The Occasional Informationist

A new venture sponsored by UNESCO, the World Digital Library appears to want to be a front window for displaying (virtually) the cultural treasures of national libraries and similar ‘heritage institutions’ worldwide. Coverage from different regions and countries, at the moment, is a bit sparse, with less than 1200 items included. It has much less of a ‘library feel’ than, say, the European Library site, and seems more like an exhibition gallery than a library catalogue. Browsing around the items is easy at present, and it will be interesting to see how the system copes if the collections grows greatly.