$3-Million Gift From Google Jump-Starts Library of Congress's Effort to Build a Digital Archive of Cultural Artifacts.

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Author: Read, Brock

The Library of Congress began a campaign to raise money for the World Digital Library, a proposed online archive of international cultural artifacts, by announcing in November a $3-million grant from its first patron: Google, the search engine turned information monolith.

The project was first proposed in June by James H. Billington, librarian of Congress, in a speech to the U.S. National Commission for the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. In that speech, Mr. Billington advocated the creation of an online repository that would sift through national and institutional libraries in Asian and African nations to provide a "documentary record of their distinctive cultural achievements and aspirations." The archive, he said, should be free and open to the public.

The model for the international library, according to Mr. Billington, would be the Library of Congress's American Memory project, which has digitized millions of American items, like Mathew Brady's Civil War photographs and Thomas Edison's first films.

To secure money for the ambitious effort, the library is seeking grants from public organizations and private companies, as it has done for American Memory. Google's gift may help the World Digital Library get off the ground, but it is unclear how far the money will go: The Library of Congress has not yet outlined the breadth of the project's technological and financial demands.

Google â€" which has drawn the ire of publishers with a controversial plan to scan millions of books from major libraries â€" decided to join the Library of Congress's project because "we share a common mission of making the world's information universally accessible and useful," said Sergey Brin, a founder of Google, in a written statement.

Library officials have not said when the repository will make its debut online, but they have already lined up one library to participate in the project. The National Library and Archives of Egypt will submit to the archive a series of 10th-century documents written by Islamic scientists, Mr. Billington told the U.N. group.

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By Brock Read