I-Tek

World Digital Library

The United Nations UNESCO has opened “The World Digital Library”. It has a substantial amount of original work of historic significance, and because it is funded by the UN (that means all of us) there are no issues with copyright.

One of UNESCO’s goals is to preserve historic and cultural monuments and to do so, opening up important historic documents to everyone is a real nice one.

The mission statement is broad:

Mission

The World Digital Library (WDL) makes available on the Internet, free of charge and in multilingual format, significant primary materials from countries and cultures around the world.

The principal objectives of the WDL are to:

• Promote international and intercultural understanding;
• Expand the volume and variety of cultural content on the Internet;
• Provide resources for educators, scholars, and general audiences;
• Build capacity in partner institutions to narrow the digital divide within and between countries.