IASL Research Abstracts: 100

Findings: Only 20% of the visitors to the International Children's Digital Library during the initial period were able to run the library software successfully. Most users of the ICDL were from North America or from primarily English-speaking countries.

Abstract: A research project, begun in the fall of 2002, expects to tap the potential of the Internet for breaking down barriers and building tolerance and understanding through access to exemplary childrenšs books from all over the world. The creation of the International children's Digital Library (ICDL) is the focus of a five-year project being conducted by the University of Maryland/College Park and the Internet Archive with funding from the US National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Institute for Museum and Library Services (IMLS). This paper describes the project, discusses initial research findings and outlines the direction of ongoing research. See:

Weeks, A.C. et al. (2003). Breading down barriers through the creation of an international digital library for children. In S. Zinn, G. Hart and E. Howe (Eds.) School libraries: Breaking down barriers (pp.142-153). Seattle: International Association of School Librarianship.

Subject Categories: 1, 11, 14