An open-source library for schools and school systems, donor agencies and their partners, publishers, digital distributors and content providers, parents, and children
The Global Digital Library (GDL) has been developed to increase the availability of high-quality reading resources—reading instruction books and storybooks for leisure reading—in languages children use and understand.
Sourcing and Selecting Books for Children
Existing books are directly sourced from a network of international education partners including African Storybook Project, BookDash, and Asafeer. Other Alliance partners, donor governments, and multilateral institutions will also help the GDL grow through their projects. The GDL encourages them to adopt policies to ensure that the content they fund is openly licensed and posted on the GDL, avoiding duplicative payments and enabling ongoing reuse and adaptation of content.
Translation of Titles into New Languages
Individuals can also contribute through translation. You can get started now with a short video that explains how it works or explore the site for yourself.
Anyone can also translate a title on the GDL, in about an hour. Global Book Alliance, in cooperation with the GDL, hosts translation events—”book spirits”—allowing us to crowdsource translations around the world through cooperative outreach with NGOs, companies, libraries, and schools promoting early childhood reading.
Founded in Partnership
As the first flagship activity within the Global Book Alliance, the GDL is a result of coordinated efforts of our steering committee. The GDL is operated by the Norwegian Digital Learning Arena (NDLA), based on NDLA’s open source digital infrastructure. The Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad) has the overall project management responsibility. The idea to develop a Global Digital Library came from All Children Reading: A Grand Challenge for Development in 2014. A GDL advisory group provides technical advice and expertise input for the project implementation. The group is composed of representatives from All Children Reading: A Grand Challenge for Development, UNESCO, The Global Partnership for Education, UNICEF, USAID, Benetech, Storyweaver, Creative Commons, and the GSMA.
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