Children's Digital Library Easier to Use

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Walter Minkel -- School Library Journal, 07/01/2003

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The International Children's Digital Library (ICDL, www.icdlbooks.org), a compilation of digitized picture books from 27 of the world's cultures, has launched a new version of the site that makes it much easier for visitors with dial-up connections and older computers to use its collection. When ICDL's Web site premiered in November 2002, many librarians and teachers criticized it as being slow, unwieldy, and difficult to navigate (see "New Kids' E-Books Site Disappoints ," News, January 2003, p. 22). Those annoyances are now a thing of the past. The revised site no longer requires users to download software, and its images of books from Japan, Argentina, the U.S., and other countries load quickly. It's also easier to navigate the site and find the books young readers want.

"Two of the most important goals of this project are the development of new user-interface technology for children, and providing broad access to books," says Ben Bederson, director of the Human-Computer Interaction Laboratory at the University of Maryland, one of the site's designers. "This new basic version of the site is all about access."

ICDL, funded by grants from the National Science Foundation, the Institute of Museum and Library Services, and the Kahle/Austin Foundation, now contains about 300 books in 15 languages. Its directors plan to make 10,000 children's books in 100 languages available free to readers worldwide by 2007.