UN launches on-line World Digital Library...

The world’s most ambitious online library of primary sources will be launched on Tuesday by Unesco at the agency’s headquarters in Paris, giving unlimited public access to some of the rarest and most protected cultural texts in existence. 

With contributions from libraries worldwide, including the national libraries of China, Russia, Brazil and Egypt, the website www.wdl.org features scanned versions of texts, maps, and manuscripts going back ten thousand years.

Ismail Serageldin, director of Egypt’s national Bibliotheca Alexandrina which played a key role in digitizing the ancient texts, said: “There are other online libraries but this is the first time anything quite so international has been attempted. It is the first digital world library of its kind.” More...

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