the world digital library: progress to date and prospects for the future infopolitiika foorum vi...

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

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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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Key Features of the WDL Site

• MultilingualismInterface in seven languagesContent 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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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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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 Partners as of September 2010100 partners from 62 countries


Africa

• National Library and Archives of Ethiopia• Mamma Haidara Commemorative Library, Mali• University of Pretoria Library, South Africa• National Library of Uganda

East Asia

• National Library of China• National Central Library• National Diet Library, Japan• National Library of Korea

Central and South Asia

• 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

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World Digital Library Partners (continued)


• 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

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

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Europe, continued

• National Library of Russia• Russian State Library• 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

• The British Library • National Library of Wales • Wellcome Library, United Kingdom

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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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• 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

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

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• Tulane University, Howard-Tilton Memorial Library

• University of South Carolina Library

• University of Wisconsin- Milwaukee Libraries

• Walters Art Museum• Yale University Library


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

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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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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 ArchitectureContent SelectionTranslation and Language

Regional and Subject Sub-committeesArabic Scientific ManuscriptsChinese Language ContentMeso-American Codices

• Library of Congress serves as Project Manager (2010-2015)

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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 WDL-supported 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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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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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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National Library of Estonia Contributions

• Old Geographical Maps from the NLE Cartography CollectionThe 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 CollectionThe selections include the earliest map of Tallinn in the National Library of Estonia’s map collection and the earliest map of Tartu.

the world digital library: progress to date and prospects for the future infopolitiika foorum vi...

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