Three quarter’s of the world’s national libraries have an internet presence. But of the 165 countries researched, a quarter had no working website. One-third of the working websites load in English, and over two thirds of the working websites offer english translations of the content. Experts estimate that at most 20 percent of the world’s population speaks English.
We sampled 165 countries around the world and researched their facilities. ((Staff Research. (2006). World Information Access Report. Seattle, WA: World Information Access Project, Department of Communication, University of Washington.)) About three quarters of the national libraries had a website, while the rest were either not found or did not load after repeated visits. ((Download WIAÂ spreadsheet National Libraries Online))
Only ten percent of the national libraries offered online users a language choice before entering their website, or were multilingual throughout their site. While 32 percent of the websites loaded in English, fully 69 percent either loaded in English or offered English translations.
English was not the only favored language, however, and 16 percent of the national libraries load in a language other than one of the national languages (usually English or French). While 52 percent of the websites were unilingual, 48 percent were multilingual. Of all the national libraries in the world with an internet presence, 39 percent stated that they offered public internet access, some for free and some for fees.