（巴黎，4月20日）一所试图展示并解释囊括全球的多姿多彩人类文化的联合国数字图书馆已经接入互联网，用七种语言为全世界有志于学习的人提供了人类长期积累的文化宝库。
James H. Billington, the librarian of Congress who launched the project four years ago, said the ambition was to make available on an easy-to-navigate site, free for scholars and other curious people anywhere, a collection of primary documents and authoritative explanations from the planet’s leading libraries.
国会图书馆馆员詹姆士比灵顿四年前启动了这一项目。他说该项目旨在建立一个收集来自全球顶尖图书馆的第一手资料和权威解读、易于导航的网站，对世界各地学者或者好奇心强的人免费。
The site (http://www.wdl.org/) has put up the Japanese work that is considered the first novel in history, for instance, along with the Aztecs’ first mention of the Christ child in the New World and the works of ancient Arab scholars piercing the mysteries of algebra, each entry flanked by learned commentary. "There are many one-of-a-kind documents," Billington said in an interview.
比如说，这个网站（http://www.wdl.org/）目前已经把被认为是日本历史上的第一部小说（译者：如果我没有记错的话，应该是《源氏物语》）放到网上，此外还包括阿兹特克人对西方人来到新大陆的最早记述，古代阿拉伯学者探寻代数的奥秘的成果，每个条目都有专家学者的旁注。“这其中包括大量仅存的唯一资料。”比灵顿在采访中说。
The World Digital Library, which officially will be inaugurated Tuesday at the Paris headquarters of UNESCO, the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, has started small, with about 1,200 documents and their explanations from scholars in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Portuguese, Spanish and Russian. But it is designed to accommodate an unlimited number of such texts, charts and illustrations from as many countries and libraries as want to contribute.
将于周二正式成立的全球数字图书馆位于联合国教科文组织（UNESCO）的巴黎总部。尽管初始规模尚小，仅包括约1200份档案和专家学者用阿拉伯语、中文、英语、法语、葡萄牙语、西班牙语和俄语等六种语言所作的注释，然而它将规划容纳不计其数的文本、图表和解说，任何国家和图书馆只要愿意都可以尽一份力。
"There is no limit," Billington said. "Everybody is welcome."
“没有任何限制，”比灵顿说：“谁都可以参与。”
The main target is children, he added, building on the success among young people of the U.S. National Digital Library Program, which has been in operation at the Library of Congress since the mid-1990s. That program, at its American Memory site, has made available 15 million U.S. historical records, including recorded interviews with former slaves, the first moving pictures and the Declaration of Independence. Billington predicted that children around the world, like their U.S. counterparts, will turn naturally to the Internet for answers to questions, provided they have access to computers and high-speed connections. "This is designed to use the newest technology to reach the youngest people," he said.
他还说，图书馆的主要服务对象是儿童，这一定位的基础是在年轻人中广受的美国国家数字图书馆计划。该计划于20世纪90年代中期以来一直由国会图书馆负责，通过其美国记忆网站，可以查阅到1500万份美国历史档案，其中包括对黑奴的录音采访，第一部电影和《独立宣言》。比灵顿预计，只要能通过电脑连上宽带，世界各地的儿童就会像他们美国的同龄人一样上互联网寻求答案。“该项目将采用最先进的技术来吸引最年经的群体。”他说。
The site was developed by a team at the Library of Congress in Washington with technical assistance from the Bibliotheca Alexandrina in Egypt. The digital library’s main server is also in Washington, but officials said plans are underway for regional servers around the world.
该网站由国会图书馆的一个工作组开发，埃及亚历山大图书馆提供技术支持。这座数字图书馆的主服务器设在华盛顿，但是官员们表示正计划在全世界架设区域服务器。
Development costs of more than $10 million were financed by private donors, including Google, Microsoft, the Qatar Foundation, King Abdullah University in Saudi Arabia and the Carnegie Corporation of New York. By comparison, the American Memory project cost about $60 million, suggesting that more funds will have to be raised as the World Digital Library expands.
总额超过1000万美元的开发经费来自民间的捐赠，其中包括谷歌、微软、卡塔尔基金会、沙特的阿卜杜拉国王大学和纽约的卡内基公司。相比之下，美国记忆项目约耗资6千万美元，这意味着全球数字图书馆如果要扩容的话，还需要筹措的资金。
In addition to UNESCO and the Library of Congress, 26 other libraries and institutions in 19 countries have contributed to the project. Their offerings include rubbings of oracle bones from the National Library of China, delicate drawings of court life from the National Diet Library of Japan and a 13th-century "Devil’s Bible" from the National Library of Sweden. Each is accompanied by a brief explanation of its content and significance. The documents have been scanned onto the site directly, in their original languages, but the explanations appear in all seven of the site’s official languages.
除联合国教科文组织和国会图书馆外，还有来自19个国家的26个图书馆和研究机构向该项目提供了档案。这些档案资料包括来自中国国家图书馆的甲骨文跖片、来自日本国家饮食图书馆的皇室浮世绘以及来自瑞典国家图书馆的13世纪的“魔鬼圣经”。所有这些档案都附有其内容和意义的简要说明。这些档案被直接扫描进该网站，保留了原文的语言，但解释用的网站的七种官方语言。
"All of this is dependable, authoritative comment," Billington said.
“所有解说都是可信赖的权威评述。”比灵顿说。
Users can sort through the information in several ways. They can ask what was going on anywhere in the world in, say, science or literature during the 4th century B.C., for instance. They can look up the history of a certain topic over the centuries in China alone, or in China and North America. By cross-referencing, a user can see how one area of the world stood compared to another at any given time.
用户可通过多种途径查寻信息。比如说，他们可以询问公元前四世纪世界上的科学和文学。他们还可以仅在中国这个范围内就某个主题查询其几个世纪以来的历史，或者在中国与北美这个范围内。交叉引用可以让用户了解在任何时段某地与其他地方的对比。
Billington acknowledged that national sensitivities could generate problems as the store of documents expands to include episodes in more recent history that some governments may want to hide or distort. But deliberate omissions may prove difficult to maintain, he said, because the site is open to contributions from all sides.
比灵顿坦言，随着档案材料规模扩大到包括近年一些事件，试图隐瞒或歪曲这些事件的某些国家政府会对此比较敏感，从而发生问题。然而他说，刻意隐瞒的做法怕是长久不了的，因为该网站对所有的材料开放。
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