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RR 2011/372 International Children's Digital Library: A Library for the World's Children
International Children's Digital Library Foundation
Manchester, MA
2002-
URL: http://en.childrenslibrary.org/index.shtml
Last visited May 2011
Gratis
Keywords Children (age groups), Digital libraries. Electronic media, Literature
Review DOI 10.1108/09504121111184426
The International Children's Digital Library (ICDL) began as a demonstration project and was then funded as a five year grant by the National Science Foundation and the Institute for Museum and Library Services to provide a fully digitized library of international children's books. The concept of the ICDL developed from an interdisciplinary project at the University of Maryland and in collaboration with the Internet Archive. The goal has been to provide digitized books that "reflect the differences in culture, societies, interests, and lifestyles of peoples around the world" (Collection Development Policy http://en.childrenslibrary.org/about/collection.shtml).
The ICDL has set a target number of digitizing 10,000 books in 100 languages. Currently they have digitized 4,463 books in 55 languages. These books are either out of copyright restrictions or have received digitization permission from the copyright holder. While digitizing children's books in a high quality setting is an ambitious project, the ICDL has also developed several research projects that are noteworthy. Examples of some of these include the Kidstream programme, where children are part of the design team for developing educational technology and another programme is the Children's Digital Hospital Program, which is exploring the possibility of a library on wheels...