Serageldin today joins the partners of the World Digital Library (WDL) for the Inaugural Annual Partner Meeting. During the two-day meeting the partners will review the recent developments and discuss the future challenges of the WDL project. The meeting is opened by James H. Billington, The Librarian of Congress; Abdul Waheed Khan, Assistant Director-General for Communication and Information, UNESCO; and Ismail Serageldin.
Launched in April 2009, the WDL is a website that features cultural material from libraries and archives from around the world. Functioning in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish, it includes manuscripts, maps, rare books, films, sound recordings, prints and photographs. Aiming to promote the free flow of knowledge, it provides unrestricted access to this material, free of charge. Among the main objectives of the WDL are to promote international and intercultural understanding and to provide resources for educators, scholars, and general audiences.
The WDL was developed by a team at the U.S. Library of Congress with the support of the United Nations Education, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO); and with contributions by partner institutions in many countries. The Bibliotheca Alexandrina is one of the key partners and a major contributor of digitized content to the WDL.
