For those of us interested in digital archives of world cultural treasures, there is new reason to rejoice: a new entry has appeared in the growing list of online sites available to view such material.  The World Digital Library, a website in seven languages featuring works from a dozen countries, was launched at UNESCO’s headquarters on Tuesday.   The library hosts digital reproductions of many rare and unique kind works.  Its main purpose is to spotlight hard to reach, fragile written works, but it also includes early multimedia from the electronic age: film, audio and photographs.

One of the major advantages of the online archive is that it groups  together copies of items that are on the same subjects but whose originals may be in widely different locations.  As with many other digital archives, for now the collection is relatively small, but it is expected to greatly expand as more organizations from different countries come on board.  Read the full story from the Associated Press in Humanity’s Earliest Written Works Go Online by AP.  For more posts on digital archives click the Humanities and Social Sciences category on PolyThinkers Pad.  Also, don’t forget to take advantage of the vast collection of archival material available  to the NYU Poly community via the library’s online databases in the Subject Guides: Humanities and Social Science section.