UNESCO AND THE WORLD DIGITAL LIBRARY

UNCLAS PARIS 001733

SIPDIS

FROM USMISSION UNESCO PARIS
FOR IO/UNESCO
E.O. 12958: N/A

TAGS: KPAO ECPS ETRD ECON EINT ETTC EAID UNESCO
SUBJECT: UNESCO AND THE WORLD DIGITAL LIBRARY

1. (SBU) SUMMARY AND GUIDANCE REQUEST: Deanna
Marcum, Associate Librarian for Library Services and
Chair of the Memory of the World Programme
International Advisory Committee met with the UNESCO
Communication and Information Sector and the Director

General (DG) on March 8, 2006 to discuss the Library of
Congress' (LOC) initiative to develop a plan for the
World Digital Library (WDL). She also discussed the
UNESCO Memory of the World Program with the Director
General. The DG and other senior level staff were
enthusiastic about the WDL project, but working level
staff, who discussed the LOC's initial planning stage
with Marcum, were suspicious of Google motives to fund
the WDL plan. Marcum stated that Google had stepped
out of the picture after making its donation. The
UNESCO Secretariat is confused as to whether Marcum is
the point of contact on the WDL, or another LOC
staffer. Marcum has told post that, in her view, her
meetings at UNESCO Headquarters were "unofficial," and
mentioned that another LOC staffer would be designated
as the project manager and would come to UNESCO to
discuss the WDL further. Mission requests guidance on
who is going to be the LOC's WDL point of contact and
what its vision of the WDL is, and asks IO/UNESCO to
remind U.S. officials request country clearance from
the Mission rather than setting up their own meetings
at UNESCO. Mission notes that the UNESCO Secretariat
does not consider meetings between U.S. officials and
the DG to be "unofficial." END SUMMARY AND GUIDANCE
REQUEST.
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MEETING THE DG:
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2. (SBU) Marcum met with the UNESCO Director General
Koichiro Matsuura on March 8. He stated his strong
support for the WDL and noted UNESCO's desire to
contribute to the project. Marcum stated that the
question was how to formulate a partnership with UNESCO
on the WDL, noted that Google had provided 3 million
USD in finances, and stated that Project Manager John
van Oudenarem would be in contact with UNESCO to follow
up. The Communication and Information Sector's
Director for the Information Society, Elizabeth
Longworth, cited UNESCO's experience and familiarity
with digitization, ability to provide a neutral
platform, interest in building standards around
metadata, expertise on governance and interoperability
issues and commitment to spreading digitization.
Matsuura instructed Longworth to continue to work with
the LOC on an agreed-upon approach to the WDL, and
stated that UNESCO could hold an international meeting
to promote the WDL.

3. (SBU) Marcum brought up her recent election as
Chair of the Memory of the World Programme
International Advisory Committee and indicated her
interest in encouraging U.S. institutions to put forth
nominations for the programme. The Director General
responded with enthusiasm. Ambassador Oliver noted
that this was a good idea that ought to be discussed
with the U.S. National Commission for UNESCO and urged
Marcum to coordinate with them.
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Working Level - Developing a Plan:
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4. (SBU) The UNESCO Communication and Information
Sector convened a meeting for Marcum to meet with
working-level representatives of the Division on the
Information Society and UNESCO librarians and
archivists from the Administrative Section in order to
have a more detailed discussion on the WDL. Marcum
emphasized that she had come to UNESCO to listen and to
describe the idea for a WDL and clarified that she did
not have a proposal in hand to present to UNESCO staff.
(COMMENT: The lack of a proposal appeared to take them
by surprise, but they welcomed the opportunity to
contribute to plans. END COMMENT.) The main issues,
she stated, were governance, selection and
architecture. The LOC had identified a project manager
for the WDL, and the goal would be to draft a report by
October 2006, she said. Marcum stated that the LOC
could bring the principle of the library to the digital
world, as an aggregation of lots of different
information, not as a repository. She stated that it
was important for the WDL not to be politicized.

5. (SBU) She provided a history of the concept of a
WDL dating beyond the American Memory and Global
Gateway websites. Global gateway projects, she noted,
were bilaterally arranged with Russia, Brazil, France,
Spain, The Netherlands and Egypt. Each one addressed
an area where U.S. culture intersected with these
countries, and from this project, the LOC started to
think about bilingual digital images of collections.
The Librarian of Congress, James Billington, she
emphasized, wanted to find ways to help people
understand one another and use information exchange as
a basis for global understanding.

6. (SBU) She stated that Billington spoke to the U.S.
NATCOM last June to ask them to think about what steps
to take to create a WDL. The LOC had also reached out
to the Digital Library Federation (mostly U.S.
libraries, plus the British and Australian libraries)
to look at standards, best practices, architecture, and
metadata. Marcum noted that many libraries around the
world have started digital libraries already for items
not covered by copyright. Examples include the
European library, the British Library/Microsoft
partnership or the test project of the "Google 5"
libraries. (The University of Michigan, The New York
City Public Library, Harvard University, Oxford, and
Stanford University.) A key difference here is that
unlike the other projects, the European Library,
spearheaded by France last year as a move "against
googlization" and including the national libraries of
Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia,
Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy,
Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Poland, Slovenia,
Slovakia, Spain and Sweden, is government funded.

