TY - JOUR AU - Van Oudenaren, John PY - 2013/05/20 Y2 - 2024/03/28 TI - The World Digital Library JF - Uncommon Culture JA - UC VL - 3 IS - 5/6 SE - Main Articles DO - UR - https://journals.uic.edu/ojs/index.php/UC/article/view/4720 SP - 65-71 AB - Librarian of Congress James H. Billington first proposed the establishment of a World Digital<br />Library in a June 2005 speech at Georgetown University to the U.S. National Commission for<br />UNESCO. Billington called for a cooperative project, to be undertaken by the Library of<br />Congress and partner libraries from around the world in cooperation with UNESCO, to digitize<br />and make freely available over the Internet primary source documents that tell the stories and<br />highlight the achievements of all countries. Such a project, he argued, would hold out the promise of<br />bringing people closer together precisely by celebrating the depth and uniqueness of different cultures in a single global<br />undertaking. ER -