wdl

1. www.wdl.org

2. World Digital Library Partner Meeting Washington, DC December 5, 2012 Project Update John Van Oudenaren Director, WDL

3. Progress in key areas in the past year Agenda • Content • Partner Recruitment • Capacity Building • Usage and User Engagement • Technical Development • Longer-Term Priorities • Sustainability and resource issues • Discussion and questions

4. Stage one Business Plan targets met Quality has been maintained Progress in high-priority areas But: The time may be right for a thorough review of 2009 Content Selection Guidelines Content

5. Partner Recruitment • Current status: 165 partners in 77 countries • 89 institutions in 46 countries have content on www.wdl.org • 10-12 institutions to be added in the next few months • Some success in building or recruiting national networks • National Library of Uganda • Ministry for Cultural Heritage and Activities, Italy • CONACULTA, Mexico

6. Partner Recruitment Gaps • Some major countries are still totally unrepresented in terms of institutional participation (e.g., Indonesia, Turkey, Poland, Hungary, Ireland) • Content from some countries is good but not fully representative of the country (India; Syria and Lebanon) • Many countries lack capacity to contribute in a meaningful way or do not know about the project

7. Capacity Building • WDL-funded digitization centers at: • National Library of Uganda • Iraqi National Library and Archives • National Library and Archives of Egypt • Training workshops with the Qatar National Library • Documentation and best practices (WDL, IFLA) • But: • Need clearly vastly outstrips supply

8. Capacity Building 2011 Business Plan proposal: • “Develop a comprehensive needs assessment and long-term strategy for capacity building. This should be done in cooperation with other partners and with organizations such as IFLA and UNESCO. What is needed is a comprehensive ‘white paper’ that deals with needs, different capacity building models, potential sources of funding, and related issues such as physical and digital preservation.”

9. Longer-Term Priorities • Scaling up the addition of content • Broad coverage of countries, cultures, topics, time periods, formats 100,000 item target • Toward universal participation • At least one content-contributing partner in every country • Adding interface languages • Hindi, German, Japanese • Other • Developing mobile applications • Tablets, mobiles

10. Longer-Term Priorities • New web site features FTS Better highlighting of partners Adaptation of search results page; improved use of facets • Developing areas of thematic focus with interpretive content Arabic science and technology Chinese rare books and maps Mesoamerican codices Other

11. Resources Library of Congress Project Management Team Generous in-kind contributions from partners Little room under current budgetary realities to - Launch ambitious capacity building initiatives - Tackle some of the longer-term priorities in a serious way

12. Content Medicea Laurenziana Library • The Florentine Codex, 1577

17. Content Bavarian State Library • Qur’an of Père Lachaise, 14th century

21. Content Library of Congress • Turkestan Album • Prokudin-Gorskii Collection

23. Content National Library of Spain • General Atlas of All the Islands in the World, ca. 1539

28. www.wdl.org