The International Children's Digital Library (ICDL) is a free online collection of children's books from around the world. It aims to promote cultural understanding among children by providing access to high-quality, diverse literature. The ICDL was created in 2002 by researchers at the University of Maryland. It currently features over 4,000 books in 54 languages. The ICDL is intended for children ages 3-13, as well as educators and parents. It offers various ways to search for and view books. The ICDL has had over 3 million visitors and is used in classrooms worldwide to teach topics like language arts, social studies, and foreign culture.

1. Presented by:
Corrie Ball
Becky Kasten
Alicia Wiechert
A Library for the World's Children

2. •A FREE online database of outstanding children’s
books from around the world!
•It’s mission is to support the world’s children in
becoming effective members of the global
community – who exhibit tolerance and respect
for diverse cultures, languages and ideas – by
providing access to the best of children’s literature
online free of charge
•The ICDL Foundation is a non-profit corporation
What is the International
Children’s Digital Library (ICDL)?

3. •Introduced at in international celebration at the
Library of Congress in November 2002
•Created by an interdisciplinary research team at
the University of Maryland in cooperation with the
Internet Archive
•Other contributors to the research are the
members of the College Park Kidstream, a group
of six children, ages 7-11, who work regularly with
the adults
History of the ICDL

4. •Identifying materials that help children to
understand the world around them and the global
society in which they live
•Materials in the collection are presented in the
original language in which they were published and
reflect similarities and differences in cultures,
societies, interests, and lifestyles of people around
the world
•Materials are chosen by counties represented on
the site after they reviewed submissions;
contributions are what they think represents some of
their best works
Focus of the ICDL

5. •To create a collection of more than 10,000 books in
at least 100 languages that is freely available
•To collaborate with children as design partners
•To better understand the concepts of rights
management and “fair use”
•To evaluate the impact of access to digital
materials in schools and libraries
•To understand the relationship between access to
digital multicultural books and children’s attitudes
Goals of the ICDL

6. •Has had 3 million unique visitors since launch in
November 2002
•Collection includes 4,452 books in 54 languages
(Volunteers help translate books and write book
summaries)
•Users come from 228 different countries
•Book preview pages have been visited over
650,000 times
Facts about the ICDL

7. •Children ages 3-13
•Librarians
•Teachers
•Parents
•Caregivers
•International scholars and researchers in the area
of children’s literature
ICDL Intended Audience

8. •Materials selection in the ICDL collection have to
meet the following requirements:
•Physically published books in their entirety
•Support understanding of other cultures
•Promote tolerance and acceptance
•Relevant in today’s world
•High level of appeal for children
•Meet professionally accepted quality standards
•Presented effectively in a digital format
Materials in ICDL

9. Special features for librarians and teachers
•Main Collection (1,689 books)
•Outstanding books for children from around the world
•Most are in copyright
•Selected by experts in children’s literature from country in
which books were published
•5 Special Collections (3,014 total books)
•Historical material published before 1923
•Primarily for researchers/scholars in children’s literature
•6 Exhibitions
•Small collections of 10-15 books from around the world
with similar themes and contains related teaching
activities
Features of the ICDL

10. Exhibitions

11. Featured Books
Recommend
three books
and write
reviews for
them.

12. Example ICDL uses from users:
ICDL Uses
***Check out the Teacher Training Manual to learn
more about using the ICDL with classes and view
sample lesson plans and supplemental materials

13. Searching for Books

16. (cont.) Searching for Books

20. There are three different ways to read books using
“book readers”
•Standard Book Reader
•User clicks on a small image of a book page and the
page enlarges showing the standard view of the books
•Comic Book Reader
•Pages are laid out one after the other like a comic book
•Spiral Book Reader
•Users can quickly zoom through the pages of the book;
stimulates the feeling of flipping through pages of the
book
Viewing Books

22. When Sophie Gets Angry – Really, Really Angry…
by: Molly Bang
Example

23. Standard Book Reader

28. Comic Book Reader
(Uses a Java plugin)

30. Spiral Book Reader
(Uses a Java plugin)

33. • Search
“keywords” to
find books by
topic or title.
• Narrow by
categories and
subcategories.
Advanced Search Options

34. Some books are available as
audiobooks. (right)
Some are bilingual books.
(below)
Additional features

35. ICDL App (IPhone, ITouch, IPAD)

36. Story Kit App

37. • Library / Computer / Information Literacy
• Reading / Language Arts
• Social Studies / History
• Foreign Language
• ELL
• Culture and language clubs
• Art
ICDL in the Classroom

38. Middle School
Library
• What is a book? Book formats
• How do you search? Compare search and database interfaces.
Language Arts
• Folktale Lesson with 6th
grade (see wiki for worksheets)
• Introduction to the ICDL tutorial
• Read and analyze a folktale using the ICDL
English Language Learners
• Smartboard Lesson – Introduction to the ICDL
• Objective: Provide access to a library of books in their home
language and a library of easy readers in English.
Sample lessons

39. Middle School (Cont.)
Social Studies
• Part of an Immigration Unit (see wiki) or Country project
• use ICDL to find and read a book from a particular culture
• Holidays around the world project
Art
• Illustration project
• find examples of different types of children’s illustrations
• view sample illustration techniques from around the world
• find pictures to model and copy.
** This could work well paired with an LA writing project!
Spanish Club
• Introduction to ICDL
Sample lessons

40. High School
World Cultures
• Learn about a culture by reading examples of
their children’s books.
• Ex/ What do they value? How do stories function?
• Use ICDL to see examples of writing systems
• Compare art illustrations from around the world
• Folktale unit
Sample lessons

41. Founder Allison Druin’s
ICDL Research
Research on children’s search behaviors:
“Children’s Search Experiences in the Age of Google, Today and Tomorrow”
2010 Gryphon Lecture at GSLIS, University of Illinois
Lecture audio archives:
http://waterfall.lis.illinois.edu/dl/events/gryphonlecture druinmar05_10.mp3
International Research with Children
• Funded by IMLS (Institute for Museum and
• Examines international children’s perception of the roles of library, technology
and culture in their lives.

42. Tumblebooks
• Audio pictures books, usually animated
• Paid site but often accessible through your public library
http://www.tumblebooks.com/library/asp home_tumblebooks.asp
Other sites to know about

43. Tikatok
By Barnes and Noble
• Create your own illustrated picture book
• E-books ($2.99/ea), or publish in pbk/hardback
• Compatible with the Nook
Other sites to know about