International Digital Children's Library

     The International Children’s Digital Library (http://en.childrenslibrary.org/) is a free website that promotes diversity by featuring digital books from many different countries. The library also includes books in different languages that can help English language learners and countries who may not have access to resources in their native language.
    The website was launched in November 2002 by a research team at the University of Maryland. The highly educated team included scientists, librarians, educational technologists, classroom teachers, graphic designers, and graduate students. Their mission is to promote the culture and language from countries all around the world. Their goal is to have all countries represented on the website so children can begin to appreciate diversity in literacy.
    The website contains 4,619 books in 59 different languages. Award winning books are included on the site from different countries around the world. All books are free to view with no sign in required. It is very easy to navigate for students. The simple search allows students to look for books by the color of the front cover, language, types of books, or the book length. The expanded search also includes searching by country, keywords, recently added, award winning, author and illustrator, and collections.  This feature makes searching for a particular story simple and kid friendly.
    The website does not contain any books in the Chamorro language, however the resources provided can really help teachers who may want to have students explore books written from countries from around the world. This can also help English language learners on the island from the Philippines. The library includes 25 book in tagalog for different ages and reading levels.
    This website is a great resource for teachers who are in need of free books to use with their students in the classroom. It is also great for parents who would like to expose their children to a variety of books they may not have physical access to. Teachers can also utilize these books when exposing students to different countries around the world. Students can begin to appreciate various cultures and accept diversity through the stories on the International Children’s Digital Library.