December 2, 2005

$3-Million Gift From Google Jump-Starts Library of Congress's Effort to Build a Digital Archive of Cultural Artifacts

By BROCK READ

The Library of Congress began a campaign to raise money for the World Digital Library, a proposed online archive of international cultural artifacts, by announcing in November a $3-million grant from its first patron: Google, the search engine turned information monolith.

The project was first proposed in June by James H. Billington, librarian of Congress, in a speech to the U.S. National Commission for the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. In that