The International Children'S Digital Library: A Case Study In Designing For A Multilingual, Multicultural, Multigenerational Audience

The challenges encountered in building the International Children's Digital Library (ICDL), a freely available online library of children's literature are described. 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, ICDL must serve a multilingual, multicultural, multigenerational audience. The research is presented as a case study for addressing these design criteria; current solutions and plans for future work are described.