The World Digital Library
Last month the World Digital Library was launched by UNESCO to “make available on the Internet, free of charge and in multilingual format, significant primary materials from countries and cultures from around the world.”
The venture seeks to promote intercultural understanding while narrowing the digital divide between nations, and its collection of rare books, maps, musical scores and recordings, photographs, and other cultural materials makes it a pretty amazing resource.
The World Digital Library works closely with UNESCO’s “Memory of the World” project, which preserves archival and library collections around the world in an effort to prevent what the organization calls “collective amnesia.” The idea for the World Digital Library came from U.S. Librarian of Congress James H. Billington in 2005, and dozens of libraries, archives, foundations, and private companies worldwide have contributed content and resources to the project.
The website is available in seven languages, and content is searchable by continent of origin, time period, and broad topic- and type-of-item catalogs. A quick glance at the first few items from North American sources finds an 1805 portrait of Thomas Jefferson, a map of Cuba from the 1650s, and a 1493 letter from Christopher Columbus describing his first voyage across the Atlantic.
Other “exhibits” include the 11th century Tale of Genji, a Japanese work considered the first novel ever written; a Description of Egyptian Antiquities from Napoleon’s 1798 expedition to the Pyramids; and a German woodcut edition of Aesop’s Fables from the 15th century.
The World Digital Library is already an awesome research tool and an invaluable repository of worldwide cultural treasures. It’s also one of the most addictively browse-able websites this side of Videogum and awfulplasticsurgery.com.