7. (SBU) Marcum explained that Google was impressed
with Billington's desire to promote mutual
understanding through on-line access to other cultures,
and therefore donated 3 million USD for the LOC to
devise a plan for a WDL. The brand name of Google, she
acknowledged, raises questions for many. She added
that there is probably every reason to be concerned
about Google's influence on open access when one looks
at the details. She noted that the LOC did not pursue
mass digitalization with Google because of concerns
about how this would mesh with the LOC housing the U.S.
copyright office. She explained that there was almost
nothing in writing in terms of an agreement between the
LOC and Google: it had handed over the check, and that
was the end of its involvement in the WDL plan.
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UNESCO CONCERNS:
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8. (SBU) Above all, suspicion of Google and its role
in the plan dominated UNESCO concerns at the working
level. Staff asked if there was an outline of how the
LOC would use the Google funds (Comment: UNESCO staff
does not appear to know a lot about private
philanthropy in the U.S and expected there would be an
MOU-type document. END COMMENT.) One UNESCO staffer
stated that he believed the Google 3 million USD
donation was seed money for it to come in later on the
WDL. A French UNESCO staffer asked if Google
involvement was even necessary.

9. (SBU) Another staffer stated that the U.S.
initiative on the WDL was a lot like the U.S. position
on Internet Governance while another stated that the
U.S. should refer to the WSIS Geneva declarations
(2003) which states that libraries should be accessed
electronically. UNESCO staff also noted that the LOC's
"Global Gateway" project, cited by Marcum as an example
of intergovernmental cooperation on digital items, had
generated editorially driven electronic publications
and that the WDL should not use this model.

10. (SBU) UNESCO staff strongly urged that the U.S.
reaches out to a wide variety of international actors
on this project. The Communication and Information
Sector's Director for the Information Society,
Elizabeth Longworth noted the potential for
politicization of the WDL, given the documented -- and
French-led - negative European reaction. Longworth
suggested that the U.S. and UNESCO draw lessons from
the Internet governance debate. (COMMENT: Some at
UNESCO feel the perception that other countries could
not have a role in internet governance undermined the
U.S. position in the lead up to WSIS II in Tunis last
November. END COMMENT.) She also asked who the LOC's
stakeholders were in the project while other staff
noted that Marcum did not mention libraries in Latin
America, Arab States, Asia and Africa. They mentioned
a digital library project led by the Philippines and
financed by Intel for 20 Asian countries link their
public domain material.
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UNESCO Value Added:
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11. (SBU) UNESCO staff made many suggestions on how
UNESCO might contribute to the WDL, many of which were
repeated by Longworth in Marcum's meeting with the DG.
They noted above all that UNESCO has the power to
convene people, help with capacity building and
training and to provide a neutral platform. UNESCO
also had a library portal with some 14,000 links and
was active in the development of small digital
libraries, such as the El Dorado library for Latin
America and the Caribbean (Note: Only a Bolivian
contribution to this project exists thus far, although
in terms of other regions, the Palestinians also asked
UNESCO to help them build either a virtual or actual
library.)

12. (SBU) UNESCO staff noted the "Preservation of
Digital Heritage" program, UNESCO-sponsored open source
software for digital libraries, and a 2003 declaration
on Multilingualism and Cyberspace. UNESCO's French-
chaired Information for All Programme could be
involved, they suggested. They offered to hold a panel
discussion on the WDL at the next UNESCO Open Forum,
and suggested that the LOC work with IFLA and UNESCO on
this. UNESCO could also call a conference on the
issue, they added. One staffer suggested UNESCO could
create standard setting instruments in the area of
digital libraries. (COMMENT: Mission strongly advises
against this. END COMMENT.)

13. (SBU) The UNESCO Archivist stated that one
excellent source of primary documents for a WDL would
be the United Nations. He cited the United Nations
Intellectual History Project (UNIHP) whose secretariat
was established at the Ralph Bunche Institute for
International Studies of The Graduate Center of The
City University of New York in 1999. There was a
potential copyright issue with some UN publications, he
warned. But there was a goldmine of material in UN and
UNESCO archives, he added. Other staff cited UNESCO's
e-science program and its scientific information
commons may be able to contribute.
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COMMENT:
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14. (SBU) COMMENT: At a high level, UNESCO staff has
received the WDL project with open arms. However, at
the working level, suspicion of Google's role in the
project as well as a lack of understanding of how
private philanthropy works in the United States must be
addressed for the project to succeed. In addition, the
LOC will want to demonstrate to UNESCO that it has a
wide -- and significantly international - stable of WDL
stakeholders. Procedurally, the Secretariat has
advised the Mission that meetings with the Director
General and other senior officials at UNESCO
Headquarters are indeed official, and we ask IO/UNESCO
to convey to all USG agencies and branches that engage
with UNESCO that country clearance and a briefing with
the Mission Country team is essential to their visit.
Mission also requests clarification of who leads the
WDL project at the LOC, and, if this person is not
Marcum, whether his views on the entire project are the
same as the ones she conveyed. END COMMENT.

Oliver