Keynote Address by Mr John van Oudenaren, Director, World Digital LibraryAmerican Memory and the Evolution of the World Digital Library

1. American Memory and the
Evolution of the World Digital Library
Mr John van Oudenaren
Director, World Digital Library

2. American Memory and the
Evolution of the World
Digital Library
“When Nations Remember”
National Library of Singapore
October 11, 2010
presentation by
Dr. John Van Oudenaren
Library of Congress
www.wdl.org

3. American Memory

4. American Memory
• Is a digital record of American
history and creativity . . . that
provides free and open access
through the Internet to written
and spoken words, sound
recordings, still and moving
images, prints, maps, and
sheet music that document the
American experience
• These materials, from the
collections of the Library of
Congress and other institutions,
chronicle historical events,
people, places, and ideas that
continue to shape America,
serving the public as a
resource for education and
lifelong learning.

5. Digitizing – How We Started
• Optical Disk Pilot Project, 1982 – 1987
• Pictorial material on videodisc
• Dr. Billington’s vision
• ““Get the champagne out of the bottle”Get the champagne out of the bottle”
• Support K-12, not just LC’s historicalSupport K-12, not just LC’s historical
customer base of academic researcherscustomer base of academic researchers

6. Digitizing in the Early 1990’s
• American Memory Pilot
• 1989 - 1994
• Distribution on CD-ROM + analog forms on
videodisc
• Prototype presentation software distributed to
test sites
• June 1994 – 3 American Memory photographJune 1994 – 3 American Memory photograph
collections made available via the Internetcollections made available via the Internet

7. American Memory
• 5 million items in 5 years
• All forms of material
• Pictorial, e.g. Matthew Brady photos; posters
• Maps, e.g., civil war maps
• Manuscripts, e.g. Jefferson papers
• Sound recordings
• Films, e.g., early Edison
• Texts, e.g., newspapers, books
• http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/index.html

8. American Memory Approach
• Largely public domain
• Curators identified candidate materials
• Collection-based focus
• New (for the Library) emphasis on K-12
• Competition to include collections from
other U.S. institutions
• Funded by public-private partnership

9. The Result
• Quantitative goals met and surpassed
• Strong focus on history and popular
culture, 1850 – 1930
• Heavy emphasis on images
• Gaps in subject coverage, e.g., science
and technology
• Varying presentation styles
• Varying metadata

10. Today
• 19 million+ digitized items
• Almost 1 million new files per year from
LC resources
• More than 200 Collections
• Major new initiatives such as “Chronicling
America”
• Expanded Educational Outreach programs
and commitments
• Moving collections to a standardizedMoving collections to a standardized
template for a consistent look and feeltemplate for a consistent look and feel

11. American Memory Home Page

12. American Memory:
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/index.html

13. American Memory: Sample Collection

14. Global Gateway
• Bilateral partnerships with
– Russia
– The Netherlands
– France
– Spain
– Brazil
– Egypt
• Thematic
• Bilingual
• Varying “look and feel”

15. www.wdl.org
World Digital Library

16. World Digital Library: Mission
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

17. World Digital Library Network
Project developed in cooperation with UNESCO.
Prototype launched during UNESCO meeting in Paris in October
2007. WDL site launched officially at UNESCO headquarters in
Paris -- April 21, 2009.
Currently 103 partners from 63 countries, representing national,
university, and public libraries; archives, museums, ministries of
culture
http://www.wdl.org/en/about/partners.html

18. WDL Governance Structure
• WDL launched as a Library of Congress-UNESCO
partnership
• WDL Charter provides for:
Annual partner meeting
Executive Council
Standing Committees:
Technical Architecture
Content Selection
Translation and Language
Regional and Subject Sub-committees:
Arabic Scientific Manuscripts
Chinese Language Content
Meso-American Codices
• Library of Congress -- Project Manager (2010-15)

19. Digital Content
Production Centers
Delivering scanning equipment to the
National Library of Uganda
Training at the
Iraqi National
Library and
Archives
Newly
trained staff
at the
National
Library and
Archives of
Egypt

20. 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.

21. User Statistics
(since public launch on April 21, 2009)
• Total visitors: 11,840,851
• Total page views: 82,597,712
• 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.

22. 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

23. 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

24. Key Features of the WDL Site
• Multilingualism
Interface in seven languages
Content 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

25. 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