International Children's Digital Library: A Library for the World's Children

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...