On Tuesday, April 21st, “The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and 32 partner institutions (including the Library of Congress) . . . launched the World Digital Library, a website that features unique cultural materials from libraries and archives from around the world. The site includes . . . manuscripts, maps, rare books, films, sound recordings, prints and photographs. It provides unrestricted public access, free of charge, to this material.” (Library of Congress News Release)
This “globe-spanning U.N. digital library (seeks) to display and explain the relics of all human cultures . . . serving up mankind’s accumulated knowledge in seven languages for students around the world. . . James H. Billington, the librarian of Congress who launched the project four years ago, said the ambition was to make available on an easy-to-navigate site, free for scholars and other curious people anywhere, a collection of primary documents and authoritative explanations from the planet’s leading libraries.” (Edward Cody, Washington Post article)
Check it out at: http://www.wdl.org/en/
