The November 22 New York Times reported that Google’s contribution would be enough to lay the initial groundwork for the project. Librarian of Congress James H. Billington emphasized that the gift was purely philanthropic, with “no strings attached and no copyright problems.” The copyright issue has prompted lawsuits from authors and publishers groups challenging Google Book Search (formerly called Google Print Library Project) and the Google Print for Publishers program.
In a November 22 article in the Washington Post, Billington explained that Google agreed to be the “first” donor, but the library will continue to seek other philanthropic contributors to fund the initiative. He noted that the World Digital Library would be modeled after the American Memory Project, which digitized and placed on the Web millions of items, including manuscripts of Abraham Lincoln and Thomas Jefferson and Civil War photographs. Begun in 1994, the ongoing effort has thus far cost $63 million.
No time frame or total cost has been announced for the World Digital Library, but the National Library of Egypt has agreed to be one of the first partners, for digitizing documents of Islamic science from the 10th century. Billington said in the Times that he hoped the project would eventually cover China, India, and the rest of the Islamic world, from Indonesia to Africa. “The whole point is to get a world digital library that will bring, free of charge to anyone with internet access, a series of websites that will seamlessly integrate materials of different cultures as much as possible.”
Posted November 23, 2005.