The World Digital Library officially launched yesterday. Here's some more info from their About page:
The World Digital Library will make available on the Internet, free
of charge and in multilingual format, significant primary materials
from cultures around the world, including manuscripts, maps, rare
books, musical scores, recordings, films, prints, photographs,
architectural drawings, and other significant cultural materials. The
objectives of the World Digital Library are to promote international
and inter-cultural understanding and awareness, provide resources to
educators, expand non-English and non-Western content on the Internet,
and to contribute to scholarly research.
Librarian
of Congress James H. Billington proposed the establishment of a World
Digital Library (WDL) in a speech to the U.S. National Commission for
UNESCO in June 2005. The Library of Congress is currently engaged in a
planning process to determine how this vision can be realized.
Participants in the planning process include national libraries and
other libraries and cultural institutions from around the world that
have expressed interest in joining the project, as well as UNESCO and
IFLA. The planning process is being underwritten by a gift from Google,
Inc.
Oh, and there's one country that, despite its multicultural heritage, is not among the founding partners.