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Download Article (PDF) BIBLIOTHEK – Forschung und Praxis 2017; 41(2): 242–249 John Van Oudenaren* The World Digital Library DOI 10.1515/bfp-2017-0016 queness of different cultures in a single global underta- king.” Abstract: The World Digital Library (WDL) is a project to UNESCO embraced the idea, which it saw as contri- place online rare and unique cultural documents from buting to the achievement of a number of its own objecti- libraries and other cultural institutions around the world. ves, which included promoting knowledge societies, buil- The WDL website, which was developed and is maintained ding capacity to exploit information and communications by the Library of Congress, emphasizes multilingualism, technology in developing countries, narrowing the digital curatorial selection and description of the content present- divide between and within countries, and encouraging ed, and a high level of functionality. multilingualism and increased diversity of cultural content on the Internet. As a first step toward implementing Bil- Keywords: UNESCO; cultural heritage; digital library; mul- lington’s proposal, UNESCO and the Library of Congress tilingualism; Library of Congress jointly convened a meeting at UNESCO headquarters in Paris in December 2006 to solicit input from librarians and Die World Digital Library technology experts from many countries. Zusammenfassung: Die World Digital Library (WDL) ist ein The main outcome of this meeting was a decision to Projekt der Onlinedigitalisierung von Rara und einzigarti- establish working groups to plan different aspects of the gen Dokumenten von kulturellem Wert aus Bibliotheken project, especially technical architecture and content se- und kulturellen Institutionen aus aller Welt. Die Webseite lection. A best practice working group co-sponsored by the der WDL, die hauptsächlich für die Library of Congress Library of Congress and the International Federation of entwickelt wurde, legt Wert auf Mehrsprachigkeit, die kura- Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) also was torische Auswahl sowie die Beschreibung der ausgewähl- established. It was further agreed that the Library of Con- ten Werke und auf ein hohes Maß von Funktionalität. gress would develop, in consultation with the working groups and in cooperation with a select number of part- Schlüsselwörter: UNESCO; Kulturerbe; Digitale Biblio- ners, the prototype of a future World Digital Library for thek; Mehrsprachigkeit; Library of Congress presentation to the UNESCO General Conference in Octo- ber 2007. Six partner institutions – the National Library of Brazil, the Bibliotheca Alexandrina of Alexandria, Egypt, 1 Background the National Library and Archives of Egypt, the National Library of Russia, the Russian State Library, and the Librarian of Congress James H. Billington first put forward Library of Congress – joined in this effort and were present the idea of a World Digital Library in a June 2005 speech at in Paris to unveil the prototype. Georgetown University to the U. S. National Commission for The next stage was to develop and launch the public UNESCO. The United States was at that time rejoining version of the web site. Following eighteen months of UNESCO after a nearly two-decade absence, and the com- intensive planning and development, www.wdl.org was mission was looking for projects that U. S. institutions could officially unveiled on April 21, 2009 at UNESCO headquar- bring to UNESCO that would contribute to the ongoing ters in Paris. Institutions from eighteen countries contrib- revitalization of the organization. Billington proposed a uted content to the first public version of the WDL. Just cooperative project, to be undertaken by the Library of Con- over a thousand library items – books, manuscripts, maps gress and UNESCO in cooperation with partner libraries and atlases, prints and photographs, sound recordings, from around the world, to digitize and make freely available and films – were included. International interest in the online primary source documents that tell the stories and project, generated by coverage in both traditional and highlight the achievements of all countries. Such a project, online media, was intense, as witnessed by the 587,510 he argued, “would hold out the promise of bringing people visitors to the site on the launch day and the 619,846 closer together precisely by celebrating the depth and uni- visitors on the following day, April 22. The project has continued to grow. As of this writing *Kontaktperson: John Van Oudenaren, [email protected] (March 2016), the WDL contains 13,551 library items, com- The World Digital Library 243 prising 658,155 image and audio files. This content has assistance to libraries in developing countries that lack the been provided by 131 partner institutions in 58 countries. means to establish digitization efforts (most notably by The majority of the partner institutions are libraries (103), funding the establishment of digital conversion centers at followed by museums (9), archives (4), and other institu- the national libraries of Egypt, Iraq, and Uganda), but tions (15) such as historical