Tech Report HCIL-2004-24

Hutchinson, H., Rose, A., Bederson, B., Weeks, A., Druin, A. (September 2004)
The International Children's Digital Library: A Case Study in Designing for a Multi-Lingual, Multi-Cultural, Multi-Generational Audience
Information Technology and Libraries, American Library Association, March 2005, 24, 1, 4-12.
HCIL-2004-24, CS-TR-4650, UMIACS-TR-2005-11

We describe the challenges encountered in building the International Children's Digital Library, a freely available online library of children's literature. These challenges include selecting and processing books from different countries, handling and presenting multiple languages simultaneously, and addressing cultural differences. Unlike other digital libraries that present content from one or a few languages and cultures, and focus on either adult or child audiences, the ICDL must serve a multi-lingual, multi-cultural, multi-generational audience. We present our research as a case study for addressing these design criteria and describe our current solutions and plans for future work.