J. Blunt Presentation: World Digital Library - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

About This Presentation
Title:

J. Blunt Presentation: World Digital Library

Description:

Brief presentation of the World Digital Library, a collaboration by the Library of Congress, UNESCCO (United Nation Edcuational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization), and 100 international partners. – PowerPoint PPT presentation

Number of Views:481
Slides: 17
Provided by: jrblunt
Category: Other
Tags:

less

Transcript and Presenter's Notes

Title: J. Blunt Presentation: World Digital Library


1
WDL The World Digital Library
  • Presentation
  • by
  • Johnnie R. Blunt
  • LIS 7850 Digital Libraries
  • 30 January 2011

2
INTRODUCTION
  • Launched in April 2009, the World Digital Library
    (WDL) is a free access online repository it is
    a collaboration of the United Nations
    Educational, Scientific, and Cultural
    Organization (UNESCO), the Library of Congress
    and over 100 partners in the Americas, Europe,
    Africa, Australia and Asia.
  • The goal of the library is "to tell the stories
    and highlight the achievements of all countries
    and cultures, thereby promoting cross-cultural
    awareness and understanding". The concept of WDL
    was first introduced by Librarian of Congress
    James H. Billington in a speech to the U.S.
    National Commission for UNESCO in June 2005.
  • http//www.wdl.org/en/

3
LIBRARY OBJECTIVES
  • 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.

4
AUDIENCE
  • To reach its audience, WDL features 7 major
    world languages
  • Arabic
  • Chinese
  • English
  • Spanish
  • French
  • Portuguese
  • Russian

5
DESIGN and USABILITY
  • WDL is very user-friendly. It's uncluttered
    design and simple navigational tools effectively
    guide users through the website. WDLs logo
    returns users to the home page. A drop-down box
    allows users to easily switch between languages.
    A common navigation bar that is displayed on the
    top of all pages facilitates usability. Users can
    easily browse content according to
  • PLACE of origin
  • TIME artifact was created
  • TOPIC or theme of the artifact
  • TYPE OF ITEM of original artifact
  • INSTITUTION that owns the artifact
  •  
  • The homepage has an interactive time-line slide
    bar. Users can limit items displayed to certain
    time periods. For example, if users only want to
    see artifacts created between 1800 and 1900, they
    can move the bars to highlight those periods.
    Users can click on a thumbnail that leads to a
    description page with another thumbnail and a
    link to open the file page. Navigating the image
    is easy. Users have pan in and pan out by using
    the plus/ minus signs on the menu or by using the
    roller on the top of their mouse. Clicking on a
    TIF or jpeg file link leads to a static image.

6
HOME PAGE
7
INTERACTIVE TIMELINE
8
RETRIEVAL PERFORMANCE
  • WDL has excellent retrieval performance. Pages
    took no more than 3 or 4 seconds to display,
    including pages with large graphics or video
    media. This short retrieval time is very
    important. Users most likely will not return to
    the site if they have to wait long periods for
    pages to load.

9
CONTENT
  • WDL content is divided into the following broad
    (Dewey Decimal Classification) topics
  • Philosophy and Psychology
  • Religion
  • Social Sciences
  • Language
  • Natural Sciences and Mathematics
  • Technology
  • Fine and Decorative Arts
  • Literature and Rhetoric
  • History and Geography
  •  
  • A prominent search bar helps users to look for
    sub-topics. For instance, a search for "slavery"
    yields several artifacts related to that
    sub-topic.
  •  
  • The Library has digitized selections of books,
    journals, manuscripts, maps, motion pictures,
    photographs, and sound recordings. Formats
    include, jpeg, tiff, and Adobe Flash for sound
    recordings and videos.

10
BROWSE BY TOPIC
11
SAMPLE DOCUMENT
12
ZOOM-OUT
13
ZOOM-IN
14
METADATA
  • WDL uses descriptive metadata (perhaps Dublin
    Core or EAD) that is translated in the seven
    languages previously mentioned.
  •  
  • Title Arrival of Emigrants i.e. Immigrants,
    Ellis Island
  •  
  • Creator
  • Bitzer, G. W. (1872-1944)
  • Date Created
  • April 27, 1906
  • Publication Information
  • American Mutoscope and Biograph Company, United
    States
  • Place
  • North America gt United States of America gt New
    York
  • Time
  • 1900 AD - 1949 AD
  • Topic
  • Social sciences gt Social sciences, sociology
    anthropology gt Factors affecting social behavior
  • Social sciences gt Political science gt
    International migration colonization
  • Additional Subjects
  • Actuality Docks and ports Ellis Island
    Immigration Station (New York and New Jersey)
    Emigration and immigration Harbors Islands
    Ports of entry

15
COPYRIGHT and SUPPORTING SCHOLARSHIP
  • Copyright is held by contributing institutions.
    WDL notes that researchers have the obligation to
    contact these institutions to use WDL content.
    The site has links to the various contributing
    institutions.
  • Because WDL has links to each works contributing
    institution, it contains no bibliography or
    footnotes. Supporting scholarship is up to the
    discretion of each contributing institution.

16
DISCUSSION
  • Overall, WDL is an excellent digital library. It
    contains a variety of high quality images, video,
    and sound files that will appeal to its targeted
    audience. Navigation is relatively intuitive.
    Users only have to spend a few moments playing
    with navigation tools to comfortable browse the
    site.
  • However, WDL's design is static it was last
    updated in May 2009--almost two years ago. In
    cyberspace, two years is equivalent to two
    decades. I guess this can be expected when a
    digital library consist of over 100 contributing
    institutions from many in countries where access
    to digital conversion labs is difficult.
  • Moreover, WDL seems very Euro-centric. Although
    it contains content from various international
    cultures, this content is interpreted through a
    Euro-American interpretive lens. Some visitors
    may not like the exclusion of African or Eastern
    Indian languages. Perhaps an expansion of user
    language will be part of a future update.
  • http//www.wdl.org/en/
Write a Comment
User Comments (0)
About PowerShow.com