PARIS — One of the most ambitious attempts to connect an often bitterly divided world through an "intellectual cathedral" will be launched here next week.
The World Digital Library, a U.S. Library of Congress initiative backed by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), is a joint effort of institutions from 19 countries bringing to a single website some of the world's greatest historical treasures.
A mouse click will introduce visitors, from schoolchildren to scholars, to a 1949 audio recording of a 101-year-old former American slave, or open up before their eyes the National Library of Sweden's 13th-century Devil's Bible, a giant medieval manuscript created by Bohemian monks that includes the Bible and a large illustration of Satan.
They could also read The Tale of Genji, a 1654 version of the 60-volume, 4,000-page Japanese 11th-century work considered by some as the world's first novel.
They are among the 1,200 exhibits that will also include films, photographs, architectural drawings, musical scores and prints.
The exhibits, part of what one corporate backer has called an "intellectual cathedral," will be made available free and accessible in seven different languages — English, French, Arabic, Chinese, Russian, Spanish and Portuguese.
Canada, despite its multicultural heritage and close ties to the U.S., is not among the founding partners that include national libraries and cultural institutions in Brazil, China, Egypt, France, Iraq, Israel, Japan, Mali, Morocco, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Sweden, Uganda and the United Kingdom.
But Canada and other non-participating UNESCO members are all included through contributions such as Samuel de Champlain's 1607 manuscript map of North America, provided by the Library of Congress, and Champlain's 1603 book Des Sauvages, held by the John Carter Brown Library in Providence, R.I.
Other items of Canadian interest include First World War recruiting posters and an 1899 Swedish government handbook advising Scandinavian immigrants destined for settlement in B.C. and Manitoba.
The objective, according to UNESCO and Library of Congress officials, is to promote greater understanding and respect for other cultures.
"I think so much of what people in any country learn about other cultures is filtered through their own lens," said Library of Congress spokesman Matt Raymond.
"So this is an opportunity for countries and cultures to tell their own stories on their own terms, to say, 'this is what we believe is significant culturally and historically about our countries,' and then people from around the world will be able to get those first-hand accounts."
The World Digital Library (www.worlddigitallibrary.org), first proposed in 2005, is being funded by $10 million provided through corporate and private foundation donations, as well as by in-kind contributions of the participating institutions.
UNESCO project co-ordinator Abdelaziz Abid said the project was ideally suited for the UN because it met the agency's four strategic objectives: providing broad access to knowledge and information, promoting multilingualism and multiculturalism, advocating freedom of expression, and encouraging access to high-quality education.
Raymond said another project objective is to provide resources and expertise to poor countries to let them develop their own digital libraries following the model of the Library of Congress, an institution founded in 1800 that has more than 15 million items in its own database.
Project co-ordinator John Van Oudenaren said he approached several Canadian institutions, including Library and Archives Canada, in the 2007-2008 period.
"I would have liked to have had Canadian involvement but it just didn't happen."
"I understand Canada is in the pipeline, they want to participate, but not yet," said UNESCO's Abid.