Google contributes $3 Million to ''World Digital Library''

Google contributes $3 Million to ''World Digital Library''

Internet giant Google Inc has decided to donate $3 million to the "World Digital Library" project to further the efforts of U.S. Library of Congress in creating an online digital library comprising rare documents from across the globe.

This contribution from Google is seen as another building block in its quest to increase the quantity of data that that can be indexed by the search engine. The donation makes Google the premiere business firm to support the "World Digital Library” project, an idea that took root nearly five months back.

Librarian of Congress James Billington is hoping to develop websites which would impart knowledge regarding cultures other than the United States and Europe. While a final decision on the issue is yet to be taken, Billington predicted that a big chunk of the data on the World Digital Library could be dedicated to China, India, and Islam.

He also exclaimed that majority of the information would be exclusive, i.e. stuff which won't be easily obtainable elsewhere, declaring that they have already developed and conserved a bank of crucial information which could have easily been lost had it fallen into uninterested hands.

Curiously, it may not be possible for Google or other portals to index all the data assembled in the World Digital Library as the technical expertise of search engines are still not acquainted with certain types of data, e.g. handwritten letters. Google co-founder Sergey Brin, however, is positive that in the times to come the issue will be sorted out and nearly all the vast matter available on the World Digital Library would be indexed.

It can be recollected that in a similar pursuit to have greater amount of information available online, Google began scanning innumerable books in five of the leading libraries last year. But the plan has had its fair share of trouble as some of the renowned publishers took them to court for contravention of copyright laws. So it's not as surprise that the U.S. Library of Congress wants to center its attention on data no longer guarded by copyright.

This current concept is loosely based on the Library of Congress' American Memory project which was put into action more than a decade ago. The project managed to garner $48 million through private donations and $15 million via the federal government. Presently, it has a proud collection of over 10 million items; prominent among them being maps of United States from the good old days and also pictures and letters belonging to the Civil War era.