聯合國啓動全球知識圖書館

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.
國會圖書館館員詹姆士·比靈頓四年前啓動了這一項目。他說該項目旨在建立一個收集來自全球頂尖圖書館的第一手資料和權威解讀、易於導航的網站，對世界各地學者或者好奇心強的人免費。

The site () 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.
比如說，這個網站（）目前已經把被認爲是日本歷史上的第一部小說（譯者：如果我沒有記錯的話，應該是《源氏物語》）放到網上，此外還包括阿茲特克人對西方人來到新大陸的最早記述，古代阿拉伯學者探尋代數的奧祕的成果，每個條目都有專家學者的旁註。“這其中包括大量僅存的唯一資料。”比靈頓在採訪中說。

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.
將於週二正式成立的全球數字圖書館位於聯合國教科文組織（UNESCO）的巴黎總部。儘管初始規模尚小，僅包括約1200份檔案和專家學者用阿拉伯語、中文、英語、法語、葡萄牙語、西班牙語和俄語等六種語言所作的註釋，然而它將規劃容納不計其數的文本、圖表和解說，任何國家和圖書館只要願意都可以盡一份力。

"There is no limit," Billington said. "Everybody is welcome."
“沒有任何限制，”比靈頓說：“誰都可以參與。”

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.
他還說，圖書館的主要服務對象是兒童，這一定位的基礎是在年輕人中廣受歡迎的美國國家數字圖書館計劃。該計劃於20世紀90年代中期以來一直由國會圖書館負責，通過其美國記憶網站，可以查閱到1500萬份美國曆史檔案，其中包括對黑奴的錄音採訪，第一部電影和《獨立宣言》。比靈頓預計，只要能通過電腦連上寬帶，世界各地的兒童就會像他們美國的同齡人一樣上互聯網尋求答案。“該項目將採用最先進的技術來吸引最年經的羣體。”他說。

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.
該網站由國會圖書館的一個工作組開發，埃及亞歷山大圖書館提供技術支持。這座數字圖書館的主服務器設在華盛頓，但是官員們表示正計劃在全世界架設區域服務器。

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.
總額超過1000萬美元的開發經費來自民間的捐贈，其中包括谷歌、微軟、卡塔爾基金會、沙特的阿卜杜拉國王大學和紐約的卡內基公司。相比之下，美國記憶項目約耗資6千萬美元，這意味着全球數字圖書館如果要擴容的話，還需要籌措更多的資金。

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.
除聯合國教科文組織和國會圖書館外，還有來自19個國家的26個圖書館和研究機構向該項目提供了檔案。這些檔案資料包括來自中國國家圖書館的甲骨文跖片、來自日本國家飲食圖書館的皇室浮世繪以及來自瑞典國家圖書館的13世紀的“魔鬼聖經”。所有這些檔案都附有其內容和意義的簡要說明。這些檔案被直接掃描進該網站，保留了原文的語言，但解釋用的網站的七種官方語言。

"All of this is dependable, authoritative comment," Billington said.
“所有解說都是可信賴的權威評述。”比靈頓說。

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.
用戶可通過多種途徑查尋信息。比如說，他們可以詢問公元前四世紀世界上的科學和文學。他們還可以僅在中國這個範圍內就某個主題查詢其幾個世紀以來的歷史，或者在中國與北美這個範圍內。交叉引用可以讓用戶瞭解在任何時段某地與其他地方的對比。

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.
比靈頓坦言，隨着檔案材料規模擴大到包括近年一些事件，試圖隱瞞或歪曲這些事件的某些國家政府會對此比較敏感，從而發生問題。然而他說，刻意隱瞞的做法怕是長久不了的，因爲該網站對所有的材料開放