
89 institutions in 46 countries have content on www.wdl.org
10-12 institutions to be added in the next few months
Some success in building or recruiting national networks
National Library of Uganda
Ministry for Cultural Heritage and Activities, Italy
CONACULTA, Mexico
Partner Recruitment
Gaps
• Some major countries are still totally unrepresented in terms
of institutional participation (e.g., Indonesia, Turkey, Poland,
Hungary, Ireland)
• Content from some countries is good but not fully
representative of the country (India; Syria and Lebanon)
• Many countries lack capacity to contribute in a meaningful
way or do not know about the project
Capacity Building
WDL-funded digitization centers at:
National Library of Uganda
Iraqi National Library and Archives
National Library and Archives of Egypt
Training workshops with the Qatar National Library
Documentation and best practices (WDL, IFLA)
But:
Need clearly vastly outstrips supply
Capacity Building
2011 Business Plan proposal:
• “Develop a comprehensive needs assessment and longterm strategy for capacity building. This should be done
in cooperation with other partners and with
organizations such as IFLA and UNESCO. What is
needed is a comprehensive ‘white paper’ that deals
with needs, different capacity building models,
potential sources of funding, and related issues such as
physical and digital preservation.”
Longer-Term Priorities
• Scaling up the addition of content
Broad coverage of countries, cultures, topics, time periods, formats
100,000 item target
• Toward universal participation
At least one content-contributing partner in every country
• Adding interface languages
Hindi, German, Japanese
Other
• Developing mobile applications
Tablets, mobiles
Longer-Term Priorities
• New web site features
FTS
Better highlighting of partners
Adaptation of search results page; improved use of facets
• Developing areas of thematic focus with
interpretive content
Arabic science and technology
Chinese rare books and maps
Mesoamerican codices
Other
Resources
Library of Congress Project Management Team
Generous in-kind contributions from partners
Little room under current budgetary realities to
- Launch ambitious capacity building initiatives
- Tackle some of the longer-term priorities in a
serious way
Content
Medicea Laurenziana Library
•The Florentine Codex, 1577
Content
Bavarian State Library
• Qur’an of Père Lachaise, 14th century
Content
Library of Congress
• Turkestan Album
• Prokudin-Gorskii Collection
Content
National Library of Spain
• General Atlas of All the Islands in the World,
ca. 1539
www.wdl.org