World Wide Book Web

The Internet has long been touted as a globe-spanning community. Now the University of Maryland and the Internet Archive are working together to sort of test the theory. As a joint project, these two entities are creating what they are calling the world's largest digital library for children (at a cost of more than $5 million). So far just over 200 books have been made available at the International Children's Digital Library (http://www.icdlbooks.org). The current array of titles includes Axle the Freeway Cat by Thacher Hurd (Harper & Row, 1981) and The Blue Sky by Andrea Petrlik Huseinovic (Croatian National Library). Detailed information about how to access the library (and use various language translations) is included in an online tour of the site.

Plans are to include 10,000 books from 100 different cultures in the library. University of Maryland professor Allison Druin isn't taking any chances when it comes to title selection. She has made a point of asking true experts—children—which books they prefer (though adult project researchers also have some say).