Providing Multilingual Internet Services in the Global Information Environment: WorldLinQ Project, Queens Library's Practices

Abstract

This chapter describes the Queens Borough Public Library’s WorldLinQ™ (URL: http://www.worldlinq.org), a unique Internet-based multilingual information system to provide user access to global and local information resources, currently in English, Chinese, Korean, Spanish, Russian and French. WorldLinQ™ comprises a multilingual Web resource collection, multilingual access to the Library’s online catalog (InfoLinQ™) and international resource sharing. The W-Team selects and maintains the content, with a goal of covering the major languages spoken by immigrants in Queens. Content includes topics academic, business, technology and entertainment, in multilingual and multimedia format, from anywhere on the Internet. Alliances with corporate (AT&T) and library partners (the Shanghai Library and the National Library of China) have played a crucial part in the project’s development. The network configuration of the Queens Library and the software setup of WorldLinQ™ are also described.