societies. In addition to the capacity building for digital libraries remains a major chal- content-contributing partners, a number of other institu- lenge in many countries. The WDL is keen to work with tions and organizations – IFLA, Francophonie, the King bilateral and multilateral partners and to contribute to Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) cooperative international efforts involving, for example, of Saudi Arabia, and UNESCO itself – are WDL partners, UNESCO, IFLA, Francophonie, and other organizations and contribute in other ways, e. g., by convening meetings with the objective of building digital library capacity in and by helping to set standards and recruit new content- developing countries. providing partners. Governance of the WDL is carried out under a charter adopted by the partner institutions in 2010. The charter provides for a seven-member Executive Council that is charged with giving “leadership and direction to the WDL.” Five members of the Executive Council are elected from among the members; the other two members are the Director General of UNESCO (or his or her designate) and the head of the institution serving as WDL Project Manag- er. The five elected members of the Executive Council for the 2016–2020 term are the heads (or their designees) of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, the Bibliothèque nationale de France, the National Library of Brazil, the National Library of China, and the Qatar National Library. Dr. Ismail Serageldin, director of the Bibliotheca Alexandri- Fig. 1: Moving digitization equipment provided by the WDL into the na, was elected chairman of the Executive Council in National Library of Uganda, 2012 2010, and reelected to this post in 2015. Under the terms of the charter, the Library of Congress was designated the The Library of Congress has spent approximately $20 mil- Project Manager for the period 2010–2015. By decision of lion in developing and maintaining the WDL over the last the Executive Council at its meeting in Alexandria, Egypt decade. This funding has come from external sources rath- in November 2015, the Library of Congress’s term as Pro- er than U. S. government appropriations, with the largest ject Manager has been extended for another five years, up contributors so far being Carnegie Corporation of New to 2020. York, the Qatar National Library of Qatar Foundation for New partner institutions join the WDL by applying to Education, Science and Community Development, Google, the Project Manager and, upon its recommendation, being the National Digital Library Trust Fund of the Library of approved by the Executive Council. They then accede to Congress, the James Madison Council of the Library of the WDL Charter. The WDL ultimately seeks to have at least Congress, Microsoft, and KAUST. Fundraising for the proj- one content providing partner in every country in the ect remains a major ongoing challenge, given the existence world. Joining the project is cost-free – there are no charg- of many needs and competing priorities at the Library of es or membership fees – but partner institutions must bear Congress and elsewhere. the cost of digitizing their own content for contribution to the WDL. In many parts of the world – Europe, North America, East Asia, much of South America, and the more 2 Content affluent parts of the Middle East – this is not a problem, as cultural institutions already have digitization programs The main distinguishing feature of the WDL is quality: for their own institutional, national, and regional digital both the quality and importance of the cultural and his- library projects. Elsewhere, however, many libraries and torical artifacts that it displays and the high level of tech- other heritage institutions lack the equipment and trained nical and curatorial care with which these documents are personnel needed to digitize their collections. The WDL presented. Among the more striking examples of artifacts has been able to provide some financial and technical on the WDL are the following: 244 John Van Oudenaren Fig. 2: Pages from the Florentine Codex and the Wonders of Creation ‒ The Florentine Codex (General History of the Things of on the UNESCO Memory of the World register on www.wdl. New Spain), Mexico, 1577, Medicea Laurenziana Li- org, and it actively solicits such collections for the site. At brary, Florence, www.wdl.org/10096 present, 675 documents that are registered on Memory of ‒ Zakarīyā ibn Muhammad al-Qazwīnī, The Wonders of the World as individual items or parts of collections are Creation, Iran, circa 1500–1599, National Library and displayed on the WDL. These documents have been con- Archives of the Islamic Republic of Iran, www.wdl.org/ tributed by institutions in Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Germa- 10606 ny, Italy, Mexico, Norway, Peru, Portugal, Serbia, Slovak- ‒ Ludwig van Beethoven, Symphony Number 9 in D Mi- ia, South Korea, and the United States. nor, Opus 125 (autograph score), Germany, 1828, Berlin Not everything in the WDL, to be sure, is a centuries State Library, www.wdl.org/15063 old, one-of-a-kind or extremely rare document.
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