Play Library

International Children’s Digital Library

by Hsien-Hsien Lei on July 7th, 2005

The International Children’s Digital Library (ICDL), a project of the University of Maryland, is a five-year project funded by the National Science Foundation. The collection of materials come from around the world and targets children ages 3-13, adults who interact with children on a regular basis, and international scholars and researchers.

The ICDL has five primary goals :

1. to create a collection of more than 10,000 books in at least 100 languages that is freely available to children, teachers, librarians, parents, and scholars throughout the world via the Internet;

2. to collaborate with children as design partners in the development of computer interface technologies that support children in searching, browsing, reading, and sharing books in electronic form;

3. to better understand the concepts of rights management and “fair use” in a digital age;

4. to evaluate the impact that access to digital materials may have on collection development and programming practices in school and public libraries;

5. to develop a greater understanding of the relationship between children’s access to a digital collection of multicultural materials and children’s attitudes toward books, libraries, reading, technology, and other countries and cultures.

I think we’ll start with A Apple Pie, published in 1900, which “introduces the letters A to Z while following the fortunes of an apple pie.” Alberto from Honduras, age 8, reviewed the book and gave it five stars, saying that it was “funny.”

Pointer from Every Little Wonder.

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POSTED IN: Children's Books (6 to 10 yrs)